150 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. 



descendants of those on which the Cannanians once went 

 to battle. 



It is noteworthy that Marco Polo says nothing of the prices 

 paid either for ' Turquans ' or Tartar horses, or for those of 

 Yunnan imported into India, though he repeatedly mentions 

 the high prices paid for the horses from Arabia and the 

 Persian Gulf From this it may be justly inferred that the 

 horses of Upper Asia, though very useful animals, were far 

 inferior to the high-priced steeds from Aden and other western 

 ports. 



The evidence already given puts it beyond doubt that 

 southern Hindustan has never possessed an indigenous breed 

 of horses of any merit, the climate apparently being ill-adapted 

 for the Equidae. The incessant mortality of imported Arab 

 horses, and the speedy degeneration of the few native-bred 

 horses, render it highly improbable that there is in them any 

 primeval strain derived from E. sivalensis. If there really exists 

 such a stock, it is strange that it does not thrive and multiply 

 in India as do the zebras in tropical Africa. 



After the evidence respecting the native country-bred 

 horses of southern and central India, it is difficult to believe 

 that the Arab race, from which the horse Bend Or was sprung, 

 has been derived from that part at least of the Indian 

 peninsula. It is also clear that in the thirteenth century vast 

 numbers of the best Arabs were shipped direct to southern 

 India, and also to Bombay and the surrounding regions. 



These facts will be of considerable importance when we 

 come to deal with certain characteristics not only of the horses 

 of Kattywar and Tibet, but also of the ponies of Java and 

 Sumatra, with which the Arabs traded at an early date, for it 

 has been shown that those adventurous merchants reached not 

 only south India and Ceylon, but exercised much influence in 

 the great islands of the Indian Archipelago. 



But though southern and western Hindustan were not 

 well adapted for the rearing of horses, and had always to 

 depend largely on importation, it is otherwise with the north- 

 western and northern regions. The Aryans of the Rig- Veda 

 were keepers and breeders of horses, which, like their brethren 



