IV] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 449 



hesitate to believe that the Shan and Manipur ponies have been 

 similarly crossed. 



Nor need we be surprised to find in China ponies showing 

 traces of stripes, when we recall the vigorous horse-trade 

 between China and India in the days of Marco Polo, and 

 when we bear in mind the repeated evidence of the steady 

 determination of every tribe in Asia and Europe from the 

 dawn of history to obtain for their mares the services of sires of 

 the Libyan stock. Moreover we know from the Chinese docu- 

 ments that about B.C. 100 the emperor sent westwards to obtain 

 horses of an improved breed from Turkestan 1 , whither it is 

 highly probable horses of a mixed Libyan strain had found 

 their way from Bactria. The fact that the two Pegu ponies 

 cited by Darwin were of a bay colour in itself shows that they 

 had a large infusion of Arab blood. 



The occurrence in various parts of Eastern Asia of dun- 

 coloured horses with stripes can be completely accounted for 

 by the historical fact that in the horses of all those regions 

 there is a large substratum of Upper Asiatic blood, which has 

 been more or less improved by the repeated introduction of 

 Arab sires, as has been the case in Western Asia also (p. 183). 

 And as in the latter region the predominant colour is that of 

 the native Turcoman and Kurdish mares, which has been but 

 slightly influenced by the dark colour of the Libyan sires, so too 

 in Eastern Asia, whilst the structure and quality of the breed 

 have been improved by the Arab sires, the latter have not been 

 able to modify to any great extent the light colours of the 

 native mares, though not unfrequently transmitting to their 

 progeny their own zebra-like markings. Let us now return 

 to Europe. 



17. " On the Continent the offspring of black sires satu- 

 rated with Arab blood are often more or less distinctly striped 2 ." 



18. The Cleveland Bays which resulted from crossing 

 Yorkshire cart-mares with a Barb, had almost invariably a 

 dorsal stripe (p. 386). This appears probably due to the Barb 

 blood. 



1 H. F. Osborn, Century Magazine, Nov., 1904, p. 16. 



2 Ewart, Exp. Contributions, p. 21. 



R. H. 29 



