the woods and homeward go,
Always on the straight road thro',
Far from what is bad, still fleeing,
That is Donar's hammer saying.

Should wounds and pain become distressing,
Blood to blood shall flow,
Bone to bone shall grow,
That is Donar's hammer saying.

Carry the rider, true little steed,
Onward to all good luck bringing;
Carry him thence and back with speed,
That is Donar's hammer saying.

--_Old Meresburger Song_.

The horse appeared comparatively late in the group of domestic
animals. In searching the monuments of the ancients, which have
furnished the foundation for our present culture, that is, of the
littoral inhabitants of the Mediterranean, and of the people of
Mesopotamia, we find in Egypt the first traces of the horse. But even
here it appears late, on the monuments of the first ruling patricians
of human origin.[2] Especially during the period of Memphis (I-X
Dynasty), then under the rules of Thebes (XI-XVI Dynasty), there is no
trace of the horse.

[Footnote 2: Until the time Menes, with whom historical times
begin, ruled in Egypt among visionary heroes or mythological
gods.]

It is first in the transition period, from the late rule of Thebes
(XVII-XX Dynasty) to the so-called period of Sut (XXI-XXX Dynasty)
that there appears, in the wall pictures of the Pharaohs' tombs,
representations of the horse. The oldest, now known, picture of the
horse is found on the walls of the tombs of Seti I. (1458-1507 B.C.)
under whose reign the Israelite wandered from Egypt. The horses of the
mortuary pictures are very well drawn, and have an unmistakable
oriental type. There has therefore undoubtedly existed in Egypt high
culture, for over 4,000 years, without representation of the horse,
which was the next animal domesticated after the cat.

From this time on we find the horse frequently represented both by the
vainglorious despots of Mesopotamia and on the so-called Etruscan
vases, which appeared after the influence of Greek art, when, on
almost every urn, horses in lively action and in various forms of
bodily development, almost always of an oriental type, are to be
recognized. But neither here, nor in Homer, nor in the many later
representations of the horse on the Roman triumphal arches, etc., are
to be found horses whose hoofs have any trace of protection. Records,
which describe to us the misfortunes of armi