454 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



to be indebted for the first systematic attention to reviving and 

 improving the breeds of horses. Numerous carved or outlined 

 pictures represent steeds, whose symmetry, beauty, and color 

 attest that they are designed from high-bred types." 



Egypt seems to have taken the lead of all other nations in 

 breeding and propagating horses. We do not find, however, 

 any authority supporting the view that the Egyptians first 

 tamed and brought the ass or horse into use for riding or draw- 

 ing chariots in war. Her civilization and higher cultivation of 

 the soil and the arts of husbandry, however, gave special facil- 

 ities for breeding and rearing horses, and her commerce facili- 

 tated the dissemination of them among the nations that came to 

 her for supplies. 



The Hebrew Horse. THE HORSE POTENT IN CIVILIZA- 

 TION. The Hebrews make record of horses owned and used by 

 the kings, five hundred years after they were common among 

 the Egyptians. The learned Dr. William Smith says, "David 

 first established a force of cavalry and chariots after the defeat 

 of Hadadezer (2 Sam. viii, 4), when he reserved a hundred 

 chariots, and, as we may infer, all the horses." From Sam. 

 xvi, we may infer that Absalom was the possessor of horses. 

 But not until the days of Solomon do we find that the Hebrew 

 leader found it convenient to disregard the orders in Deuter- 

 onomy, and multiply horses to himself, and draw his supplies 

 from Egypt. His kingdom had come to embrace all the land 

 from the river Euphrates to the land of the Philistines, even to 

 the frontiers of Egypt on the south. He had grown so strong as 

 to have the kingdoms of Syria, Damascus, Uwat, and Aminon 

 for his tributaries. But from these he did not obtain his 

 "forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots and twelve 

 thousand cavalry horses," but such war supplies he drew from 

 Egypt; and the sacred historian says in these days of Solomon, 

 " Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and 

 under his fig-tree, from Dan even to Beersheba." Thus the 

 possession of horses gave security to that people. All history 

 shows the value of horses as an element of strength in a 

 nation's resources. 



