THE HORSE HISTORY. 463 



plain of Mesopotamia, on the borders of the Euphrates, and 

 in the Syrian deserts. It is there the horses can feed, for sev- 

 eral spring months, upon the green grass and herbs of the val- 

 leys and plains, produced by rains which seem to be an absolute 

 requisite for its reaching its full vigor and growth. 



The Origin of the Arabian Horse. BufFon and many 

 subsequent writers claim that Arabia is the birthplace of the 

 horse. Stonehenge, with a learned following, does not agree. 

 He thinks the dry nature of the country and the scantiness 

 of herbage show that in a wild state the horse could hardly 

 exist there, and that it is only by the care and superintendence 

 of man that the Arabian horse has become famous. The condi- 

 tions of the climate surely favor hardy growth, and the concen- 

 trated, aromatic grasses and herbage of that country favor better 

 development of bone and muscle than do the more succulent 

 grasses of a damper climate and richer soil like that of Italy. 



Low, in his great work, attaches great importance to the 

 agencies of food and climate in the development of the horse. 

 " There may be other causes unknown to us." The " other 

 causes" are as yet the unknown quantity in the problem of the 

 existence of so grand a breed of horses in a seemingly infer- 

 tile, austere country, among a semi-civilized people. While the 

 people have, in the last seventeen centuries, declined below 

 the average of the nations of the East, their horses have been 

 models of style, fleetness, and endurance for centuries. It is 

 probable they drew their first good blood from the famous studs 

 of Solomon, and their almost superstitious devotion to the horse, 

 coupled with the salubrity of the atmosphere and the fragrant 

 and concentrated nature of the grasses and herbage and food, 

 together with their singular fidelity to pedigree and care in 

 breeding, have evolved the wonderful Arabian horse. Similar 

 influences combine in the ancestral history of 



The Barb, to make it one of the most valuable 

 breeds the world has known. The barb is of Arab stock. 

 The Arabs now found in Barbary are emigrants. It includes 

 that northern part of Africa extending along the coast of 

 the Mediterranean, and inland to the great desert, from the 



