Ill] 



AND HISTORIC TIMES 



193 



declares that Armenia yielded in no respect to Media in its 

 horse-breeding capabilities, " so that the Nisaean horses were 

 produced here which the Persian kings used themselves. The 

 satrap of Armenia had to send each year 20,000 colts on the 

 feast of Mithras." 



There is evidence that by 600 B.C. Armenia was noted as 

 a horse-breeding region, for according to the prophet Ezekiel 

 the people of Togarmah, usually supposed to be Armenia or 

 part of it, "traded in the fairs of Tyre with horses and mules\" 

 The chief horses and ponies of Armenia at the present day are 

 known as the Karadagh breed, which is said to have been 



Fig. 61. Imjjression from the Signet of Darius Hystaspes. 



developed on the southern slopes of the Caucasus, and they 

 have been crossed with ' Arab ' blood, and probably some of 

 them at least with Russian strains, which, as already mentioned 

 (p. 132), are all of modern origin, being derived from Arab and 

 English thoroughbred blood. The Karadagh horses are from 

 14 to 15 hands high, and are usually bay or chestnut with black 

 mane and tail, and they all have a black dorsal stripe about an 

 inch broad. They are strongly built and are par excellence the 

 harness horses of Persia, and are used as cab horses in Teheran 

 and for all kinds of waggon- work, but are very seldom ridden ^ 



^ Ezek. xxvii. 14 : "They of the house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with 

 horses and horsemen and mules." Others have supposed that Phiygia or 

 Caijpadocia is meant by Togarmah. 



- Hayes, Points of the Horse, pp. 610-1 (ed. 3). 



R. H. 13 



