HIBTORY OP THE HORSE, 10 



Jacob, his funeral was attended by "both chariots and horse- 

 men ;" and lastly, that we know from the writings of Homer, 

 and from the ancient sculptures of Persepolis and Nineveh, 

 that the horse was used for purposes of draught for some time 

 previous to his being ridden. 



From this time, the horse appears to have been speedily 

 adopted for use in battle. At the Exodus, some fifteen hun- 

 dred years before the Christian era, the pursuing army con- 

 tained " six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of 

 Egypt," together with all the horsemen. And when the 

 Israelites returned into Canaan, we find that the horse had 

 already been naturalized in that country, since the Canaanites 

 " went out to fight against Israel with horses and chariots very 

 many." 



From these considerations, and from the fact that, so late as 

 six hundred years after this date, Arabia had still no horses, it 

 is by no means an improbable conclusion that the shepherd 

 kings of Egypt, whose origin is unknown, introduced the horse 

 into Lower Egypt; and that, after this period, that country 

 became the principal herding district of this animal, whence 

 he was gradually introduced into Arabia and the adjoining 

 Asiatic countries. From the same stock is doubtless derived 

 the entire race in all the southeastern parts of Europe. As 

 Egypt is not, in any respect, a favorable country for horse- 

 breeding, still less for his original existence in a state of na- 

 ture, the source whence he was first introduced into that coun- 

 try is in some degree enveloped in uncertainty ; though the 

 better opinion, based upon much indirect testimony, is that he 

 was an original native of the soil of Africa, which alone was 



