THE ARAB STOCK 155 



the ancestors of the kohl breed of Arabia came 

 from North Africa." 



While admitting that the statement with regard 

 to the early date at which the Libyans were in 

 possession of horses may be perfectly true, it by 

 no means follows that these horses were derived 

 from an aboriginally wild African stock. In the 

 first place, all the existing wild African representa- 

 tives of the horse family are either asses (quite 

 distinct from the so-called wild asses of Asia), 

 zebras, or quaggas. It is true, indeed, that remains 

 of extinct Equidce have been obtained from the 

 superficial deposits of Algeria, and that these may 

 be referable to true horses, more especially since 

 many of the animals of North Africa are of a 

 European type, and therefore quite distinct from 

 those characteristic of the rest of the African conti- 

 nent. There is, however, no evidence that this 

 was the case ; and the point is apparently considered 

 of no importance by Professor Ridgeway, who has 

 devoted a whole chapter of his oft-cited work 

 to a discussion of the origin of the Libyan horse. 

 For he labours to show that the latter is related 

 to the zebra-quagga group. Indeed he once went 

 the length of suggesting that the North African 

 horse is derived from Gravy's zebra. As indica- 

 tions of zebra-affinities he affirms that African 

 horses show a more marked tendency to be striped 

 than breeds which have not the same blood in 



