y acquired the resources in the way of
strength and fleetness which the horse put at their disposition,
became inevitably the conquerors of the folk who were denied these
advantages. If we consider the conditions which have led to the
domination of the world by the Aryan and Semitic people, and the
races which they have affiliated with them, we readily discern the
fact that they have, to a great extent, won by horse-power rather
than by their own physical strength. Thus equipped by their able
servants, they have pressed outward from their ancient realms and
have in a way overridden the tribes which were unmounted.

So imposing is the effect of the horsed man on all peoples who are
without previous knowledge of the united creatures, that it always
carries fear to their hearts. To such folk the combination appears as
a single terrible being. The ease with which the Spaniards conquered
Mexico and Peru can, to a great extent, be attributed to the awe
carried into the ranks of the savage footmen by their mail-clad
horses. The Greeks, who were wont to represent the forces of nature
and the accomplishments of man by skilfully constructed myths, have
left a record showing their appreciation of the strength derived from
the union of horse and man, in their fable of the Centaur, which
possibly grew up in a time before their people had won the use of the
animal, and when they only knew the creature by chance encounters
with enemies who were mounted upon them. Although the naturalist of
to-day perceives the impossibility of there ever having been on this
earth a form uniting the trunk and fore-limbs of a quadruped to the
upper part of a man's body, such scientific conceptions are a part of
our modern, recently acquired store of knowledge. To the Greeks of
the myth-making age the creature, half man, half horse, added but one
more wonder to the vast store the world already contained. The
currency of this fable shows us very clearly how great was the
impression which the horse made upon primitive peoples.

To perceive the value of the horse in those ancient contests which
opened the paths of civilization, we must note the fact that, until
the invention of gunpowder, success in breaking the ranks of an
enemy depended mainly on the charge. With a large body of vigorous
horsemen it was generally possible to overwhelm an enemy's line of
battle, either by direct assault or by an attack on its flank or
rear. If the reader is curious to se