We are informed by Mr. Ridpath that the horse was introduced into Egypt 

 in the epoch following 1591 B. C. Certainly the splendor of the dawn of even 

 that early civilization and science did not mark the first appearance of the horse 

 as a servant to man, for Mr. Ridpath also tells us that 



"The horse was in use in Mesopotamia for the saddle, but not for draught, long 

 before his introduction into Egypt. Judging from the *sculptures, as well as from 

 the existing breeds of the country, the Assyrian animal is, for speed, symmetry and 

 power, fully the equal of the modern Arabian. 



"From time immemorial the chief wealth of the native tribes of southern 

 Assyria has consisted in horses. Anciently, as well as today, travelers, princes and 

 kings gratified their pride and ambition by purchasing, albeit at fabulous figures, 

 the fleet and beautiful steeds of the Mesopotamian and Arabian waste. The Assyrian 

 horses are less in stature than the heavier breeds of the West, but of exquisite sym- 

 metry of form and grace of movement." 



Mr. Ridpath neglected to state that the larger blood horse of the West — 

 Europe, the United States, etc. — were simply mongrel offshoots of those beau- 

 tiful, enduring Arabians of Mesopotamia. The Shammar tribes of the Semitic 

 Bedouins have occupied the Mesopotamian districts since early in the seventeenth 

 century when they were led from Nejd to Mesopotamia by Paris. While they are 

 a large and important horse breeding tribe they do not begin to rank with the 

 rich and royal tribes of the great Anazeh who roam over and control the great 

 pasturages and own the wells west of the Euphrates River and south v/ellunto 

 Nejd of southern Arabia, for the Anazeh tribes have ever been considered as a 

 Mecca for the very best of the Arabian horse, a distinction which those great 

 tribes still enjoy beyond the point of competition. They are the truest and most 

 conservative horse breeders on the face of the earth, who maintain this high 

 standard with ease by a religious adhesion to the never-failing natural law of 

 breeding only with absolute purity of blood, and in this manner the Biblical 

 statement of "like produces like" has ever been realized by them. 



The Christians' horses have ever been regarded with contempt as cold- 

 blooded mongrels, not only by the Arabians of the Arabian Desert, but also by 

 the Berbers of the Sahara Desert. 



By the strict horse breeding methods of the tribes of these two great barren 

 and sun-scorched desolations they have maintained absolute independence in 

 horse blood. They are and have ever been dependent upon the scant providence 

 of a desert existence, and hence their imperative need of not only horses, but 

 the most pure and enduring kind, for long distances at terrific pace is so often 

 their only earthly salvation in an eternal battle against man, beast, drought, the 

 elements, and the oppression of despotic rulers. The close afiEiliation of the 

 Arabian and Berber tribes with the sternest forms and conditions of Nature has 

 worked two beneficial results for civilization. First, that these nomadic tribes 

 have in their close touch with Nature and existence, where only natural law is 

 supreme, preserved by breeding as only nature breeds, two great races of horses 



*Sculptures show horses hitched to chariots which were in appearance Arabians pure and simple, 

 though four thousand years ago. 



69 



