The rein seems, in the early times, to have been attached about midway in the cross-bar, while afterwards it became usual to attach it near the lower end.

This latter arrangement was probably found to increase the power of the driver.
[Illustration: PLATE 94] The use of the bearing-rein, which prevailed in Egypt, was unknown to the Assyrians, or disapproved by them.

The driving-reins were separate, not stitched or buckled together, and were held in the two hands separately.

The right hand grasped the reins, whatever their number, which were attached at the horses' right cheeks, while the left hand performed the same office with the remaining reins.

The charioteer urged his horses onward with a powerful whip, having a short handle, and a thick plaited or twisted lash, attached like the lash of a modern horsewhip, sometimes with, sometimes without, a loop, and often subdivided at the end into two or three tails.