INTRODUCTION. 101 



and Armenia first supplied the nomad tribes with 

 the means of producing their magnificent races, and 

 the comforts of the domestic tent, the constant pre- 

 sence of human kindness, the experience of interest, 

 the proportions of a scanty but nutritive food, the 

 abstemiousness in drink, and the dry sunny climate, 

 were necessary to the full development of the excel- 

 lent qualities they possess : hence, Arab chiefs may 

 have desired and willingly received horses as pre- 

 sents from renowned breeds of Egypt, or from the 

 warlike races of Upper Asia. Presents of horses in 

 the East have always been interchanged or given, 

 but that fact is no argument that the receivers were 

 in want of them ; it only shows Arabia and Lower 

 Asia to have been, as it still is, without horses in 

 such droves as are seen in the north, and that the 

 great variety of colours in the Arab breeds arises 

 from the introduction of foreign animals. With the 

 nations of Central and still more of Northern Asia, 

 the case formerly was very different, and in some 

 measure is still so. Attention and selection in 

 breeding is only casual, where immense herds of 

 horses occupy pastures of interminable surface; 

 where, from the absence of human interposition, 

 they retain the instincts of independence: under 

 such circumstances, the resident proprietors, little 

 valuing individual animals, care only for the aggre- 

 gate numbers ; the whole people are mounted, and 

 do nearly all their domestic work in the saddle; 

 they cross rivers by holding their horses' tails, or 

 fastening them to rafts or boats, convey themselves 



