HORSES
Horses have been sacred animals in Indo-European cultures from very early times,
and it is easy to see why; their great importance in farming, travel and warfare
would make them extraordinarily important. The Celtic goddess Epona presided
over horses, and the Norse Odin was said to ride through the heavens on an
eight-footed white horse. Horses were used as valuable sacrifices by many
ancient people, including the Romans, and their bones were concealed in the
walls of houses, or horse skulls placed on the gables of houses, as a
protection.
In some places it is lucky to meet a white horse; in others, unlucky; either
way, tradition states that upon meeting a white horse one should spit and make a
wish, or cross one's fingers until a dog is seen. In many places it is lucky to
lead a horse through the house; this belief may stem from the association of
horses with fertility and crops, which has lasted in form of hobby-horses which
were originally part of Beltane (May Day_ revels.
It was once thought that whooping-cough could be cured by going to the stables
and inhaling the breath of a horse; being breathed upon by a piebald horse, or
riding on its back, was another supposed cure. Horse-hairs, chopped very finely
and fed to a child in bread and butter, were thought to be a certain cure for
worms, and the horse-spurs (calluses which appear on the sides of a horse's leg)
were believed in the eighteenth century to be a cure for cancer if dried, ground
and drunk frequently with new milk.
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