INTRODUCTION. V 



conduct. " O thou father of a jackass ! " they cried, 

 "thou hast enabled the thief to rob thee of thy 

 jewel." But he silenced their upbraidings by saying : 

 "I would rather lose her than sully her reputation. 

 Would you have me suffer it to be said among the 

 tribes that another mare had proved fleeter than mine? 

 I have at least this comfort left me, that I can say 

 she never met with her match." 



Different countries have their different modes of 

 horsemanship, but amongst all of them its first prac- 

 tice was carried on in but a rude and indifferent way, 

 being hardly a stepping-stone to the comfort and 

 delight gained from the use of the horse at the 

 present day. The polished Greeks, as well as the 

 ruder nations of Northern Africa, for a long while 

 rode without either saddle or bridle, guiding their 

 horses with the voice or the hand, or with a light 

 switch with which they touched the animal on the 

 side of the face to make him turn in the opposite 

 direction. They urged him forward by a touch of 

 the heel, and stopped him by catching him by the 

 muzzle. Bridles and bits were at length introduced, 

 but many centuries elapsed before anything that 

 could be called a saddle was used. Instead of these, 

 cloths, single or padded, and skins of wild beasts, 

 often richly adorned, were placed beneath the rider, 

 but always without stirrups; and it is given as an 

 extraordinary fact that the Romans, even in the 

 times when luxury was carried to excess amongst 



