1 1 o The A 7^abian Hoi^sc. 



selves, that he would be settled and domesticated with 

 some of these families. 



When Nimrod was founding Babylon he may have 

 retained some for his future kingdom ; and Misraim 

 may have carried the horse into Egypt ; and why not 

 with equal probability that family which went into 

 Central Arabia, and first peopled it ? Why should the 

 horse be denied to that country, the most propitious to 

 him, and where, at the present time, he is found in the 

 purest form, to a people of the highest antiquity? 



Eber, the great-grandson of Shem, had two sons, 

 Joktan (or Kahtan as spelt in Arabia) and Peleg ; the 

 latter, the founder of Abraham's family, and subse- 

 quently through Abraham's son Ishmael became joined 

 with the descendants of Joktan. ' In the days of Peleg 

 the earth was divided,' or, as I understand, the dispersion 

 took place at Babel. Joktan and his family went down 

 into Central Arabia, about the time Nimrod was 

 founding Babylon, or perhaps before. They must have 

 been, as their descendants are now, horse-fanciers. 

 The horse was ridden in Arabia ; he was not put to 

 degrading work ; he was a hunter and a war horse. 

 The horse was ridden only in Arabia, not used for 

 harness, as subsequently by other nations. Joktan and 

 his family were settled in that part of Arabia even now 

 called Kahtan, and to whose inhabitants the term 

 Ketanic is still applied, reaching from near Mecca in 

 the west to Jebel Toweek in the east. 



It was from this district, in all probability, that the 

 descendants of Joktan, if not at war among themselves, 



