Dettweiler: Aryan Agrici^lture 



481 



sweeping horns. The latter type long 

 ago began to preponderate and seems 

 likely in a short time to dispossess the 

 Germanic type altogether. 



With horses we are also in a position 

 at present to distinguish several original 

 stocks. The Celts deserve credit for 

 taming the oriental horse, the so-called 

 warm-blooded one; and perhaps this 

 fact gives us a clue to place the Scythians 

 and other nomads of the Russian 

 steppes in their proper place, ethno- 

 logically. We may assume that the 

 Celts took this horse with them on 

 their wanderings, on the one hand 

 eastward — Iranians, Persians, Medes, 

 Cimmerians, etc. — and on the other 

 hand westward. The oriental type of 

 horse was well-known for the late 

 neolithic period, and the Bronze Age, 

 through excavations in many parts of 

 Germany and France, even to England, 

 and furnished support to the hypo- 

 thesis of immigration from Asia. Today 

 we know that it is a genuine old Indo- 

 Germanic product, which never had 

 anything to do with Asia, still less with 

 the Arabs. For the latter got it only 

 in a relatively very recent period, 

 probably about the beginning of the 

 Christian era. Herodotus states ex- 

 pressly that the Arabs in the army of 

 Xerxes had only camels, that they 

 were the only people without horses, 

 and Strabo notes the lack of horses in 

 Arabia. Probably the horse was in- 

 troduced to Arabia from Egypt. The 

 Egyptians, however, are supposed to 

 have received it (1800 B.C.?) from 

 Libya to the westward; and here we 

 enter upon hotly contested ground. 



THE NORTH AFRICAN BLONDES. 



In North Africa one frequently finds 

 remains of the blonde, northern Euro- 

 pean race, which obviously was there 

 far prior to the invasion of the Vandals ; 

 there is much reason to believe that in a 

 remote time Northern Europeans must 



have entered Africa through Spain. The 

 dolmens and other finds add evidence. 

 When one collects all the scattered data 

 regarding the horse, it seems not at all 

 impossible — however fantastic such an 

 idea may at first sight appear — that in 

 the prehistoric time, perhaps about the 

 time when the Hellenes and Italians 

 were wandering, Celts entered Spain 

 and crossed over into Africa, where 

 their posterity, the Berbers, still work 

 for the French and Italians. Through 

 these, then, the horse would have been 

 carried along the Mediterranean to 

 Egypt and Arabia, whence it was 

 brought back centuries later, to be 

 paired in England with its much changed 

 relative, the Celtic Pony, and produce 

 the modern running horse, the so-called 

 thoroughbred. 



The Germans themselves had a 

 heavy, clumsy horse that was more 

 useful for draft than for riding purposes. 

 From this, during centuries of breeding, 

 selection, and improved environment, 

 the great cold-blooded breeds, the cart- 

 horses, were produced. They are a 

 product of the forests, whereas the 

 thoroughbred is a product of the steppes. 



If one asks why our forefathers at a 

 much earlier day had not tamed horses, 

 along with cattle, one must remember 

 that even a few thousand years ago the 

 hors;> was much smaller than he is 

 today, similar to our ponies. It was too 

 light to ride, and in the yoke the oxen 

 surpassed it. There was, therefore, no 

 great advantage to be gained in domes- 

 ticating it, since its flesh hardly justi- 

 fied breeding operations, the meat of 

 swine, sheep and goats being obtain- 

 able more cheaply and conveniently. 



As a people, the Celts have become 

 insignificant, but their horses, their 

 cattle and more recently their goats 

 have gained an important, even dom- 

 inating, part in the animal industry of 

 Europe. 



Permanent Reform 



Until the movement of heredity is changed, physical and moral deterioration 

 will move side by side in ever-expanding streams. In the long run no reforrn can 

 per vail which does not look toward the creation of a sober, clean and law-abiding 

 stock.— Rev. Amory H. Bradford: Heredity and Christian Problems (1895). 



