THE HORSE. 35 



the Crusade period, the Turks had been 

 celebrated for their breed of horses, and 

 various authentic accounts have reached 

 us relative to the beauty and fleetness 

 of the Turkish horse. It is needless to 

 recount the fabulous story of the mares 

 belongmg to the prophet Mahomet ; but The horses of 



^ Mahomet. 



suffice it to repeat that the Eastern horse 

 was celebrated for his eminent qualifi- 

 cations in prose and verse six hundred 

 years after the Christian era. This 

 establishes the fact that in Central Asia 

 and Southern Europe Mahomet and his 

 army were supplied with a goodly array 

 of splendid horses, horses destined through 

 their descendants to improve the coarser 

 types of the equme race throughout 

 Europe, and for England in 2)articular. 

 The horses brought to this country 



