THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 3 



them admirable feats of skill and agility, it is never- 

 theless surprising by what slow steps the arts and 

 inventions, connected with horsemanship, have reach- 

 ed their present degree of perfection. 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. They touched the animal on 

 the right or left of the face to make him turn in the 

 opposite direction ; they stopped him by touching his 

 muzzle, and urged him forward with the heel. The 

 horses must have been excellently trained, to be gov- 

 erned by such slight means, in the violence of their 

 course, or in the tumult of battle ; but the attention, 

 docility, and memory of this animal are such, that it 

 is hard to say to what a degree of obedience he may 

 not be brought. 



Bridles and bits were at length introduced ; but 

 many centuries elapsed before anything that can pro- 

 perly 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. It is a very extraordinary 

 fact that even the Romans, in the times when luxury 

 was carried to the utmost excess amongst them, never 

 devised so simple an expedient for assisting the horse- 

 man to mount, lessening his fatigue, and securing his 

 seat, although painful diseases were not unfrequently 



