134 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. 



between the ponies of Bhootan, Nepal, Spiti, Yarkand, and 

 Mongolia." 



These ponies have been much less affected by extraneous 

 blood than the Turcoman. " They are strong and sure-footed, 

 but very slow," and stand about 12"1 — 13'2 hands high, and 

 Captain Hayes^ gives thera as the type of the coarse thickset 

 horse of Asia and Europe, and he maintains^ that "as the 

 ancestors of all living horses were inhabitants of Siberia after 

 their emigration from North America, and as Siberia is closely 

 connected Avith Mongolia, it is reasonable to infer that the 

 present Mongolian pony, which has always lived under more or 

 less natural conditions, is nearer the original type of horse than 

 any other domesticated horse." Marco Polo noticed the good 

 qualities of these horses, for when writing of the Tartars, he 

 states that " their horses will subsist entirely on the grass of 

 the plain, so that there is no need to carry store of barley, or 

 straw, or oats ; and they are very docile to their riders. These 

 in case of need will abide on horseback the livelong night, 

 armed in all points, while the horse will be continuously 

 grazing^." 



In treating of the city of Chandu (now but a heap of ruins, 

 but whose name still survives in that of the river Shangtu), 

 founded by Kublai, he says* : " You must know that the Kaan 

 keeps an immense stud of white horses and mares ; in fact, 

 more than 10,000 of them, and all pure white without a speck. 

 The milk of these mares is drunk by himself and his family, 

 and by none else, except by those of one great tribe, that have 

 also the privilege of drinking it. This privilege was granted 

 them by Chinghas Kaan, on account of a certain victory that 

 they helped him to win long ago. The name of the tribe is 

 Horiad. Now when these mares are passing across the country, 

 and anyone falls in with them, be he the greatest lord in the 

 land, he must not presume to pass until the mares have gone 

 by. He must either tarry where he is, or go a half-day's 



1 Points of the Horse, p. 269 (ed. 2). 



2 Op. cit. pp. 600, 601 (ed. 3). 



^ Vol. I. p. 252 (Yule's translation). 



•* Marco Polo, Yule's translation, Vol. i. p. 291. 



