ioo THE HORSE IN HISTORY 



and Neptune was said to have caused it to rise 

 out of the earth, using his trident as a magic 

 wand. The name is Greek for " martial," hence 

 the signification, "war horse," given to it in this 

 instance. We read that " its right feet were those 

 of a human creature," "it spoke with a human 

 voice," and "ran with incredible swiftness." 



Perhaps one of the most notorious horses of 

 Persian mythology is Reksh, a steed that be- 

 longed to Rustam, the Persian Hercules, son of 

 Zal, and Prince of Sedjistan. Rustam became 

 famous chiefly on account of his great battle with 

 the white dragon, Asdeev. The description of 

 Rustam's deadly encounter with his son, Sohrab 

 — it ended in the latter's death — is described in 

 Matthew Arnold's poem, "Sohrab and Rustam" 

 in very fine language. 



But even these few references to horses of 

 mythology may be pronounced dull reading in 

 this prosaic age, so for the present I will leave 

 the subject and come down to earth once more. 

 It is interesting to learn that the Arab race, 

 apparently from the time when it first began to 

 breed horses, was wont to trace the pedigrees of 

 its horses through the dams and not through the 

 sires, in the same way that in ancient days this 

 people traced its own lineage. The reason the 



