422 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. 



it is clear that the chestnut and brown ponies of Iceland had 

 certainly Libyan blood, and as, on the other hand, the heavy- 

 headed ponies of the picture seem almost certainly sprung 

 from the old heavy type of European horse, it may be urged 

 that it is difficult at first sight to show that any Icelandic or 

 Faroe ponies owe their characteristics to the slender-built horse 

 of palaeolithic times, though it is quite possible that in some 

 Icelandic ponies the presence of short hair on the upper part 

 of the tail, instead of the long hairs so characteristic of the 

 Libyan stock, is a feature derived from this ancient light-built 

 horse. But it seems difficult to derive the ' Celtic ' ' tail-lock ' 

 (p. 18) from the Libyan infusion, whilst the fact that Icelandic 

 and Faroe ponies more frequently lack hock callosities than 

 is as yet proved to be the case with North African horses, 

 indicates that this feature may not be wholly derived from 

 Libyan ancestors, but may be due in some measure to an old 

 ' Celtic ' pony. 



We have now passed in review all the chief breeds of horses 

 of prehistoric and historical times, and the evidence has led us 

 to the following conclusions : (1) that the horses of Upper 

 Europe and Upper Asia were always dun or white, the vast 

 \ majority of them being thick-set, slow animals, though in the 

 north-west of Europe there was the ' Celtic ' pony, an animal of 

 much lighter build, more elegant shape, and probably greater 

 speed; (2) that these coarse, thick-set horses of Upper Asia and 

 Upper Europe have continually kept making their way into the 

 regions lying south of the great mountain chains which cross 

 the Asia-European Continent ; (3) that these horses first made 

 their appearance in Babylonia not long before 1500 B.C., and 

 about the same time in Palestine and Greece; (4) that the 

 Arabs of the Peninsula did not become possessors of this or any 

 other horse until after the Christian era ; (5) that at some date 

 not long prior to 1500 B.C. the kings of the xvillth Egyptian 

 dynasty were already in possession of horses of a type com- 

 pletely different in shape, colour and manner of carrying their 

 tails, from the Asiatic horses, though closely resembling in these 

 particulars the best Arabian and Barbary horses of modern 

 times ; (6) that these horses are regularly depicted on Egyptian 



