146 WILD TRAITS IN TAME ANIMALS. 



barbarous peoples. He has to protect his herds 

 not only from wild beasts but from robbers. Oc- 

 casionally also — doubtless only under extreme 

 stress of circumstances — it seems right or ex- 

 pedient for him to do a little raiding on his 

 neighbour's domains. It follows that every tribe 

 which kept cattle, and which had to roam far 

 afield to find pasturage, had a most formidable 

 force of light cavalry always at its disposal. A 

 regiment of Western cowboys or Australian 

 stock-riders mounted upon their fast and wiry 

 horses would, even in the present day, be tough 

 customers for the finest troops to tackle. And 

 when we remember that, before the days of fire- 

 arms, cavalry was practically invincible when 

 opposed to men on foot, it will be seen that a 

 nomadic cattle-keeping race would soon become 

 supreme over those which were purely pastoral 

 or agricultural. Not only so, but by their con- 

 stant conflicts with the horsemen of similar half- 

 predatory tribes they would become practised in 

 the use of weapons, and in many phases of the 

 complex art of war. History shows over and 

 over again that it is this perpetual strife between 

 fierce clans of kindred blood which sfives rise to 

 the qualities which lead to national supremacy. 



