4 THE HOUSE OF AMEKICA. 



Haicus, the great grandson of Japheth, became the ruler of his 

 people. Descending from him, in the direct male line, there 

 were five or six long reigns before the dynasty was overthrown 

 by the Assyrians. They were largely an agricultural people, and 

 the ancient historians have told us they were famous for the 

 great numbers and fine quality of the horses they produced. The 

 market for their horses, the prophet Ezekiel tells us, was in the 

 great commercial city of Tyre, whence they were carried "in the 

 ships of Tarshish" by the Phoanician merchants to all portions of 

 the known world. Having here reached back to the Noachic 

 period and country, with all that this implies, I will leave the 

 problem, with the more extended consideration that will be 

 given it in the chapter on the general distribution of horses in all 

 parts of the commercial world. 



Horsemen of average intelligence and writers on the horse, 

 oftentimes much below average intelligence in horse matters, all 

 seem to unite on the Arabian horse as their fetish, when in fact 

 they know nothing about him. The songs of the poets and the 

 stories of the novelists have taken the place, in the minds of the 

 people of all nations, of solid history and sober experience. When 

 a story writer wishes to depict an athletic and daring hero, he 

 never fails to mount him upon an "Arab steed," when some 

 blood-curdling adventures are to be disclosed. When Admiral 

 Rons, the great racing authority in England, announced some 

 years ago, that the English race horse was purely descended from 

 the horses of Arabia Deserta, without one drop of plebeian 

 blood, all England believed him, and this rash and groundless 

 dictum has served all writers as conclusive evidence ever since. 

 Now, it is not probable that more than two or at most three per 

 cent, of the blood of the English race horse as he stands to-day is 

 Arabian blood. The greatness and value of the Arabian horse is 

 purely mythical. He has been tested hundreds of times, both on 

 the course and in the stud, and in every single instance he has 

 proved a failure. This is what all history and experience teach. 

 There are but few horses bred in Arabia and there are, compara- 

 tively, but few there now. From the time of their first intro- 

 duction into Yemen Arabia Felix up to the time of Mohammed, 

 about two hundred and seventy years, they were still very scarce. 

 Mohammed was not a horseman nor a horse breeder, nor is it known 

 that he ever mounted a horse but once, and then he had but two 

 in his army. When he made his first pilgrimage to Mecca he rode 



