ORIGIN OF SOME DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 55 



of apparently similar type to the tarpan wandered over a 

 great part of Europe and Western Asia, as is attested by 

 their fossilised remains ; and from other evidence it is 

 probable that at the epoch in question the physical con- 

 dition of much of Europe was similar to that of the Asiatic 

 steppes at the present day. Such conditions would seem, 

 indeed, to be essential for the existence of wild horses, 

 which are animals specially adapted for a life on the open 

 plains, where they find safety in flight. It is true that 

 wild horses were found in parts of Europe at a much later 

 epoch, when the country had become forest-clad ; but it is 

 quite possible that these were really feral races. When we 

 come to the consideration of the place and time of the first 

 domestication of the horse, the usual difference of opinion 

 prevails among those most capable of forming a judgment. 

 It was at one time considered that the horse was first 

 domesticated in the East, but later authorities are more 

 inclined to think that the wild horse was also subjugated 

 by the stone-implement makers of Western Europe. This 

 race is considered to have given rise to the ordinary 

 European breeds ; but thoroughbred horses are probably 

 of Eastern origin. We naturally look to Arabia as the 

 ancestral home of the Eastern breed ; but this is a 

 mistake, as the horse is known to be a comparatively late 

 introduction into that country, the Arabs even as late as 

 the time of Strabo having neither horses nor asses, and 

 going to battle mounted on camels. 



In the early days of Egypt — that is to say, during the 

 period known as the "old kingdom" — the horse was un- 

 known in the Nile Valley ; the animal not making its appear- 

 ance in the frescoes till about the year 1800 b.c. Probably 

 the horse entered Egypt via Mesopotamia and Syria, where, 

 as we learn from the Nineveh sculptures, it had long been 



