122 THE HORSE IN HISTORY 



Non-observance of this unwritten law brought 

 grief in its train, the punishments inflicted being 

 as varied as they were horrible. 



Furthermore, every year, on the 28th of 

 August, "the lord set out from the park," upon 

 which occasion none of the mares' milk was 

 drunk. Instead it was collected in large-mouthed 

 vessels kept expressly for the purpose and the 

 occasion, and after that it was " sprinkled over a 

 vast stretch of ground and in many different 

 directions." 



This was done "on the injunction of the 

 Idolaters and Idol-priests," who steadfastly main- 

 tained that if the milk were thus sprinkled once a 

 year "the Earth and the Air and the Gods shall 

 have their share of it, and the Spirits likewise that 

 inhabit the Air and the Earth. . . . And thus 

 those beings will protect and bless the Kaan and 

 his children, and his wives, and his folk, and his 

 gear, and his cattle, and his horses, and his corn, 

 and all that is his ; and after this done the 

 Emperor is off and away." 



It is strange, also significant, that in almost 

 every age allusion has been made to the respect 

 habitually paid to white horses, especially pure 

 white horses. From Homer we know that in 

 his period, or towards the latter part of the eighth 

 century B.C., the Thracians, the Illyrians and the 

 people of Upper Europe spoke of white horses as 

 though they almost worshipped them as gods. 



