THE HORSE ^ 1083 



so-called old kingdom; and that such were seen for the first time at about the eight- 

 eenth dynasty (1800 or 1900 B. C.), when the reign of the Asiatic Hyksos, or 

 shepherd kings, who had for so long a period ruled over the valley of the Nile, 

 came to an end. At this period the horse seems to have only been used in war, 

 and it is possible that it may have been introduced by the kings of the eighteenth 

 dynasty from Syria. Both in Egypt and in Europe it was only at a comparatively- 

 late period that the horse replaced the ox as a beast of draught. 



In regard to Western Asia, it appears that the horse is of comparatively-recent 

 introduction into Arabia, the earliest accounts of the Nomads of the Arabian deserts 

 referring only to their possessing camels and asses; while the Arabs in the army of 

 Xerxes are stated to have been mounted on camels. The sculptures of Nineveh 

 show, however, that the war horse was known at a very early date in Assyria; and 

 it is hence probable that it was from Mesopotamia that the horse was introduced at 

 first to the Syrians on the Mediterranean, and from them to the Egyptians in the 

 valley of the Nile. It is a somewhat curious circumstance that in all the Assyrian 

 sculptures in which mounted warriors armed with the bow are depicted, the horse is in- 

 variably led by a second horseman, thus suggesting that at this date the Assyrians 

 were by no means such good riders as the Persians and Parthians subsequently be- 

 came. The Greeks may have derived their war horses from the same Asiatic stock; 

 and from Greece and Italy these Asiatic horses probably became intermingled with 

 the native breed originally domesticated in Western Europe. From Mesopotamia 

 the horse probably spread westward as a domesticated animal into Persia and India, 

 in neither of which countries is there any evidence of the existence of an original 

 wild breed. 



. . Apart from the question whether an indigenous species may have 



still lingered in Argentine, at the time of the Spanish conquest, horses 

 were unknown in at least the greater part of America. When introduced from 

 Europe they soon multiplied, and reverted to a semi wild condition, and spread over 

 large areas of the country, where they now exist in vast numbers in the open plains. 

 Mr. W. H. Hudson states, however, that in certain parts of Patagonia, wild horses 

 are unable to exist owing to the number of pumas, and he suggests that it may have 

 been these animals which led to the practical if not total extinction of the indigenous 

 horses of the New World. In the Falkland islands the horses introduced by the 

 French in 1764 have become thoroughly wild, and have multiplied to a considerable 

 extent although not so much as might have been expected. At the time of Dar- 

 win's visit, these wild horses were, for some unknown reason, restricted to the east- 

 ern corner of the island; and their comparatively-slow rate of increase is attributed 

 to the wandering habits of the stallions, which compel the mares to accompany them, 

 whether or no the foals are able to follow. These Falkland horses have roan and 

 gray for their predominating colors, and in one part of the island are small and 

 pony-like. The late Professor Moseley was, however, informed that their small stat- 

 ure in this locality was due to the inferior size of the stock from which they are 

 -descended. In the peninsula of Lafonia, where the wild horses of the Falklands are 

 of larger size, Professor Moseley writes that "the strong and active horses each guard 

 their own herd of mares. They keep the closest watch over them, and, if one stray at 



