XK DOMESTIC RACES 241 
mentioned the fact that their general build and appearance is 
highly suggestive of the wild Horses sketched by primitive man 
upon ivory. 
A really wild Horse, and possibly the ancestor of the European 
domestic Horse, is 2. przewalskii of the sandy deserts of Central 
Asia. This animal has been believed to be a mule between the 
Wild Ass and a feral Horse; but if a distinct form, and probability 
seems to urge that view, it is interesting as breaking down the dis- 
tinctions between Horses and Asses. The species possesses the four 
callosities of the Horse, but has a poorer mane and an asinine tail. 
There is no. question that the Horse has been a domestic 
animal for very many centuries. Hieroglyphics appear to show 
that the Egyptians had not originally domesticated the Horse ; it 
seems to have been first imtroduced among them by the Hyksos 
or Shepherd Kings." Whatever the date may be, it is certain 
that considerably anterior to the Egyptians the Assyrians and 
Phoenicians possessed Horses. In Western Europe the date of 
the introduction of the Horse seems to have been during the 
bronze epoch. Lord Avebury* has pointed out that out of 
eighteen cases of graves in which the remains of Horse were 
found, twelve contained metal implements, 7.e. 66 per cent. This 
does not of course prove that the Horse was domesticated at that 
period, but it throws doubt upon the earler occurrence of the 
Horse in abundance. The Horse, however, does occur on the 
Continent associated with the remains of man during the Quater- 
nary period.® 
Messrs. Cuyer and Alix enumerate between fifiy and sixty 
domesticated races of Horse, not counting the supposed wild 
varieties which have been already referred to. These may be 
further subdivided ; for instance, under the race “pony” we may 
distinguish the Irish, Scotch, and Shetland varieties, all of which, 
however, according to Sanson, have originated in Ireland. They 
are used, remark the authors above quoted, “par les jeunes filles 
des lords pour leurs promenades.” The Arab, the Barb, the 
Suffolk Punch, etc., are among the numerous races of domestic 
Horses, into which to enter properly would require another 
volume, and that of large size. 
= 
Cuyer and Alix, Le Cheval, Paris, 1886. 
Lubbock, Prehistoric Times, London, 1865. 
J. Geikie, Prehistoric Europe, London, 1881. 
VOL. X R 
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