44 THE HORSE IN HISTORY 



I believe I am right in saying that the soldiery 

 used sometimes to mount with the aid of a spear. 

 Xenophon, in his seventh chapter, instructs the 

 horseman to mount "by catching hold of the 

 mane, about the ears," a feat surely impossible 

 to perform save when mounting a pony. 



In the illustration of a Sarmatian on horseback, 

 facing page 33, both a man and horse are 

 shown in armour made of horse-hoof cut into 

 little plates, which, Pausanias tells us in his Attics, 

 were sewn together with the sinews of oxen and 

 horses. Sometimes bone was used in place of 

 horse-hoof, but iron never, there being no iron 

 mines in the country, to the knowledge of the 

 Sarmatians. The soldier shown holding up his 

 horse's leg, in the illustration facing page 45, 

 presumably is about to tie on one of the 

 " stockings" used in place of shoes; and on 

 the same plate a soldier is about to mouut on 

 the off (right) side. 



