8 EAKLY IIISTOKY OF THE lluKSK. 



ard of heiglit. Here the horses were taken for exercise ; and they had 

 many a stumble and many a fall as they galloped over this strangely un- 

 even course ; but they gradually learned to lift theii- feet higher, and to bend 

 their knees better, and to deal their steps sometimes shorter and sometimes 

 longer, as the ground required, until they could carry their riders with 

 ease and safety over the most ii-i'egular and dangerous places. Then it 

 was that the Parthians could fully put into practice their favourite ma- 

 noeuvre, and turn upon and destroy their unsuspecting foes. They could 

 also travel an almost incredible distance without food or rest. 



To the Scythians, the Medes, and the Parthians, in after times, and in 

 rapid succession (if, indeed, they were not difierent names for hordes of 

 one common origin), succeeded the Ostraces, the Urals, the Monguls, the 

 Calmucks, the Nogays, the Visigoths, the Ostrogoths, and the Huns— all 

 people of the vast plains of Central Asia, which has been well denominated 

 the nursery of nations. These were all horsemen. Some of their leaders 

 could bring from two to three hundred thousand horsemen into the field. 

 The speed of their marches ; theii' attacks and their retreats ; the hardihood 

 to which they inured themselves and the animals by which they were 

 carried ; the incursion, and often settlement, of horde after horde, each as 

 numerous as that to which it succeeded ; — these are circumstances that 

 must not be forgotten in our rapid sketch of the horse. 



At the end of the eighth century, when the Saracens overran a great 

 pai't of Europe, they brought with, thena a force of 200,000 cavahy, in a 

 much higher state of discipline than the Goths and Huns of former ages. 



Of the horses in the south of Asia and the east of the Indus little 

 mention occurs, except that both chariots aiid cavalry were summoned 

 from this distant I'egion to swell the army of Xerxes. 



Celebrated as the horses of Persia afterAvards became, thoy were few, 

 and of an inferior kind, until the reign of Cyrus. That monarch, whose 

 life was devoted to the amelioration and happiness of his people, saw how 

 admirably Persia was adapted for the breeding of horses, and how ne- 

 cessary was their introduction to the maintenance of the independence of 

 his country. He therefore devoted himself to the encouragement and 

 improvement of the breed of horses. He granted peculiar privileges to 

 those who possessed a certain number of these animals ; so that at length 

 it was deemed ignominious in a Persian to be seen in public, except on 

 horseback. At first the Persians vied with each other in the beauty of 

 their horses, and the splendour of their clothing ; and incui'red the censure 

 of the historian AthenEeus that they were more desirous of sitting at their 

 ease than of approving themselves dexterous and bold horsemen ; but 

 under such a monarch as Cyrus they were soon inspired with a nobler 

 ambition, and became the best cavalry of the East. The native Persian 

 horse was so highly prized, that Alexander considered one of them the 

 noblest gift he could bestow ; and when the kings of Parthia would 

 propitiate their divinities by the most costly sacrifice, a Persian horse was 

 offered on the altar. 



Vegetius has preserved a description of the Persian horse, wliich proves 

 him to have been a valuable animal, according to the notions of those 

 times ; but capable of much improvement, according to the standard of a 

 more modern period. He says that ' they surpassed other horses in the 

 pride and gracefulness of their paces, which were so soft and easy as to 

 please and relieve, rather than fatigue the rider, and that the pace was as 

 safe as it was pleasant ; and that, when they were bred on a large scale, 

 they constituted a considerable part of their owners' revenue.' He adds, 

 as a commendation, ' the graceful arching of their necks, so that their 

 chins leaned upon their breasts, while their pace was something between 



