I90 THE ARAB THE HORSE OF THE FUTURE 



according to the Sabean traditions, they first settled 

 in Egypt, and were the Egyptians who oppressed 

 the Jews. Mr. Dean says that Abraham appeared 

 in the land in the time of the Hyksos. Mr. 

 Winwood Reade says — and Mr. S. Laing, in his 

 ' Human Origins,' says almost the same — that 

 the Hyksos were a shepherd people, settled in 

 Canaan and Yemen, who crossed over into Africa. 

 In Barbary and Sahara they were called Berbers ; 

 in the Valley of the Nile, Egyptians ; in the desert 

 and Yemen, Arabians ; in Palestine, Canaanites ; 

 in Mesopotamia, Assyrians ; in the lower course of 

 the Euphrates, Chaldeans or Babylonians. 



Gibbon, in the ' Decline and Fall,' says that Arabia 

 is the genuine and original country of the horse ; and 

 he also says that the merits of the Barb, the Spanish, 

 and the English breed are derived from Arabian 

 blood. Concerning this latter statement there is no 

 doubt whatever. 



A very learned writer in Knowledge (August, 

 1904), however, differs with Gibbon's former state- 

 ment, and adds that horses were not depicted on 

 Egyptian frescoes till 1900 B.C. But he says that 

 the whole shape and make of the horse then 

 depicted was decidedly of the Arab type, which 

 tends to support Gibbon, for that was about the 

 time of the Hyksos. If their horses were not 

 Arabs, how account for the whole shape and make of 

 the horses depicted on the frescoes being of that type '^ 



A note to Gibbon states that at the end of 



