THE HORSE 93 



the campaigns with the Turks and the Saracens, it is easy to 

 see that the powerful breeds of horses reared in western and 

 northern Europe were a mighty element in determining the 

 issue of the contest. The battles of these momentous cam- 

 paigns represented, not only a struggle between the Christian 

 Aryans and the Semitic followers of Mahomet, but, in quite 

 as great a degree, the war was waged between the light and 

 agile steeds of the Orient and the massive and powerful 

 animals that bore the mail-clad warriors of the West. On 

 the field of Tours, when the fate of Christian Europe for 

 hours hung in the balance, we may well believe that the 

 strong and enduring horses of the northern cavalry did much 

 to give victory to our race. 



Along with our general account of the place of the horse 

 in civilization, it is fit to give something to the story of his 

 near, though inferior, kinsmen, the ass and the mule, both of 

 which have played a subordinate, though important, part in 

 the same field of endeavor in which the nobler species has 

 done so much for man. The original progenitors of our 

 donkeys differed from the ancestral form of the horse by 

 variations of good specific value. So far as we can determine 

 from visible features, these forms were more distinctly parted 

 than the dog and the wolf, or either of these animals from 

 the jackal. Nevertheless, these equine forms are clearly 

 closely akin, for they may be bred together. Although the 

 original stock of the ass may possibly have been lost, it seems 

 most likely that the wild forms which exist in Asia have not 

 wandered off from captivity, but are the remnants of the 

 original wilderness form. 



It appears likely that the two domesticated equine species 

 have been under the care of man for about the same length 



