OUR HORSES. 



CHAPTER I. 



GENEKAL REMARKS. 



1. — In the language of zoology, or in the orderly classification 

 of naturalists, the horse ranks under the division vertebrata 

 (having a brain and spinal marrow) ; the class mammalia 

 (suckling their young) ; the tribe ungulata (having feet protected 

 with hoofs) ; and, although his own skin is thin and very 

 sensitive, he is placed under the order pachydermata, or thick 

 skinned, that term being applied to all hoofed animals that do 

 not chew the cud. He belongs to the volipeda family, having 

 on each foot only one undivided hoof. 



2. — Such ancient history as we have had handed down to m, 

 gives us singularly little information about so important and 

 useful an animal. Statues and hieroglyphics do not help us 

 much : nor are there any existing herds of wild horses, except 

 those that are known to have originated with animals once 

 domesticated, and which consequently give us no cine to the 

 aboriginal home of the horse. It seems to have formed no part 

 of the possessions of Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. We first hear of 

 it from Egypt, where, in the time of the dire famine, we read, 

 " Joseph gave them bread in exchange for horses." The waggons, 

 the sight of which revived the spirit of old Jacob, may have 

 been drawn by asses or mules, as more suitable for such roads, 

 and more safe for the conveyance of such passengers as the 

 " wives and little ones." But, when Joseph took back his 

 father's [remains to the field of Machpelah, we are left in no 



