TELEQONY AND REVERSION. Ill 



have involved the suppression of not a few interesting varia- 

 tions. It is almost inconceivable that nature would decorate 

 the brow of a horse after the pattern of a zebra if the work 

 when completed would never be seen. Hence we may take 

 one of two things for granted; (1) either that the process 

 of tattooing is proceeding now, or (2) that the brow mark- 

 ings are vestiges of stripes which existed in, and were of 

 use to, the ancestors, before a great frontal bunch of hair or 

 forelock made its appearance. That the last supposition 

 is most in keeping with what we know of nature's methods 

 will be at once admitted. But if the forelock was originally 

 so short that the frontal stripes were visible, the mane 

 must also have been short ; for the forelock is not a special 

 growth, it is nothing more nor less than the most anterior 

 part of the mane, that part of the mane which lies between 

 and in front of the ears. In other words, the period in the 

 ancestral history of the horse characterised by a complete 

 series of facial stripes was, it may be inferred (if the stripes 

 were of any use), also characterised by a mane consisting 

 of short nearly upright hairs which were annually shed. 



In support of the view that the primeval horse had a 

 short upright mane, it may be mentioned that in colts 

 the mane is as a rule upright for several months, and that 

 it sometimes eventually falls to the right side, sometimes 

 to the left, sometimes partly to one side in front and to the 

 other side further back. Further, when in Norwegian dun 

 ponies the long dark central hairs are cut, the finer light- 

 coloured hairs at each side naturally assume an erect 

 attitude. Of still more importance is the fact that the wild 

 Tarpan, to which some of our recent horses are doubtless 

 related, had an erect or nearly erect mane, the central 

 hairs of which were presumably annually shed.* The 

 retention of the hair of the mane until it reached a con- 

 siderable length may have been found useful, especially 

 when lying down, to horses living in cold, damp, northern 

 areas, where stripes were of little or no value. 



* The mane is said to be still sometimes upright in the domestic horse, 

 and it is represented as erect in palseoiithic etchings. 



