470 HISTORY OF 



with his constitution : for although he is found almost in then 

 all, yet his form is altered there, and he is found at once diminu- 

 tive and ill- shaped. We have the testimony of the ancients that 

 there were wild horses once in Europe ; at present, however. 



tains, 60 that horses could be of little use to them. This was about 1250 years 

 b°''ore Christ. When Saul was chosen king of Israel, 1095 years a.r. he leii 

 the armies of that kingdom against the tribes of Ariibia, but they had not at 

 that time begun to breed horses ; for we find his plunder consisted only of 

 camels, oxen, sheep, and asses. 



David, second king of Israel, 1048 years A.c. justly celebrated for his prow 

 ess and skill in the art of war, and who was from his youth engaged in per- 

 petual feuda with the tribes by which Israel was surrounded, had cavalry 

 under his command ; but in this force his enemies greatly exceeded him : and, 

 it would appear, he did not consider them of very great consequence ; for, in 

 his defeat of the Syrians, where all their war.chiiriots, which were drawn by 

 horses, fell into his hands, and «ith them three hundred of these animals, he 

 reserved only one hundred for his own use, and hamstrung the rest. 



The first breaking of the horse for riding is attributed by some authors to 

 the Lapithse, and is spoken of by Virgil in his third Georgic. Strabo asserts 

 that the Medes, Persians, and Armenians, were the first that invented the art 

 of riding and shooting. Polydorus ascribes it to Bellerophon ; Lysias, the 

 orator, to the Amazonian women. But be this as it may, it seems indisput^ 

 able, that horses were not used for riding till long after the time they were 

 harnessed in war.chariots. Sir Gore Ouseley mentions, in his travels through 

 Persia and various countries of the East, that he examined all the relics of 

 antiqwty, and amongst others the fine sculptures on the ruins of Persepolis, 

 from which he drew a conclusion, at once interesting, and in some measure 

 confirmatory of the opinion above noticed, that the horse has been gradually 

 subdued. He says, " There are no figures mounted on horseback, although 

 some travellers have mentioned horsemen among those sculptures. One 

 would think, that the simple act of mounting on a horse's back would natu- 

 rally have preceded the use of wheel carriages, and their complicated har. 

 ness, yet no horsemen are found at Persepolis ; and we know. Homer's 

 horses are represented in chariots, from which the warriors sometimes de. 

 Ecended to combat on foot ; but the poet has not described them as fighting 

 on horseback. The absence of mounted figures might authorize an opinion, 

 that these sculptures had been executed before the time of Cyrus, whose 

 precepts and example first inspired the Persians with a love of equestrian 

 exercises, of which, before his time, they were totally ignorant." 



It is a generally received, although ernmeous opinion, that Arabia wa» 

 the native country of the horse ; but this we find not to be the case, from 

 what is stated in 2 Chronicles, chap. ix. which informs us that King Solomon 

 obtained gold and silver from that country ; and in the 28th verse, that " they 

 brought unio Solomon horses out of Egypt, and out of all lands." Now, had 

 they originally come from Arabia, it is probable that country would have 

 been here expressly mentioned. Even so late as the seventh century of the 

 Christian era, when the prophet Mahomet attacked the Korei.-h, not far 

 from Blecca, he had only two horses in his train ; and although, iu the plun- 

 der of tills horrible campaign, he carried with him in his retreat twenty.four 



