HORSES OF ANCIENT ARABIA i8i 



complained that the horse was regarded by politicians 

 more than the God of Israel Himself, 



Yet although forbidden by Jehovah, Solomon 

 (i Kings iv. 26) had 40,000 stalls of horses for his 

 chariots, and 12,000 horsemen. That was 1,000 

 years before Christ. 



In I Kings x. 45 we read that all the earth 

 sought Solomon, and ' they brought every man his 

 presents . . . horses and mules.' Does not all the 

 earth include Arabia ? It certainly does. To the 

 evangelical that would be sufficient. But I think it 

 is clear, not only that it does in the general meaning 

 of the words, but that the text intends that meaning. 



Why should the Arabs have valued horses less 

 than the Jews ? There was every reason why the 

 Arabs should have valued them more, and, valuing 

 them more, should have procured them even if they 

 had not got them, although I maintain that they had. 

 They were more necessary for the national existence 

 of the Arabs than of the Jews. 



About Jerusalem and in much of Palestine horses 

 could not be advantageously used, whereas in Arabia 

 they were a necessity. If the Jews, who could do 

 without horses, possessed them, is it likely that the 

 Arabs, a kindred and adjacent people, who could not 

 well, if at all, do without them, should not possess 

 them also ? 



With the huge traffic that was carried on between 

 Egypt, Syria, Judea, Babylonia, Assyria, Mesopo- 

 tamia, and various localities in Arabia, and the 



