ITS HISTORY. S 



ihbl iKe Olympic games were instituted, including chariot and horse races 

 VV e have, therefore, sufficient evidence that the horse was, at a very early 

 period, subjected to the dominion of man, and, unfortunately, for the worst 

 of purposes, — the business of war. 



From the records of the Old Testament, we are likewise enabled to 

 ascertain the precise period of time, when in Egypt and Canaan, and the 

 neighbouring countries, this animal began to be domesticated. 1920 years 

 before the birth of Christ, when Abraham, having left Haran, in obedience 

 to the divine command, was driven into Egypt by the famine which raged 

 in Canaan,* Pharaoh offered him sheep and oxen, and asses and camels. 

 Horses would doubtless have been added, had they then existed, or had 

 they been subdued in Egypt. 



When, fifty years afterwards, Abraham journeyed to Mount Moriah, to 

 ot^'er up his only son, he rode upon an ass, which, with all his wealth and 

 powei, he would scarcely have done, had the horse been known. f 



Thirty years later, when Jacob returned to Isaac with Rachel and 

 Leah, an account:}: is given of the number of oxen, sheep, camels, goats, 

 and asses, which he sent to appease the anger of Esau, but not one horse 

 is mentioned. 



It is not until twenty-four years after this, when the famine devastated 

 Canaan, § and Jacob sent into Egypt to buy corn, that horses are first 

 heard of. " Waggons," probably carriages drawn by horses, were sent 

 by Joseph into Canaan to bring his father to Egypt, it would seem, how. 

 ever, that horses had been but lately introduced, and were not numerous, 

 or not used as beasts of burden ; for the whole of the corn, which was to 

 be conveyed some hundred miles, and was to afford subsistence for Jacob's 

 large household, was carried on asses. 



It appears, then, that about 1740 years before Christ, horses were first 

 used in Egypt; but they soon afterwards became so numerous as to form 

 a considerable portion of the Egyptian army : and when the Israelites 

 returned into Canaan, the horse had been introduced and naturalized there ; 

 for the Canaanites " went out to fight against Israel with horses and chari- 

 ots very many." |1 



The sacred volume, therefore, clears up a point upon which no other 

 record throws any light — namely, the period when the horse first became 

 the servant of man, at least in one part of the world, and that the most ad- 

 vanced in civilization, and before Greece was peopled. A long time must 

 have elapsed before man was able to ascertain the value and peculiar use of 

 the animals that surrounded him. He would begin with the more subordi- 

 nate — those which were most easily caught, and most readily subdued ; 

 and the benefits which he derived from their labours would induce him to 

 attempt the conquest of superior quadrupeds. In accordance with this 

 the writings of Moses shew us that, after the ox, the sheep, and the goat, 

 man subdued the ass, and then the camel, and, last of all, the horse became 

 his servant: and no sooner was he subdued, and his strength and docility 

 aisid sagacity appreciated, than the others were comparitively disregarded, 

 except in Palestine, where the use of the horse Avas forbidden by divine 

 autliority, and on extensive and barren deserts, where he could not live. IF 



From Egypt the use of the horse was propagated to other and distant 

 lands ; and, probably, the horse himself was first transmitted from Egypt 



♦ don. xii. 16. t Gen. xxii. 3. ; Gen. xxxii 14. 



§ Gen. xiv. 19. 11 Jofhua xi. 4. 



^ VVlien Sir Gore Ouscly travelled throu2"li Persia, anJ the different countries cf the 

 Ga3i, he examined, among- other relics of antiquity, the sculptures on the ruins of Perae 



