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[[underline]] Chapter VII. [[/underline]] 131.

(there as elsewhere earlier than cavalry) in war had survived considerably longer than in any other part of Europe.
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  In the present instance the fact that the stirrups were incised in place of being carved in relief of course admits of the possibility that they may have been added at some later time.  Moreover, as we shall see in a moment, there is no absolute proof, literary or other, that the statues about the tomb of Ho Ch'ü-ping are really as early as has been supposed.  Hence the representation of stirrups that we noted on the couchant water buffalo can not be taken as conclusive proof of their use in China as early as Western Han times.
  It is curious that both saddle-pad and stirrups should be shown here on the water buffalo (an animal, by the way, which does not thrive in Shensi under existing climatic conditions) [[superscript]] (120) [[/superscript]] but on neither of the two
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[[superscript]] (120) [[/superscript]] As we shall see later on in this report (p. 395), there are certain indications that 2 or 3 thousand years ago the climate of northern China was milder and more moist than it is today.
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figures of horses that we saw.  Yet buffaloes are sometimes ridden even today in central and southern China and elsewhere; and there is of course the well known tale about the philosopher Lao-tzŭ having disappeared in the west riding on an ox or a buffalo.

[[underline]] Other Carved Stones on the Mound. [[/underline]]
  After we had examined and photographed the buffalo figure, we resumed our ascent of the mound.  We noticed that several of the boulders scattered over its slopes showed indications of having once borne carvings; but these were in nearly every instance too badly weathered to permit of identification.
  One large slab toward the summit of the mound, not far below the door of the shrine, had incised on it what appeared to be a representation of some composite winged creature---a bird or a bat, apparently ^[[,]]