516 Discovery of Horse-heads, By Dr. E. C. Robertson. 



In ancient Etruscan tombs, we find on the funeral urns tbe 

 horse portrayed, waiting to take its dead master off to a new 

 world, and in one case a horse's head is represented as looking 

 in through a window, upon a funeral feast. 



In ancient British tombs the skeleton of the horse has been 

 frequently found buried beside human remains. At the period 

 when these burials took place, the flesh of the horse was es- 

 teemed a favourite article of food, and the occurrence of these 

 remains of the horse near or alongside those of the dead warrior, 

 seems to indicate rather the funeral feast than the attachment 

 of the deceased master to his faithful steed. But sometimes the 

 head alone of the horse has been found in the grave—a fact 

 open to many constructions. One instance is very noteworthy : 

 in 1849 alongside a stone coffin found near Bath, was dug up the 

 head of a horse enclosed in a stone box. In Japan many symbols 

 were introduced with Buddhism ; amongst them the cross-like 

 symbol of the sun, the Swastica, is put on coffins, with a drawing 

 on white wood of the Yama, or sacrificial horse. This drawing 

 has been formally deposited in the tomb of every person of im- 

 portance, ever since the abandonment in the first century of our 

 era, of the ancient custom of sacrificing the horse. (Edinburgh 

 Eeview). It is remarkable that this horse is delineated, not as 

 the little ill-formed animals of the coimtry, but with aU the beauty 

 of the Arab horse. 



The horse is represented on numerous early British coins. By 

 many antiquaries, these coins are considered as medals, used in 

 the worship of Mithras the sun-god, and not as pieces of money. 

 I have given woodcuts of three. On the first, there is the horse, 

 the head drawn out to resemble a bird's bill and some marks 

 about it, which are neither Ogham nor Eunic characters, but 

 which may be regarded as a rude representation of stars and 

 clouds. At one side is a wheel. On the second coin, there is de- 

 picted the horse with wings. On the third coin, the horse has a 

 human face ; it is being driven by a figure with a whip and is 

 striding over a man prostrate. 



