Section XV-THE HISTORY OF THE HORSE 



HORSES OF THE PAST 



Mention of the horse's existence is to be found in Chinese tradition, 

 which records that during the reign of Hwang-te, who lived before the 

 flood, " Chariots, horses, and bullocks began to be used ", and that the 

 same emperor extricated his army "when bewildered in a mist" through 

 the agency of a magnetic pole attached to his chariot, " which always 

 pointed to the south". 



The ancient Chinese work known as the Shoo-King speaks of Yaou, who 

 lived before and after the flood, as riding in a crimson chariot drawn by 

 white horses; and Yu, the person employed by Yaou in perfecting the 

 great work of removing the flood and restoring order to the empire, thus 

 narrates how he accomplished the task: "The deluge rose high and spread 

 wide as the spacious vault of heaven, buried hills and covered mountains 

 Avith its waters, into which the common people, astonished to stupefaction, 

 sank. I travelled on dry land in a chariot, on water in a boat, in miry 

 places on a sledge, and climbed the sides of hills by means of spikes in my 

 shoes. I went from mountain to mountain felling trees, fed the people on 

 raw food, formed a passage for the waters of the sea on every part of the 

 empire by cutting nine distinct beds and preparing channels to conduct 

 them to the rivers. The waters having subsided, I taught the people to 

 plough and sow, who, while the devastating effects of the flood continued, 

 were constrained to eat uncooked food, and in this way the people were fed, 

 and 10,000 provinces restored to order and prosperity " (Kidd's China). 



The quotations tend to prove that the hor.se had been subjected to 

 domestication, had been used for purposes of pageants and of war, before 

 the flood, and had assisted the Chinese in clearing the inundated provinces 

 of the waters that brought about the deluge 2348 years B.c. Chinese tra- 

 dition may be considered of too legendary a nature to be worthy of belief. 

 The criticisms of the past tend to prove that this was the general opinion 

 of the learned world, but during the nineteenth century geological research 

 has opened our eyes by demonstrating the vast antiquity of the earth and 



