INTRODUCTION. 113 



The clouded horses of the Huns are remarked, 

 we believe, as mounted by the Hiatili, who, coming 

 from the north side of the wall of China, or more 

 truly from Central Asia, seem to have been the last 

 tribe of Gothic blood that reached the west about 

 the time of Theodosius. * We next find Paul War- 

 nefried, in the time of Charlemagne, extol them as 

 the best for war, and when we come to describe the 

 wild horses, we shall revert to this race, evidently 

 sprung from the Tangum or Tannian highland form, 

 pursue the later accounts of it to our own times, 

 and by this genealogy point out a strong argument 

 in proof that the movements of conquest in Europe, 

 in China, in India, and in Persia, effected by so 

 many nations all upon the same race of steeds, 

 though at different periods, come from Central 

 Asia, where alone the original stock is found w41d 

 in Thibet. 



It appears, from what w^e have already said, that 

 the horses of Asia Minor and Armenia were early 

 in part of the bay variety, others of the pale dun 

 wild stock of the north of the Caspian, and the rest 

 the white : it is fair to presume, from the abundance 

 of horses of that colour belonging to the races of 

 Asia Minor and Armenia, all represented to have 

 been of high stature, that they were originally de- 

 rived from the dapple stock of the Scythian desert, 

 described by Herodotus as roaming wild near the 



* In the Vatican fresco, where Attila is diverted from 

 marchin.'^ to Rome, Raphael represents one of these horses, 

 ■R-hich bespeaks his information as an historic painter. 



H 



