i82 THE ARAB THE HORSE OF THE FUTURE 



intermarriages and near relationship between the 

 Arabs and the Hebrews, it seems to me hard to 

 beHeve that the Arabs had not horses many hundreds 

 of years before Christ. 



Among the Kings to whom the Lord God of 

 Israel told Jeremiah to take the winecup of His 

 wrath, and to drink and be mad, were ' all the Kings 

 of Arabia ' (Jer. ii. 24). 



St. Paul visited Arabia (Gal. i. 17), and St. Peter 

 heard the Arabians ' speak in their own tongue ' 

 (Acts ii. 1 1). 



Ezekiel writes of the noise of the horsemen 

 and of the wheels of the chariots, and also (xxiii. 

 7-15) of the Assyrian captains and rulers, all of 

 them desirable young men ' riding upon horses.' 

 Not horses driven in harness only. Isaiah (chapter 

 XXX.) writes : ' We will flee on horses '; chapter 

 xxii. 6 : ' Elam bare the quiver with chariots of men 

 and horsemen.' 



The prophet Habakkuk writes (i. 8) : ' Their 

 horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are 

 more fierce than the evening wolves : and their 

 horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horse- 

 men shall come from far ; they shall fly as the eagle 

 that hasteth to eat.' 



In addition to these general references to the 

 horse, besides very many more, we learn that the 

 Arabians were engaged at times in fighting against, 

 and at other times in fighting for, the Hebrews in 

 battles where there must have been horses. 



