INTRODUCTION. 115 



dun and cream-coloured wild stock, which included 

 the Arcadian, much used for breeding mules, and 

 the Chaonian : the Argolic, having a good head and 

 fine limbs, hollow-backed but cat-hammed, were o/ 

 the same blood, and appear to exist still in the 

 Morea: the Cretan were neglected, though appa- 

 rently derived from the best breeds of Asia and 

 Egypt : those of Attica, vaunted by Sophocles, and 

 probably mixed like the Cretan, if we may trust to 

 Greek and sculptured representations, were ewe- 

 necked, with large heads, shallow-chested, and hol- 

 low-flanked, but with excellent limbs and feet, and 

 possessed of high mettle. We know that the JEto- 

 lian and Accarnanian, nursed in solitary plains, 

 were large and warlike, scarcely inferior to the 

 Thessalian ; they were nearly allied to the Abidean 

 of Macedonia and the Pellan, which were chesnut : 

 the Taenarian, sprung from Castor's horse, were no 

 doubt white, and the glaucous or slaty ash-coloured 

 breed of Ericthonius, belonging to Mycenae, also 

 descended from a gift of Neptune, attest a foreign 

 marine importation : of the Maegarian and Eginetan 

 mention is made only in a proverb. All these Gre- 

 cian horses show no sign of an indigenous stock, 

 unless it was the same as the Istrian dun ; all the 

 breeds appear introduced by man, and, exclusive of 

 those of the north, were little superior to the Italian 

 and Gallic. 



In Italy, the Tarentine were of Greek origin, the 

 same as the Apulian and Rosean of Rieti, praised 

 by Varro, and now known b^ the name of 



