1 2 Horfes. 



years before our era. The jockey, entirely naked, without faddle or ftirrup, is urging 

 his horfe with a three rigid-thonged whip. He feems to have left the bridle floating 

 on the neck of the horfe, which he is patting with his left hand, as a compenfation. for 

 the feverer entreaties conveyed by the whip. In Plate 15 we have a curious example 

 of the way in which Etrufcans harneffed their horfes to a car. The movements of the 

 animals are as little as poffible impeded by trappings, the collar, confifting of a leather 

 thong, tapering on the fhoulder-blades, and broader on the breaft, is the only means 

 by which the horfe is connected with the pole. The bit has a very peculiar form, acting 

 very likely on the interior corners of the- mouth, by the preffure of the four-pointed 

 corners of a metallic plate, painted black. On the Greek painted vafe of the third 

 century b.c. (Plate 16), with a man {landing, and a horfe ridden by a child, all painted 

 white on a black ground, reappears the fhort form of the Arabian horfe. The young 

 horfeman is entirely naked, and has in his right hand a double- thonged whip. The 

 ftature of the man ftanding ihows the fhort proportion of the Greek horfe compared 

 with the Etrufcan one. 



We come now to the firft fpecimen known of Sarmatian or Coffack horfes, reprefented 

 on Trajan's Column (Plate 17). The extraordinary appearance of the mail-clad horfes 

 and riders is explained by Paufanias in his " Defcriptio Grasciae," where, fpeaking of a temple 

 dedicated to' Efculapius, he fays," We fee there, among other things, a Sarmatian cuirafs, 

 or coat of arms. Thofe who fee it fay at once that barbarians are no lefs clever in the arts 

 than the Greeks themfelves. Sarmatians have no iron, as no mines of this mineral are to 

 be found in their country ; and, as they have no trade with neighbouring nations, they can 

 have none brought from abroad. Inftead of iron, they have plates of bone at the end of 

 their pikes. With cornet- tree wood they manufacture bows and arrows, whofe points are 

 made with bones, and throw chains upon their enemies, to ftrike them down. The way 

 in which they make their cuiraffes is this : Each of thefe barbarians has a great quantity 

 of horfes, for their land is not feparated into parts, fo as to be fubfervient to the ufe of 

 private perfons, nor does it bear anything, except ruftic wood, as the inhabitants are nothing 

 more than homades. Thefe horfes they not only ufe for the purpofes of war, but they 

 facrifice them to their country gods, and even ufe them for food. But, collecting the hoofs 

 of thefe animals, and purifying and dividing them, they polifh them fo as to refemble the 

 fcales of a dragon. He, indeed, who has not feen a dragon may compare this compofition 

 from hoofs to a pine-nut while yet green. This fcale-like compofition they perforate, and 

 few it together with the nerves of horfes and oxen, and afterwards ufe them for coats of 

 mail, which are not inferior to thofe of the Greeks, either for elegance or ftrength, as they 

 will fuftain a blow given either remotely or near at hand."* 

 • " The Defcription of Greece by Paufanias" (tranflated by T. Taylor). London, 1824. 8vo. Vol. i. pp. 54, 55. 



