THE HORSES OF ASIA AND AFRICA 531 



THE HORSES OF ASIA AND AFRICA 



THE ARAB AND THE BARB 



Both Africa and Arabia claim to have been the birthplace of the great 

 Eastern race of horses. Some say that Africa gave the horse to Arabia, 

 and others that the Arabians migrated to Africa. Such migration, 

 according to Eusebius, did occur. He informs us that some of the early 

 descendants of Cush settled on lands on the eastern side of the Red Sea, 

 and gradually moved to the soutli of Araljia, whence they crossed the sea 

 and transplanted themselves into Ethiopia. The Ethiopians, we are told, 

 agreed in many points with the Arabian Cushites, and were believed by 

 most Asiatic nations in the time of Joseph us to have originated from tlie 

 same source. At the period when these Arabians passed over into Africa, 

 namely, during the time the Israelites were in Egypt, other African natives 

 besides the Egyptians possessed horses, and battles had been fought with 

 chariots and horsemen before these Arabians arrived in Africa. Conse- 

 quently horses must have been foirly well distributed on African soil before 

 their introduction into Ethiopia by the Cushites. Of course the idea of 

 migration has resulted from the belief that the equine species originated 

 from a single pair. It may be thought that it matters little whence the 

 horse originated, but in reality it is most important. For if the various 

 animals emanated from single pairs, the horse from one stallion and one 

 mare, then we have to account for the distribution of varieties, and how 

 ditferent equine types have been developed; whereas if we accept the theory 

 of the evolution of several varieties in different regions of the globe, it 

 will not be difficult to understand how, by intercourse between different 

 types of the same species, distinct breeds have been brought into existence. 

 That this mode of development has taken place during the historic period 

 is evident; we know how the large horses of mid-Europe have l)een im- 

 proved by commerce with those of the East, how the hobby, the race-horse 

 of Queen Elizabeth's time, by intermingling with the Arab, has led to the 

 ultimate production of the English thoroughbred, and how thousands of 

 years before this period, this great Eastern breed was sought after by 

 civilized and quasi-civilized nations — by Assyrians, by Babylonians, and 

 by Egyptians — for his qualifications as a hunter and a chariot horse. The 

 African horse was introduced into the hippodrome by the Greeks, and into 

 the circus by the Romans, ami at the present day the great performers 

 in the hunting-field and on the turf are descendants of the Barb or the 

 Arabian. 



