416 MANUAL OF MODERN FARRIERY. 



where he fearlessly meets every danger ; the most appalling 

 discharges of musketry and the thunders of a cannonading, 

 he faces with a fortitude as dauntless as that of his rider, 

 and seems even to enter into the spirit of the attack. This 

 has been his character from the earliest ages ; for he is 

 spoken of in Job, one of the oldest books in the world, and, 

 few will deny, one of the best ever written, in the following 

 powerful language, which is amended from the common 

 translation by my late learned friend Dr. Scot, Professor of 

 Hebrew in the College of St. Andrews : — • 



" Hast thou given spirit to the horse ? Hast thou clothed 

 his neck with a mane 1 Canst thou make him bound as a 

 locust "? The majesty of his snorting is terrible. He 

 paweth in the valleys and exulteth ; he goeth on to meet 

 the armed men. He mocketh at fear, and trembleth not ; 

 nor turneth he back from the sword. Against him rattleth 

 the quiver, the glittering spear, and shield. He devours the 

 ground with fierceness and rage, and is impatient when 

 the trumpet soundeth. He uttereth among the trumpets, 

 Ha ! Ha I He smelleth the battle afar oflP, the thunder of 

 the captains, and the shouting." 



The time at which the horse was first domesticated is 

 now lost in the cloud of antiquity. He is mentioned by 

 the earliest writers, and in all probability his subjugation 

 has been nearly co-eval with the earliest state of society. 

 From the Scriptures we learn that seventeen hundred and 

 two years before the Christian era, horses were used ; for in 

 the 47 th chapter of Genesis we are told that Joseph gave 

 the Egyptians bread in exchange for horses. It seems pro- 

 bable, from the earlier chapters of Genesis, that horses were 

 unknown to the Hebrews and Egyptians ; as we find from 

 the 1 2th chapter of that book that Abraham " had sheep 

 and oxen, and men-servants, and maid-servants, and she- 



