2 EARLY HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 



Nearly a century after this, when Jacob departed from Laban, a singular 

 account is given of the number of goats and sheep, and camels, and oxen, and 

 asses which he possessed ; but no mention is made of the horse *. This also 

 would lead to the conclusion that the horse was either not known or was not 

 used in Canaan at that early period. 



Another century or more passed on, and waggons conveyances drawn by 

 animals were sent to Canaan to bring Joseph's father into Egypt. No mention 

 is made of the kind of animals by which these vehicles were drawn ; but there 

 are many fragments of the architecture of the early ages, and particularly of the 

 Egyptian architecture, in which the chariots, even on state occasions, were drawn 

 by oxen. We cannot, however, come to any certain conclusion from this ; but, at no 

 distant period, while Joseph and his father were still living, a famine, preceded 

 by several years of plenty, occurred in Egypt. Joseph, who had arrived at the 

 chief office in the state under Pharaoh, had availed himself of the cheapness of 

 the corn during the plentiful years, and had accumulated great quantities of it 

 in the royal granaries, which he afterwards sold to the starving people for 

 money, as long as it lasted, and then for their cattle and horses. 



This is the first certain mention of the horse in sacred or profane history; but 

 it affords no clue as to the purposes to which this animal was then devoted. In 

 a few years, however, after the cessation of this famine, some elucidation of this 

 interesting point is obtained. When Jacob lay on his deathbed, he called his 

 sons around him, and, under the influence of that inspiration which has been 

 withheld in later times, prophesied what would be the character and fate of 

 their descendants. Of Dan he says, " Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an 

 adder in the path that biteth the horse's heels, so that his rider shall fall back- 

 ward t." We have nothing here to do with the fulfilment of this prediction. 

 Thai which principally concerns the reader is the office which is, for the first 

 time, assigned to the horse. He is ridden. 



We hear no more of the horse until the time of Job, who lived about 

 twenty years before the Israelites were brought out of Egypt by Moses. He 

 was well acquainted with the horse, and admired him on account of his unrivalled 

 beauty and the purposes to which he was devoted. Job's description of the horse is 

 quoted in almost every work on the subject, and Dr. Blair cites it as an instance 

 of the sublimity of the inspired writers. " Hast thou " the Divine Being is 

 supposed to inquire of Job "given the horse his strength ? Hast thou clothed 

 his neck with his beautiful mane ? The glory of his nostrils is terrible. He 

 paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength. He hurries on to meet the 

 armed men he mocketh at fear he turneth not his back from the sword. The 

 quiver rattleth against him the glittering spear and the shield he swallow- 

 eth the ground with fierceness and rage ; neither believeth he that it is the 

 sound of the trumpet (ordering a retreat). He saith among the trumpets, 

 Ha ! ha ! and he smelleth the battle afar off, and heareth the thunder of the 

 captains and the shouting ." 



It appears from this that the horse, nearly 1600 years before the birth of Christ, 



Oxus, or in Cashmere, whence knowledge verse, also signifies the mane of a horse, 



radiated to China, India, and Egypt, that it Whoever has observed how much the mane of 



maybe surmised that the first domestication, a thorough. bred perfect horse, and under some 



of the post-diluvian horse was achieved in momentary excitement, contributes to the 



Central Asia, or commenced nearly simultane- nobleness of his appearance, will enter into 



ously in several regions where the wild ani- the sublimity of the question, "Hast thou 



mala of the horse form existed." clothed his neck with his beautiful mane ? " 



* Gen. xxxii. 15. f Gen. xlix. 17. To "clothing the neck with thunder" no 



I Job xxxix. 10 25. The Hebrew word meaning can be attached, 

 which is translated "thunder "in the 19th 



