—10- 



where authentic history merges into the shadowy light, amidst 

 which myth and fable mingle with the real, we find this noble 

 animal figuring, but then exalted into a semi-human sphere. 

 The Centaurs, who inhabited the passes of Mts. Pelion and 

 Ossa, and the great plains of Thessaly, in Upper Greece, wei;e 

 probably a race resembling in many respects the Tartars of 

 this age, and are supposed to have been the first who brought 

 the horse into subjection to man. They were fabled as being 

 half horse and half man. They are represented as perfect 

 horses iu all respects below and behind the withers and the 

 chest ; there, at the insertion of the neck, began human a body, 

 the hip-joints articulating into the shoulders of the lower animal, 

 and the abdomen of the man passing gradually into the chest of 

 the horse. Above this the human form was perfect, with the 

 erect bearing, chest, shoulders, arms, neck and head of a com- 

 plete man. They were reputed to be possessed of extraordinary 

 mental as well as physical powers, and to be as superior to or- 

 dinary men in wisdom and art as they were in fleetness and 

 strength. They were evidently a tribe of horsemen whom the 

 ignorance and superstition, of that early period elevated into a 

 superior race, in the supposition that the horse and man were 

 united in one. Everjrthing points to them as being the first 

 who succeeded in breaking and using the horse. 



Coming down to the times of authenic history, we find the 

 Parthians to have been among the most renowned for their skill 

 in training and using the horse. Their feats of horsemanship 

 in battle showed a complete mastery of the animal, which in 

 their battles with the Eomans, rendered them so eflficient as 

 mounted archers. 



Frequently, in ancient paintings, the mounted steed is repre- 

 sented without a bridle, and the Numidian cavalry are said to 

 have guided and restrained their horses without it ; an assertion 

 by no means improbable, as a Comanche Indian of the present 

 day will frequently jump on the back of a wild and untrained 

 horse, and guide him by the simple expedient of covering with 

 his hand the eye of the animal on the side opposite tp that in 

 which he wishes to direct it. 



