INTRODUCTION. 105 



Asia, it is but little applicable ; nor do we find it 

 long or flowing in wild horses ; those, however, of 

 Northern Asia and Eastern Europe, that belong to 

 a particular race, possess it in all the glory of poeti- 

 cal exuberance. In the inspired vision of the writer, 

 we fancy he descried one of those Scythian tribes, 

 belted haik wearers from the regions of Caspian 

 Caucasus, riders, not charioteers, who had pene- 

 trated to the region of the hippopotamus and croco- 

 dile* as conquerors or as hirelings, for such the 

 north has ever produced for the service of the south 

 of Asia. 



These remarks, we trust, will not be considered 

 entirely irrelevant, for, without them, the natural 

 history of the Equine family would contain little 

 more than technical distinctions and enumerations 

 of species, races, and breeds, without touching upon 

 topics of high interest to the biblical reader, the 

 philologist, and the historian. All of them deserve 

 to be treated more at large, but we hope to have 

 done sufficient to excite attention and lead others 

 better qualified than ourselves to researches in the 

 directions here pointed out. We shall now proceed 

 to give a succinct review of the races of renown 

 mentioned by the poets and historians of antiquity, 

 and mark in their descriptions the uniformity of 



* Hippopotamus, elephant, or rhinoceros. The geographi- 

 cal position of the writer of the book of Job, as well as his era, 

 remains inexplicable ; although there exists a tomb ascribed 

 to Ayoub, perhaps of the Mevelevi Dervish of that name, near 

 Birs Nimrod, 



