ORIGIN OF SOME DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 57 



From the plains of Turkestan the horse spread in one 

 direction to the Punjab and the plains of Hindustan, and 

 in the other through Persia to Mesopotamia and Assyria, 

 and thence westwards to Egypt and southwards to Arabia. 

 Among the Arabs it soon became indispensable to its 

 master ; and, as already said, this intimate union between 

 man and quadruped renders it difficult to believe that Arabia 

 is not the original home of the horse. Uncivilised races, 

 though highly conservative in some matters, in others soon 

 adapt themselves to new circumstances ; and the case of 

 the North American Indians affords an example of the 

 rapidity with which a people among whom the horse was 

 unknown can develop into a race of horsemen. Had we 

 not historic evidence to the contrary, there is, indeed, no 

 saying but that the original subjugation of the horse might 

 have been attributed to the Indian of the prairies. 



