532 THE HISTORY OF THE HORSE 



There is no doulit that horses of the highest qualifications have through 

 all ages come from tropical, or at least warm regions, and the Arab horse 

 is believed by many to have been the jDarent of the equine race, or at 

 least to have been the first domesticated variety. 



Although the Arabs claim their descent from Ishmael, it must be 

 remembered that many jjrovinces in this country had been inhabited 

 before Hagar was banished to the desert by Abraham. Joktan ruled 

 over Yemen, and his youngest son, Jorhani, founded, it is said, the 

 kingdom of Hejaz, while his posterity " kept the throne until the time 

 of Ishmael ". Consequently Ishmael, when he lived in the wilderness of 

 Paran, was in contact with a settled and somewhat civilized population, 

 who possessed horses, and who most likely had subjugated them; for we 

 know that on the eastern side of Arabia the Babylonians and the Assyrians 

 had employed horses in battle, and that the wild life the Arabs led, owing 

 to the nature of the country, induced them in their earliest days to train 

 horses for hunting and martial pursuits. The jDrediction that their hand 

 should be against every man, and every man's hand against theirs, has 

 been fulfilled. From the time of this utterance to the present day the 

 Arabs have lived by attacking and plundering caravans which pass through 

 the desert, and this they could not have accomplished so easily had they 

 not possessed swift horses to overtake the travellers, or to escape by rapid 

 flight from foes too strong for them to overcome. This desert life was, 

 therefore, a great iircentive to the production of the world-famed Arab, 

 whose services from the most ancient times every civilized nation has 

 acquired, either by purchase or by capture in war. Both Greece and Rome 

 hired Arabian and African cavalry to assist them in their conc[uests, and 

 on more than one occasion the onslaught of these splendid horses and 

 horsemen converted a threatened defeat into victory. The auxiliaries also 

 of other nations who assisted the Romans in the battle-field rode ujDon 

 horses who owed their excellence to the result of a cross between their 

 native breeds and the Arab. 



The Persians, early in their histoxy, obtained from the desert horses 

 which, by intermingling with the indigenous stock of the country, produced 

 a breed second only to their half-bi-others the Arabians, whose descendants 

 formed the magnificent Persian horse so celebrated in history for its 

 brilliant exploits in time of war. The same story could be repeated of 

 other nations whose cavalry was composed of hoi'ses in whose veins flowed 

 the blood of the Arab. When tlie Saracens extended their dominion by 

 conquest, the distribution of their horses in the various conquered countries 

 still further assisted in the diffusion of Arab blood among the many native 

 equine races. In fact, it was propagated in the East and in the West 



