His History. 1 1 9 



not in Arabia ; nor, again, the fact that afterwards 

 King Solomon got his horses from Egypt, and gold and 

 silver from Arabia ; the gold and silver would be brought, 

 no doubt, from the south of Yemen and Hadramaut by 

 ships up the Red Sea, manned by King Hiram's sailors, 

 and landed at Elath, King Solomon's seaport, on the 

 Gulf of Akabah. 



His communication with Egypt was easy, the distance 

 not very great, and he had constant and intimate inter- 

 course with Egypt. Horses and chariots could be brought 

 up very easily from thence ; there would appear to have 

 been a regular trade ; the prices are fixed — a chariot at 

 six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse at one hundred 

 and fifty. And through King Solomon's interest, the 

 kings of the Hittites and of Syria also obtained them ; 

 so horses were not general at that time in Syria. These 

 horses reared in the fat lands of Rameses, Avhether they 

 were the descendants of the horses from Arabia, or of 

 those that Misraim may have taken, would by this time 

 have lost much of their pristine beauty and perfection, 

 and have become grosser, coarser, of a more bulky body, 

 and more suitable for dragging chariots. 



But Solomon had other horses. In i Kings, chap, x. 

 verse 25, we read, after being told that all the earth 

 sought Solomon, ' and they brought every man his pre- 

 sent, vessels of silver and vessels of gold, and garments, 

 and armour, and spices, horses and mules, a rate year by 

 year.' It is quite: likely the Arabs deemed it expedient, 

 if not absolutely necessary, to present horses to King 

 Solomon from time to time as gifts, even if not as 



