Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 149 



Polo shows clearly that the chief, if not the whole, supply 

 of horses to southern India was derived from the Persian Gulf 

 and Arabia Proper, a fact to be borne in mind when we come 

 to deal with the Arab horses of the present day. 



But it was not only southern India which imported horses, 

 for western India, then as now, drew large supplies of these 

 animals from the west. Speaking of Tana, which is the 

 modern town of Thana, on the landward side of the island 

 of Sal sett e, about twenty miles from Bombay, he says that 

 it was "a great kingdom lying towards the west, and that 

 the king protected corsairs, which plundered ships, and that 

 he received as his share all horses captured on board 1 ." 



As in the present day Bombay draws its supply of horses 

 principally from the Persian Gulf, so was it in earlier times, 

 for Polo 2 states that " in this country of Persia there is a great 

 supply of fine horses ; and people take them to India for trade, 

 for they are horses of great price, a single one being worth 

 as much of their money as is equal to 200 livres Tournois; 

 some will be more, some less, according to the quality. Here 

 are also the finest asses in the world, one of them being worth 

 full thirty marks of silver, for they are very large and fast, 

 and acquire a capital amble. Dealers carry their horses to 

 Kisi and Curmosa, two cities on the shores of the sea of India, 

 and there they meet with merchants who take the horses on 

 to India for sale." 



Colonel Yule remarks that the horses here mentioned were 

 probably the same class of * Gulf Arabs ' that are now carried 

 thither, but he points out that the Turcoman horses bred in 

 Persia are also very valuable, especially for endurance, as we 

 have already seen. Two hundred livres Tournois was equiva- 

 lent to about 193 sterling. 



But southern Persia had not been a home of horses from 

 a very ancient period, for we have seen (p. 49) that in Carmania 

 down to the time of Strabo, asses, on account of the scarcity 

 of horses, were generally made use of in war, and that the 

 Carmanians sacrificed asses to their war-god. Doubtless the 

 magnificent Persian asses to which Polo refers were the 

 1 Vol. ii. p. 385. 2 Vol. i. p. 84, with Yule's note. 



