HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 143 



race resembling in many respects the Tartars of 

 this age, and are supposed to have been the first 

 who brought the horse into subjection to man. 

 They were fabled as being half horse and half 

 man. They are represented as perfect horses in 

 all respects below and behind the withers and 

 the chest ; there, at the insertion of the neck, 

 began a human body, the hip-joints articulating 

 into the shoulders of the lower animal, and the 

 abdomen of the man passing gradually into the 

 chest of the horse. Above this the human form 

 was perfect, with the erect bearing, chest, shoul- 

 ders, arms, neck and head of a complete man. 

 They were reputed to be possessed of extraor- 

 dinary mental as well as physical powers, and to 

 be as superior to ordinary men in wisdom and 

 art as they were in fleetness and strength. They 

 were evidently a tribe of horsemen whom the 

 ignorance and superstition of that early period 

 elevated into a superior race, in the supposition 

 that the horse and man were united in one. 

 Everything points to them as being the first 

 who succeeded in breaking and using the horse. 



