4 HISTORY OF THE 



And laves in height of blood his shining sides ; 

 His head, now freed, he tosses to the skies. 

 His mane dishevel'd o'er his shoulders flies ; 

 He snuffs the females in the distant plain, 

 And springs exulting to his fields again/* 



And Virgil, in the 6th book of the JEneid, 

 nearly equals his great master in the following 

 lines : 



So joys the steed when bursting from his bounds. 

 And flies impetuous o'er opposing mounds ; 

 Seeks female herds, or in the well-known flood 

 Bathes his bright sides to cool his fiery blood. 

 He neighs, and rears his lofty neck ; behind 

 His spreading mane, on either side reclined. 

 Luxuriant flows and wantons in the wind.'* 



Many of the early writers on the horse have 

 entered into much controversy and research, for 

 the purpose of demonstrating the exact period 

 when this noblest and most useful auxiliary to 

 man among animals, first became subject to 

 his dominion ; but always without success. 

 The impossibility of penetrating the obscurity 

 which envelopes the earliest ages of mankind 

 must ever prevent us from arriving at accurate 

 data on that point. But with the aid of those 

 authorities we possess, we may attain all that is 

 useful, as well as much that is curious, in the 



