348 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. 



ones amongst them were of a different breed, whilst he charac- 

 terises the Finnish horses as of excellent quality. He states 

 that horses of very large size were bred in Scandinavia, especially 

 in the kingdom of the Vestrogoths (Gothland), where they were 

 reserved entirely for war, and he says that they bore comparison 

 with the noble horses of Spain, Naples, France and Germany, 

 though he admits that in speed they could not contend with 

 the horses of Africa, Numidia, or Turkey, yet they compensated 

 for this defect by their superior strength. There can be no 

 doubt that these large war-horses of Scandinavia were black, 

 as were the largest and strongest horses of Europe and Western 

 Asia, for Olaus Magnus, when discussing the marks of a strong 

 horse (valens equus), and placing horses in order of merit 

 according to their colours, set the black at the head of his 

 list : " The black, the red, the bay, the bay of the colour of 

 the date or of the chestnut (the colour which Virgil com- 

 mends in the Georgics), the golden (golden bay), the rosy, the 

 myrtle-coloured, the iron-grey or dappled grey, the patched 

 (i.e. pied), the silver-grey, the flea-bitten grey, the colour 

 composed of black and bay. The ashy-coloured which is the 

 livery of the wild horses is the worst, as Isidore says, but it is 

 best when it is marked with a broad black dorsal stripe. A white 

 horse is seldom good for travellers because of the onset of robbers, 

 who watch the roads from lofty fastnesses, and it is dangerous 

 for wayfarers to tempt them by riding white horses, as it were 

 by lighting a candle in the dark 1 ." 



It is thus clear that the horses obtained by crossing the old 

 European blood with the Libyan were the best, whilst the old 

 uncrossed dun horses and white horses were the least esteemed, 



1 Olaus Magnus, Gothorum Sueonumque Historia, xvn. cap. 9 (ed. Eome, 

 1555): Adhuc de aliis signis valentis equi...colore niger, rufus, balius sive 

 badius spadicus palmae colore, vel castaneae quern Virg. in Georgi. commendat. 

 Aureus, roseus, myrteus, glaucus, vel oculis variis quasi pictus. Sartulatus, 

 canus, guttatus, varius ex nigro badioque distinctus. Cinerius qui equis syl- 

 vestribus convenit deterrimus ut Isidorus dicit, sed optimus quando lata linea 

 nigra in dorso notatur. Candidus equus raro est bonus viatoribus ob in- 

 sultum latronum ex castris eminentioribus itinera contemplantium : quos 

 periculosum est (tanquam lucerna in tenebris accensa) candidis equis ad spolian- 

 dum itinerantes provocare. 



