DRAGON BEAST 127 



men, and cites the instances of Peru and 

 Mexico when Empires collapsed in super- 

 stitious fear. It seems quite natural then that 

 the first mention of the horse in China should 

 call him Dragon-Beast. He was not really 

 formidable, being only a Dun pony carrying no 

 doubt the good Mongolian pack apparel which 

 consists of a saddle, and a detachable cargo 

 rack, the oldest rigging known. His cargo was 

 a lodestone, a rock of magnetic iron which 

 served the Chinese Emperor as a compass. 

 When the pony wanted to go west, and the 

 magnet insisted on north his celestial majesty 

 probably saw a jolly good bucking match. 



From China to the Atlantic, and from the 

 northern Taiga to the Indian ocean the old 

 world was threaded all across with pack trails 

 snaking from water to water over the deserts 

 and pastures, the forests and the hills. Except 

 in the very dry districts where camels, 

 asses and mules were employed for transport, 

 the Dun ponies did all the carrying over-land. 

 From China to Europe was a three years' 

 journey, not because of the distance but by 

 reason of the robbers who made the trail un- 

 safe. At each market town the packtrain 

 captains waited, perhaps for months, until a 

 caravan assembled sufficiently large to under- 



