THE BAY HORSE OF AFRICA 129 



Meta Incognita to the Atlantic. They found 

 America, but were wrecked at the tail end of 

 the Aleutians. The surviving trappers built 

 a ship and loaded her with sea-otter skins. 

 These they sold in Pekin for wealth beyond 

 dreams of avarice, and so returned riding as 

 rich men home to their native Russia. 



It was in the da^'s of Queen Elizabeth that 

 Enghsh envoys and merchants found their way 

 by water and the trail of the Dun pony from 

 the White Sea to Persia and on even to Goa on 

 the Indian Coast. 



The trail of the Dun horse always led to 

 adventure. Daring traders went to swap gems 

 for silk at the Court of the great Mogul, or sold 

 white ladies of the Caucasus to Haroun al 

 Raschid down in Bagdad, or to Suhman the 

 Magnificent at Stamboul, or offered purple 

 shell-fish dyes of Tyre to tempt the young 

 Prince Siddatha, or came from the East with 

 gold and frankincense and myrrh and laid 

 them at the feet of a Child in Bethlehem, or 

 journeyed from Sw^eden with swords for the 

 Prophet of Islam. 



III. THE BAY HORSE OF AFRICA. 



Apart from the sacredness of the Old Testa- 

 ment as deahng with the origin of a religion, 

 we may, without offence to fellow Christians, 



