INTRODUCTION. 93 



Hosein, or of that of Khizr. the St. George of Islam, 

 are produced. 



The earliest cavalry nations set the example of 

 expressing beauty, power, exaltation, by terms 

 which they also gave to the horse, and particularly 

 in the north, made it a type of the sun ; thus, from 

 the commencement of the first Persian dynasties, as 

 already noticed, Var, Phar, Pful, and Asp, all 

 names of that animal, are not only titles of the sun, 

 but also names of frequent occurrence among the 

 sovereigns and grandees. * The same practice pre- 

 vailed among the Celtic and Gothic nations, where 

 March, Hengist, Horsa, Uppa, Hako, and Bayard 

 are similarly observable. 



Pegasus and other winged horses figure in the 

 constellations of all ancient systems, and with or 

 without wings are types of victory, national em- 

 blems, and standards of battle, either by exhibition 

 of their skulls, their tails, or by whole or parts of 

 the animal in a sculptured form, t Most of the 

 solar and year gods had sacred horses, which drew 

 the idol's chariot, or were led before his shrine or 

 the perpetual fire. Those of the Persian Ozmusd, 

 as well as the royal stud, were invariably white, 

 and were derived from Cilicia. Even the kings of 

 Judah were repeatedly polluted by this idola- 



* Ninus, Pful, Varanes, Pharnabasus, Phraortes, perhaps 

 Pharaoh ; again Lorasp, Gustasp, Sheerasp, Asphendiar, &c. 



t The two-headed winged horse of Egypt, Pegasus. Sleipner, 

 the solar horse of Odin ; in the harvest month, Gulfaai, horse- 

 skulls of the Sueiones, the figures and heads as signa of Nisa, 

 Susa, Corinth, Thessaly, Etruria, Carthage, Beturiges,Silures, Se- 

 quani, Mauri feroces, Saxons, Tahtars, Turks, and many others. 



