IV] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 471 



the skulls of Arabs and thoroughbred horses which they have 

 examined, we have another clear indication that the ancestors 

 of the Libyan horse had long lived on African soil. 



But as E. stenonis of Southern Europe and Northern 

 Africa and its later ally E. quaggoides had a pre-orbital 

 depression as well as E. sivalensis, there is no need to go to 

 India for the fossil ancestors of the Libyan horse, and the true 

 explanation of the presence of such a depression in ' an Indian 

 domesticated horse ' is to be found in the historical facts that 

 the Arabs got their ' blood-horse ' from North Africa, and that 

 for ages these so-called Arab horses have been pouring annually 

 into India and are there crossed with the dun-coloured Asiatic 

 horses. 



If we could rely on the statement or rather on the reading 

 of the text of Strabo in the passage where he declares that the 

 Libyan horses have longer hoofs than those in any other region, 

 it would further support the view that that animal has been 

 specialised in Africa, where all the Equidae have hoofs of a 

 longer conformation than the horses of Asia. It is certainly 

 a fact of considerable interest that in some high cafete Arabs 

 the hoofs are longer than in the quagga\ It would seem there- 

 fore that Strabo's statement had a basis in fact. 



Nor is it only in colour and other external respects that 

 the Libyan differs from the Asiatic horse. As the cry of 

 the quagga, from which that animal derived its name, was 

 distinct from that of the zebra (p. 73 n.), so the voice of the 

 Libyan horse differs from that of his vulgar Asiatic brother. 

 This is rendered clear by the evidence of Major-General 

 Tweedie already cited (p. 180), who, as before remarked, 

 may be regarded as a hostile witness. In speaking of the 

 Kuhailan horse he thus writes^: "The stallion picketed beside 

 the tent is as good as a sentinel. The first sound of an 

 intruder brings him to attention. Generally he will stamp 

 with one fore-foot and challenge ; not braying like a kadish, 

 but sounding one or two short and sharp notes, to intimate 

 that he will make no terms."..." His gentle salutations of 



1 Ewart, Exper. Contr., p. 21. 2 y/jg Arabian Horse, pp. 267-8. 



