18 THE HORSE IN AMERICA 



horse are numerous. Some hold that they are in- 

 digenous. If this were supported, then the tradi- 

 tions would lose interest. But the traditions are 

 interesting and in general effect were thus ex- 

 pressed by the Emir Abd-El-Kader in 1854, in a 

 letter addressed to General Daumas, a division 

 commander who served long in Arabia and who 

 was later a senator of France. He said that God 

 created the horse before man, and then this do- 

 mestic animal was handed down: "1st. From 

 Adam to Ishmael; 2d, from Ishmael to Solomon; 

 3d, from Solomon to Mohammed ; 4th, from Mo- 

 hammed to our own times." This tradition, it 

 must be said, is very general and comprehensive 

 in its scope, but to the Arabs it has a significant 

 meaning, as they claim that Ishmael, the bastard 

 son of Abraham, was not only one of themselves 

 but their founder, for is it not written in the Bible 

 that when Hagar, the concubine of Abraham, 

 fled into the wilderness, an angel appeared to her 

 and said : 



" I will multiply thy seed exceedingly that it shall not be 

 numbered for multitude. Behold, thou art with child, and 

 shalt bear a son and shaJt call his name Ishmael; and he 



