Prehistoric Horses of Europe. 99 



very fleet, therefore the natives drive chariots." It has also 

 been shown, both from monumental and linguistic evidence, 

 that the domestication of the horse has long been established 

 among the Persians, Assyrians, and Semites. 



To what extent, and in what regions, wild horses survived 

 to historic times, it is difficult to determine. According to 

 Herodotus (IV. 52), wild white horses grazed on the shores 

 of a vast lake in Scythia, from which the Hipanis flows. 

 Pliny (VIII. 16), in his description of the animals of the 

 north, mentions herds of wild horses ; and Strabo (III. iv. 

 15, and IV. vi. 10) records their existence in Spain and the 

 Alps. But these, as well as the reported herds of wild 

 horses in Asia in the present day, may have been domestic 

 animals which had escaped and reverted to a wild condition. 



In contrasting the early distribution of the horse with that 

 of the ass, I find that, while the former was imported into 

 Egypt some eighteen hundred years before the Christian era, 

 the latter was known from time immemorial, not only 

 throughout the Nile valley, but also in Palestine, Assyria, 

 and probably elsewhere in Asia. As a riding animal for 

 persons of distinction, it is represented on an Egyptian 

 monument of the fifth dynasty, some 5000 B.C. In the Book 

 of Genesis wealth is always computed by so many heads of 

 camels, asses, sheep, and oxen. In Homer the ass is only 

 once mentioned, and it is not considered to have been 

 domesticated at that time in Greece. It seems, therefore, 

 that while the line of distribution of the horse was from 

 north to south, that of the ass was in a contrary direction. 

 Both animals, however, found their way into Western 

 Europe in a state of domestication probably about the same 

 time. From the historical point of view, everything points 

 to the fact that one or more of our domestic horses emanated 

 from Central Asia. 



Concluding Remarks. 



After careful consideration of the bearing of the above 

 facts and opinions on the problem of the domestication of 

 the horse, I still find it difficult to formulate very precise 

 conclusions on the subject. During the interval between the 



