Medes. He was much more
inclined to continue in his former habits of plain dress and frugal
means than to imitate Median ostentation and luxury. There was one
pleasure, however, to be found in Media, which in Persia he had never
enjoyed, that he prized very highly. That was the pleasure of learning
to ride on horseback. The Persians, it seems, either because their
country was a rough and mountainous region, or for some other cause,
were very little accustomed to ride. They had very few horses, and
there were no bodies of cavalry in their armies. The young men,
therefore, were not trained to the art of horsemanship. Even in their
hunting excursions they went always on foot, and were accustomed to
make long marches through the forests and among the mountains in this
manner, loaded heavily, too, all the time, with the burden of arms and
provisions which they were obliged to carry. It was, therefore, a new
pleasure to Cyrus to mount a horse. Horsemanship was a great art among
the Medes. Their horses were beautiful and fleet, and splendidly
caparisoned. Astyages provided for Cyrus the best animals which could
be procured, and the boy was very proud and happy in exercising
himself in the new accomplishment which he thus had the opportunity to
acquire. To ride is always a great source of pleasure to boys; but in
that period of the world, when physical strength was so much more
important and more highly valued than at present, horsemanship was a
vastly greater source of gratification than it is now. Cyrus felt that
he had, at a single leap, quadrupled his power, and thus risen at once
to a far higher rank in the scale of being than he had occupied
before; for, as soon as he had once learned to be at home in the
saddle, and to subject the spirit and the power of his horse to his
own will, the courage, the strength, and the speed of the animal
became, in fact, almost personal acquisitions of his own. He felt,
accordingly, when he was galloping over the plains, or pursuing deer
in the park, or running over the racecourse with his companions, as
if it was some newly-acquired strength and speed of his own that he
was exercising, and which, by some magic power, was attended by no
toilsome exertion, and followed by no fatigue.

The various officers and servants in Astyages's household, as well as
Astyages himself, soon began to feel a strong interest in the young
prince. Each took a pleasure in explaining to him what pertained to
the