32 ^ avery's own farrier. 



■ » 



isted, or had they been subdued in Egypt. When fifty 

 years afterwards, Abraham journeyed to the mount Mo- 

 riah to offer up his only son, he rode upon an ass, which I 

 think he would surely not have done, with all his wealth 

 and power, had the horse been in use at this time 

 (Gen. xxii, 3). 



Thirty years later, when Jacob returned to Isaac with 

 Rachel and Leah, an account is given (Gen. xxxii, 14) of 

 the number of oxen, sheep, camels, goats and asses, which 

 he sent to appease the anger of Esau, but not one horse 

 is mentioned. 



It was not until twenty-four years after this, when 

 the famine devastated Canaan, and Jacob sent into 

 Egypt to buy corn, that horses and wagons were first 

 heard of. They were then sent by Joseph into Canaan 

 to bring his father back to Egypt (Gen. xlv, 21, and 

 Gen. xlvii, 17). It would seem, however, that horses had 

 been but lately introduced, or not used as beasts of bur- 

 den, for the whole of the corn which was to be conveyed 

 some hundreds of miles, and was to afford sustenance for 

 Jacob's large household, was carried on asses (Gen. 

 xlv, 23). 



Somewhere about the year 1740 before Christ, is the 

 period when horses appear to have been first used in 

 Egypt. They appear, however, to have rapidly in- 

 creased and spread abroad; for when the Israelites re- 

 turned into Canaan, the Canaanites went out to fight 

 against Israel, with chariots and horsemen very many. 

 The sacred volume seems therefore to decide the import- 

 ant point, that the first domestication of the horse was in 



