HISTORY, 475 



mutual destruction or defence. No records exist to shew at 

 what era the Arabians began to use horses, but it appears that 

 they were little multiplied in the country till after the Chris- 

 tian era. Even in the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Strabo states, 

 of the south of Arabia, then termed Arabia Felix, that it had 

 neither horses nor mules ; and regarding the north of Arabia, 

 or Arabia Deserta, he says that it had no horses, and that 

 camels supplied their place. The warlike successors of Ma- 

 homet became horsemen, and laid the countries of the Horse 

 in the East under contribution ; but up to the age of the 

 Prophet himself, the horses of the country were neither nu- 

 merous nor generally diffused. On his advance to Mecca, 

 to take vengeance on his enemies of the Koreish, he had 

 only two horses in his army ; and in the list of plunder which 

 he carried back with him, while there were camels, sheep, 

 silver, and human captives, not a single horse is mentioned. 

 When once, however, the Horse was added to the domesti- 

 cated animals of this eager and wandering people, the gift 

 was cultivated with boundless care. With them the Horse 

 acquired a value which it could scarcely anywhere else pos- 

 sess. Not luxury and enjoyment alone depended on their 

 horses, but liberty and life ; and they acquired a love and 

 regard for the animal which no other people have manifested 

 in the like degree. They speak of their horses with all the 

 warmth of eastern enthusiasm, they cherish the memory of 

 their feats, and boast of their ancestry. They have formed 

 to themselves families which they hold to be of noble lineage ; 

 and, breeding from these, and preserving the purity of de- 

 scent, they have succeeded, beyond all the people of the 

 East, in perpetuating a race of horses possessed of properties 

 which have suited them, in an eminent degree, to the condi- 

 tion of the country, and the uses of the people. 



The horses of Arabia are connected, in all their charac- 

 ters, with those of the Caucasus and Asia Minor, as might 

 be inferred from the geographical position of the country in 

 contact with the great region of the Asiatic Horse on the 



