THE KNIGHT IN ARMOR 9 



handicap him beyond possibility of marching or fighting 

 bareback; and yet we know that Alexander covered an 

 extraordinary distance in his pursuit of Darius ; and Ar- 

 rian tells us enough to determine beyond a peradventure 

 that no cavalry has ever been fought au fond as were the 

 Companions under the son of Philip at the Hydaspes. 

 But this was owing primarily to the Achillean fury of 

 xllexander. 



"When, after the lapse of centuries, saddles came into 

 common use, there grew up two schools of riding — that 

 of the mailed warrior, whose iron armor well chimed in 

 with his "tongs on a wall" seat in his peaked saddle, and 

 that of the Oriental, whose nose and knees all but touched. 

 The former was not what we really call a horseman ; he 

 was a mere man on horseback. That some of them were 

 noble-looking specimens is vouched for by, say, the statue 

 of Bartolomeo CoUeoni, in Venice, easily best of eques- 

 trian figures, and surely a splendid ideal in many ways. 

 But the horse was more of a lumbering vehicle than a 

 saddle-beast, a species of conveyance — a gun-carriage, so 

 to speak — for the bulky man of iron, wdio could no more 

 walk than ride, and when unhorsed was as useless as a 

 dismounted gun. Why the Eastern rider, who is at the 

 other end of the category, and really a horseman, should 

 cling to his extremely short leathers it is hard to say, un- 

 less it be from the same ancient motive — to place him 

 the higher above his horse, and therefore make him the 

 more imposing when he stands up in his stirrups to bran- 

 dish scimitar or matchlock. Yet he is a wonderful rider, 

 this same Oriental; as we shall see when we reach his 

 habitat / and so indeed is every man, whatever his style, 

 who from youth up is the companion of the horse. This 

 peculiar type — to come back to our original statement — 

 does not exist in North America, though some of our Ind- 



