^1 THE HORSE. 



to several countries. The Greeks affirm, that Neptune struck the earth 

 with his trident, and a horse appeared. The truth is, that the Thessalians, 

 tiie first and most expert of the Grecian horseman, and likewise the inha- 

 bitants of Argos and of Athens, were colonists from Egypt. 



The Bible likewise decides another point, that Arabia, by whose breed 

 of horses those of other countries have been so much improved, was not 

 tiie native place of the horse. Six hundred years after the time just refer- 

 red to, Arabia had no horses. Solomon imported spices, gold, and silver, 

 from Arabia ; * but all the horses for his own cavalry and chariots, and 

 those with which he supplied the Phoenician monarchs, he procured from 

 Egypt, t 



In the seventh century after Christ, when Mahomet attacked the Koreish 

 near Mecca, he had but two horses in his whole army ; and at the close of 

 his murderous campaign, although he drove off twenty-four thousand 

 camels, and forty thousand sheep, and carried away twenty-four thousand 

 ounces of silver, not one horse appears in the list of plunder. 



There is a curious record of the commerce of different countries at the 

 close of the second century. Among the articles exported from Egypt to 

 Arabia, and particularly as presents to reigning monarchs, were horses. 



In the fourth century two hundred Cappadocian horses were sent by the 

 Roman emperor, as the most acceptable present he could offer a powerful 

 prince of Arabia. 



So late as the seventh century, the Arabs had few horses, and those of 

 iittle value. These circumstances sufficiently prove that, however superior 

 may be the present breed, it is comparitively lately that the horse was 

 natuaralized in Arabia. 



The horses of Arabia itself, and of the south-eastern parts of Europe, 

 are clearly derived from Egypt ; but whether they were there bred, or 

 imported from the south-western regions of Asia, or, as is more probable, 

 brought from the interior, or northern coasts of Africa, cannot with cer- 

 tainty be determined. 



polis, and he draws from them a curious and interesting' conclusion as to the manner in 

 which the horse was gradually subdued. "There are no figures," says he, "mounted on 

 horseback, although some travellers have mentioned horsemen among those sculptures. 

 One would think that the simple act of mounting on a horse's back would naturally have 

 preceded the use of wheel-carriages and their complicated harness ; yet no horsemen are 

 found at Persepolis ; and we know Homer's horses are represented in chariots from which 

 the warriors sometimes descended to combat on foot, but the poet has not described tliem 

 as fighting on horseback. The absence of mounted figures might authorize an opinion 

 thai those sculptures had been executed before the time of Cyrus, whose precepts and 

 example first inspired the Persians with a love of equestrian exerciies, of which, before 

 his time they were wlioUy ignorant." — vol. ii. p. 276. 



♦ 2 Chron. ix. 14. + 2 Ch:on. i. 17. 



t The historian gives us the price of the horse and the chariot at that time. A horse 

 brouirht from Egypt, including, probably, the expense of the jour aey, cost one hundred 

 and fifty shekels of silver, which, at two shillings, three pence, and one half farthing 

 earh, aniounls to about seventeen pounds two shillings. A chiriot cost six hundred 

 shekels, or sixty-cigltt pounds, eight shillings ; a most enormous sum at that early period, 

 but little to him who expended more than thirty-five millions of pounds, in gold alone 

 trt ornament the Temple which he had built. 



