14 THE HORSE. 



six hundred years later, Arabia could not have been remarkable in 

 any way for her horses, for Solomon, while he resorted to her for 

 silver and gold, mounted his cavalry from Egypt. Yet the latter 

 country could scarcely be the native land of the Horse, not pos- 

 sessing the extensive plains which ^are peculiarly suited to his ex- 

 istence in a wild state, and it is considered probable that he was 

 introduced from the central regions of Africa, which are undoubt- 

 edly the native plains of the Quagga, the Zebra, and some other 

 congeners of the Horse; but where, curiously enough, he is not 

 now found in a wild state. Thence he would naturally find his 

 way into Egypt, and through Arabia to Persia, Tartary and Greece, 

 ultimately reaching Great Britain ; but in what century he was 

 introduced there we are quite at a loss to conjecture. 



THE GREEK HORSE. 



OF THE PRECISE FORM of the Horse of Scripture we have no 

 account, beyond the glowing language of Job, which will apply to 

 almost any variety possessing the average spirit of the species. 

 The horse of the Greeks is far better known, being handed down 

 to us in the writings of Xenophon, and preserved in the marble 

 friezes of the Parthenon, which are now removed to our own Na- 

 tional Museum. The above Greek writer, in giving his advice on 

 the purchase of a horse, says, " On examining the feet, it is befit- 

 ting first to look to the horny portion of the hoofs, for those horses 

 which have the horn thick are far superior in their feet to those 

 which have it thin. Nor will it be well, if one fail next to observe 

 whether the hoofs be upright both before and behind, or low and 

 flat to the ground ; for high hoofs keep the frog at a distance from 

 the earth, while the flat tread with equal pressure on the soft and 

 hard parts of the foot, as is the case with bandy-legged men. And 

 Simon justly observes that well-footed horses can be known by the 

 sound of their tramp, for the hollow hoof rings like a cymbal when 

 it strikes the solid earth. But having begun from below, let us 

 ascend to the other parts of the body. It is needful then, that 

 the parts above the hoof and below the fetlocks be not too erect 

 like those of the goat, for legs of this kind being stiff and inflex- 

 ible, are apt to jar the rider, and are more liable to inflammation. 

 The bones must not, however, be too low and springy, for in that 

 case, the fetlocks are liable to be abraded and wounded, if the 

 horse be gallopped over clods or stones. The bones of the shanks 

 should be thick, for these are the columns which support the body, 

 but they should not have the veins and flesh thick likewise ; for 

 if they have, when the horse shall be gallopped in difficult ground, 

 they will necessarily be filled with blood, and will become varicose, 

 so that the shanks will be thickened, and .the skin be distended 

 and relaxed from the bone ; and when this is the case it often 



