ORIGINAL HABITAT OF THE HORSE. 31 



extended empire he built roads and established lines of couriers, 

 mounted on fleet horses, that there might be no delay in receiv- 

 ing at his capital and sending out again intelligence of what was 

 transpiring in any part of his dominions. For this service the 

 best and fleetest horses were required, and the only guide we 

 have to determine how these horses were selected we find in the 

 fact that the tribute collected from the little kingdom of Cilicia, 

 formerly a part of Cappadocia, was, in addition to a stated sum of 

 money, one white horse for every day in the year. It is possible 

 that these white Cilician horses may have been the progenitors of 

 the white (grey) race horses spoken of in Media. 



In describing the general fruitfulness of Cappadocia, Strabo 

 says: "Cappadocia was also rich in herds and flocks, but more 

 particularly celebrated for its breed of horses." Strabo speaks 

 of this as a leading characteristic of the country and doubtless it 

 had held pre-eminence in this respect for generations before he 

 wrote. Three hundred and fifty-six years later, when Constan- 

 tiuswas selecting his presents of horses for the prince and people 

 of Yemen, in Arabia, he knew just where to look, in all his 

 dominions, for the best of their kind, and selected two hundred 

 "well-bred" ones for Arabia. Sir R. Wilson, in discussing the 

 quality of the Russian cavalry horses about 1810, had evidently 

 heard of this Cappadocian origin of the Arabian horse, but, un- 

 fortunately, he got all the parties badly mixed in his reference. 

 He makes Constantine instead of Constantius the donor of three 

 hundred Cappadocian horses, instead of two hundred, and they 

 are given to one of the African princes, instead of to an Arabian 

 prince. The African traveler, Bruce, found some excellent horses 

 in Nubia, Africa, and from their high quality and unusually large 

 size he seems to have jumped to the conclusion that these were 

 the descendants of the three hundred from Constantine. 



After glancing over all the different countries in this great 

 zone as defined above, and extending from the Bosphorus to the 

 Caspian Sea, one cannot fail to be impressed with its special 

 adaptation to the production and sustenance of all varieties of 

 domestic animals, in their greatest perfection. Here the country 

 seems to have been made for the horse, and the horse for the 

 country. Here was a country suited to his nativity, and here we 

 find records of his existence centuries earlier than in any other 

 country. The wild ass flourished in this country, but I have not 

 been able to find any evidence or indication that the horse was 



