18 INDIAN FEATS 



the same success with their steppes ponies ; that the Par- 

 thians, long before the Greeks came in contact with them, 

 were riders of equal merit. To-day all natives of those 

 lands where the horse is bred are practically what our Ind- 

 ian was, with whatever differences their respective na- 

 tional traits may have developed. 



The riding feats of the Indian of to-day, such as shoot- 

 ing, casting the lasso, or picking objects off the ground 

 at a gallop, or hanging to one side of his horse, concealed 

 all but an arm and leg, while he shoots at his enemy from 

 behind the running rampart, were equally performed by 

 his bareback ancestor. The latter was wont to braid his 

 mustang's mane into a long loop through which he could 

 thrust his arm to prjeserve his balance, but he had not the 

 advantage of the cantle to hold to by his leg. The only 

 representative of such cleverness to-day is to be found in 

 the sawdust arena ; not many decades ago, every third 

 Indian could have given odds to the best of circus per- 

 formers. The old bareback Indian rider has disappeared ; 

 it needed but a short contact with civilization to show 

 him the manifest advantages of bit and saddle. As the 

 old men died off, the young bucks took to the tricks of 

 the white man, quite as much from fashion as from an 

 ability to put them to use. Whoso killed a pale-face would 

 ride his saddle — galls or no galls to horse and man — as a 

 matter of pure boasting; whoso could not get a rig by 

 killing a pale-face was not happy until he stole one. And 

 thus the fine old bareback trick was lost. 



It is to be regretted that we can make no satisfactory 

 comparison between the bareback rider of ancient times 

 and our own Indian of the past generation. There are 

 many men yet living to testify to the skill and strength 

 of the Indian horseman ; and Catlin has left us numerous 

 pictures of the savage. But of the ancient rider we have 



