Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 211 



St John's red horse is simply bay or chestnut, and his yellow 

 horse a dun, that is, a common kadish, or Turcoman pony, and 

 he also knows the black horse (now commonly found in Jelfon, 

 and never among pure-bred Arabs) and places it after the bay, 

 but before the dun, we are led to conclude that in the first 

 century of our era, before the Arabs had as yet begun to keep 

 or breed horses, Palestine already possessed the same three 

 kinds of horses that are there found at the present moment. 



Bat bay horses were no new feature in Palestine at the 

 Christian era, for the prophet Zechariah 1 saw in vision in the 

 reign of Darius (B.C. 522 484) " a man riding upon a red 

 (jrvppos) horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were 

 in the bottom ; and behind him were there red (Trvppoi) horses, 

 and iron-grey (fyapoi) and dappled -grey (7rot,/ci\oi,) and white 

 (\evKOi)" whilst in another vision the same prophet 2 saw four 

 chariots come out from between two mountains : " in the first 

 chariot were red (Trvppoi) horses, in the second chariot were 

 black (yiteXaz/e?) horses, in the third chariot white (\evtcoi) 

 horses, and in the fourth chariot dappled-grey (vrot/aXot) and 

 iron-grey (tyapoi) horses." The angel told Zechariah that 

 these were " the four spirits of the heavens which go forth from 

 standing before the Lord of all the earth. The black horses 

 which are therein go forth into the north country; and the 

 white go forth after them ; and the dappled-grey went towards 

 the land of the south wind, and the iron-grey went forth and 

 sought to go that they might walk to and fro through the 

 earth." It is now clear that centuries before the Christian era 

 not only was the bay horse known in Palestine, but the various 

 kinds of cross-bred horses black, iron-grey, and grey of a 

 lighter shade, so characteristic of Asia Minor and Irak at the 

 present hour were already well known. It is worthy of notice 

 that Zechariah, unlike the author of the Apocalypse, does not 

 assign any preeminence to white horses, for he evidently 

 regards the bay horse as the best both for riding and for 

 driving. 



Finally, Tweedie supports his view that the Arab horse is 



1 i. 8. 2 vi. 13. 



H 2 



