22 THE HORSE. 



In the history of Abraham, we find frequent mention of the 

 ass used as a saddle-beast, of the camel as an animal of bur- 

 then, of flocks and herds, sheep and oxen ; but the name of 

 the horse does not appear, until we descend to the days of 

 Joseph. 



It is worthy of remark, moreover, that, on two occasions, 

 the former patriarch received costly presents from two foreign 

 potentates, Abimelech, prince of Gerar, on the northern fron- 

 tier of Arabia Petrsea, and Pliaraoh, king of Egypt, oiie of that 

 dynasty known as the Shej)herd kings, both of whom gave him 

 sheep and oxen, and man-servants and maid-servants, to which 

 the latter added he-asses and she-asses and camels ; and this 

 fact, when the constant mention, at a later period, of horses 

 given as presents between oriental potentates is taken into con- 

 sideration, may be assumed as a proof that they were not as 

 yet in general use, if known, in either of those countries. 



In the reign of that Pharaoh, however, whom Joseph served, 

 we find that, by the king's command, wagons were sent into 

 the land of Canaan, to bring Jacob and his sons, their wives 

 and their little ones, during the tamine against which the min- 

 ister had provisioned his adopted nation, into the country of 

 abundance. It is not, indeed, exactly stated that these wagons 

 were drawn by horses ; but, when it is observed that, during 

 this very famine of seven years, which ensued on their entrance 

 into Egypt, horses are first mentioned, as articles which Joseph 

 took in exchange for bread from the Egyptian cultivators and 

 cattle-breeders — that, on the death of Jacob, his funeral was 

 attended by " both chariots and horsemen " — and, lastly, that 

 we know, from the writings of Homer, and from the ancient 

 sculptures of Persepolis and Nineveh, the application of the 

 horse to purposes of draught to have been prior to his being 

 ridden, we may, I think, lairly conclude that such was the case. 



From this time, the adoption of the horse, for purposes of 

 battle, appears to have been extremely rapid. For we find that, 

 at the Exodus, generally conceived to have been in the reign 

 of Eamses Y., the last of the Eighteenth Dynasty, or 1500 years 

 before the Christian Era, the pursuing army contained " six 

 hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt," and all 

 the horsemen. Farther, when the Israelites returned into 



