464 ON A RACE OF HORSES WITH THIRTY-FOUR RIBS. 
palseontological, zoological, historical, or philological point of 
view, M. Pietrement, a talented veterinary surgeon in the 
French army, has called attention to a striking passage in 
that most ancient of all hooks that have come down to our 
days, the ‘ Hindoo Riga-Veda.’ From this passage it would 
appear that a race of horses, known to the Aryans, utilised 
by them for drawing chariots and offered up as sacrifices to 
their gods, had only thirty-four ribs. 
M. Pietrement says:—“From amongst th'e large number 
of hymns in the f Riga-Veda,’ which might furnish proofs 
with regard to the antiquity of employing the horse, we have 
chosen the preceding quotations, because they give, in addi¬ 
tion, some interesting information as to the physical and 
moral qualities of the horses of the Vedic Aryans, and also 
because the hymn of Acvamedha even mention the remark¬ 
able fact of the normal existence of only thirty-four ribs in 
these horses, while ours usually have thirty-six, and some¬ 
times thirty-eight.”* 
The novelty of this statement, and the improbability of its 
correctness, together with the usual amount of uncertainty 
that always attaches to ancient records that have come down 
to us through frequent transcription, gave rise to some dis¬ 
cussion, which has resulted in proving, philologically, the 
correctness of the fact enunciated by Pietrement. No less 
an authority than Max Muller, the learned Professor of Com¬ 
parative Philology in the University of Oxford, and who has 
given a translation from Sanskrit of the f Riga-Veda, has 
testified to the exactness of the quotation. In a letter to 
Pietrement he writes :—“ You will find the translation of the 
whole hymn from which the verse is taken in my f History 
of Ancient Sanskrit Literature,’ pp. 553, 556. I translate 
the verse 18: ( The axe approaches the 34 ribs of the quick 
horse, beloved of the gods.’ The Latin translation would 
be: f iv et xxx fortis deorum-amici costas equi securis 
percurrit.’ 
“ The ‘ Commentary of Sayana’ is written in Sanskrit, and 
contains the old traditional explanation of the f Veda.’ But 
Sayana himself lived about a.d. 1400. In our passage he 
says: c Other animals, goats and the like, have only 26 
vankri, as appears from the liturgical rule, “ there are 26 
ribs.’” Now, this liturgical formula (praisha) is taken from 
the ‘ Aitareya-brahmana ’ (11, 6), an old work, written in 
Archaic Sanskrit, not later than b.c. 500. The subject is 
certainly curious, and deserves further consideration. The 
Hindoos were in the habit of counting the bones of the body. 
# ‘Les Origines du Clieval Domestiques.’ 
