GREEKS AND HORSEMANSHIP 17 



At the same time they seldom did ride their 

 dun-coloured little cobs, preferring, apparently, 

 to drive them in pairs in chariots. That the 

 Libyans were finished horsemen centuries before 

 the Greeks learnt how to ride has already been 

 mentioned ; though whether or no the Greeks 

 were first taught horsemanship by the Libyans 

 is a question still debated by students of ancient 

 history. 



In the north-west of Asia Minor the Libyans 

 had dark bay horses with a white star upon the 

 forehead about the year 1000 B.C., and a hundred 

 or so years later horses of this breed were largely 

 imported into various parts of Asia Minor. 



Indeed some of the more enthusiastic of the 

 modern historians who have studied closely the 

 descent of horses from generation to generation 

 persist in maintaining that even in Great Britain 

 and Ireland modern horses with this white star 

 upon the forehead have in their veins some 

 Libyan blood ! How this can well be when we 

 know almost without doubt that until towards the 

 close of the Bronze or the beginning of the Iron 

 Age the horse was hardly made use of at all by 

 the inhabitants of these islands, I leave it to 

 more learned men to decide among themselves. 



It is remarkable that whereas from very early 



