CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 10. SOLIDUNGULA. 



591 



ASSYRIAN HORSES, COPIED FROM THE RUINS OP NINEVEH DISCOVERED BY LAYAED. 



horsemen. Prior to this, however, the horse was undoubtedly used in Greece for other purposes ; 

 we know that it had been long used in the chariot races of the Olympian games, and the beauti- 

 ful remains of the Parthenon, built in the time of Pericles, show that the Greek horses at that time 

 were of the finest breeds, and that the art of horsemanship was well understood. Horse-breeding 

 for the chariot and for riding was in fact a mania among the Greek youths of this period, and 

 may have borne some resemblance to what is witnessed among the lovers of the "turf" at the 

 present day in England. When, however, Macedonia gained an ascendency in Greece, the war- 

 horse was introduced. Alexander charged at the head of his cavalry, and in the subsequent ages 

 of Greek history we find mounted soldiers constituting an essential portion of the Greek armies. 

 The Macedonians obtained their horses from the north, and undoubtedly they were of the Tartar 

 stock ; the Greeks obtained theirs from Asia Minor, which was early a leading mart for the finest 

 breeds of horses. 



The recently excavated sculptures of Nineveh show us that the Assyrians, at an early age, had 

 magnificent horses, as well for war as the chase. 



The vestiges of Egyptian antiquity prove that at a date equally remote the valley of the Nile 

 was supplied with similar breeds.* 



The Scythians, the ancient progenitors of the Tartars, are said, first to have exercised the art 

 of riding on horseback. When their mounted hordes invaded Thrace — long prior to the time of 

 the Trojan war — the Greeks regarded the man and horse as one animal, as did the Mexicans in 

 the time of Cortez, and hence, it is said, arose the fable of the centaurs. Scythia in ancient times 



* According to the Bible account, Abraham, about 1900 B. C, received presents of sheep, oxen, camels, &c, but no 

 horses, whence it is reasonably inferred that at that time horses were not in common use in Egypt. But in the time 

 of Joseph, about 1700 B. C, we are told Jacob's funeral was attended by "chariots and horsemen." It is held by 

 good authorities that this was the period of the IL/ksos or Shepherd Kings, whose conquest and occupation of Egypt 

 for two hundred and fifty years hold so prominent a place in the ancient history of that country, and Champollion 

 is of the opinion that these HyksOS were Scythians. Admitting these two opinions, we have a striking solution of 

 the fact that about this period (that is, somewhere between the time of Abraham, 1900 B. C, and Joseph, 1700 B. 

 C.,) horses were introduced into Egypt, inasmuch as these Hyssos, or Scythians, as we know from other sources, 

 used horses and made invasions of distant countries with mounted armies at a very remote da-te. Two plain infer- 

 ences flow from this view of the case, if it be admitted : fit -sf, that Scythia, or as we now call it, Tartary, was the ori- 

 ginal habitat of the horse, and second, that the Scythians were the first nation which history presents as having used 

 the horse. We know that it has been asserted that the Egyptians were the first to use the horse, and from this fact, 

 as well as because the quagga and zebra, both of the equine genus, are found native in the contiguous deserts of Africa, 

 it has been held that Africa was the birth-place of the horse. From what we have said above, it is clear that the 

 claim of Egypt to the first use of the horse, and of Africa as its original seat, are both unfounded, or at least prob- 

 lematical. 



