|C. 



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bratcd, as well as the Horse of the desert, for his great powers of 

 endurance. But this circumstance of the Arabs, furnishing no cavalry 

 in those early times, by no means militates against the established 

 opinion, that Arabia was the original country of the Mountain 

 Courser, or modern Race Horse. 



The Ethiopians or Abyssinians had an early knowlege of horse- 

 manship, since they furnished a supply of cavalry for the expedition of 

 Xerxes. The same may be gathered from Herodotus, of various na- 

 tions of India, who assisted in that prodigious expedition against 

 Greece, both on horseback and in war-chariots. The Horses of Nu- 

 midia, Mauritania, and Lybia, and indeed the African Horses gene- 

 rail}, have been ever celebrated for the highest degree of speed and 

 vigour, and Plutarch makes use of the proverbial compaiison, Juxta 

 Lydium currurn currere : To race against a Lybian chariot. 



But the Persian were perhaps the most celebrated of any of the 

 Horses of antiquity, for beauty of form, vigour, spirit, and every rare 

 quality which distinguishes the southern Horse ; and so greatly did 

 they excel in speed, that their name, in the ancient language of that 

 country, it has been said, may be properly rendered into English, 

 wind-foot. Vegetius, and the latter Roman writers, describe the Per- 

 sian Horses, as surpassing all others in the pride and gracefulness of 

 their motions, which were extremely easy and pleasant to the rider. 

 They were naturally much on their haunches, arching their neck, 

 until the chin nearly touched the breast : they readily stopped short, 

 and their travelling pace was nearly that called of old in this country, 

 rucking, a sort of run between the trot and gallop. They were rather 

 commended for speed than for stoutness, or continuance through a 

 long day. The Horses of Parthia, a neighbouring country, were of a 

 similar description, and so renoAvned were that people for their skill in 

 the management of the Horse, that the Parthian derived his name 

 from a Chaldsean word, signifying Iwneman. The Parthian seem" to 

 have possessed the superiority over the Pei'sian Horses, of extreme 

 hardiness and ability to travel a long time without food or Avater. 

 Yet this people, like the Arabians, fought on foot in the expedition of 



Xerxes, 



