IV] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HOUSE 435 



dozen Andalusian stallions and mares turned loose in 1535, have 

 been living under perfectly natural conditions for more than 

 three centuries and a half, yet, as already noticed (p. 263), 

 Azara 1 states that amongst the "numerous herds of wild horses 

 that had passed under his observation, he had never seen any 

 colour but bay, some inclining to brown, in others more or 

 less to red, and whenever a piebald, black, or any other 

 coloured horse is seen, it is immediately known to have been 

 a domesticated individual, which had made its escape or had 

 been carried off by the wild herds." 



Elsewhere 2 he says that it is "unaccountable, the wild 

 horses being, as I have observed, all bay, how so great a 

 variety of colours is found amongst the tame, although black 

 and dark-coloured are extremely scarce ; I must also mention 

 that white, bay, and greyish-coloured horses, and above all 

 chestnut piebalds (sabinos), the ground colour of whose coat is 

 white, with an infinity of obscure and cinnamon-coloured specks 

 or spots, pass for the best swimmers." 



I have pointed out already (p. 263) that the white, grey, and 

 other light-coloured horses of South America are derived from 

 the horses of Upper Spain, whilst the Pampas horses are sprung 

 purely from those of Andalusia. But as the Andalusians are 

 in great part of Libyan blood, and as their wild descendants of 

 the Pampas obstinately refuse to revert to a dun colour, as they 

 ought to do if their bay livery has simply been developed by 

 artificial breeding, it is reasonable to infer that, whilst the 

 Asiatic ancestors of the Libyan horses were dun-coloured, the 

 bay colour of the Libyan horse was gradually acquired in North 



1 Quadrupeds of Paraguay, p. 14 (English trans.). As I pointed out before, 

 Col. Hamilton Smith, who seems to have worked direct from Azara's original 

 Spanish, translates as 'bay' what the English translator renders 'chestnut,' 

 but as Col. Smith had given great attention to the vast variety of names for 

 different shades of colour used by Spanish writers on horses, and as the 

 Pampas horses seem really to be what we term ' bay,' this rendering seems to 

 be the true one. Mr Darwin (Variation, Vol. i. p. 64), who cites Azara's French 

 edition of his work, agrees with Col. Smith, for he cites Azara (Les Quadrupeds 

 du Paraguay, Tom. n. p. 307) as stating that "90 out of 100 horses were 'bai- 

 chatains,' the remainder were 'zains,' that is without any white ; not more than 

 1 in 2000 being black." 



2 Quadrupeds of Paraguay, p. 31 (Engl. trans.). 



282 



