13 



cated. Riding must have been the first use to which it was put, for 

 it is not easy to suppose that it would have been tamed and broken in 

 without having been mounted. The purposes to which it would be 

 put would be war, travel, and pleasure. It is only in very advanced 

 periods of society that it is applied to agricultural and other useful 

 labours. In this it is anticipated or superseded by the ox in most 

 countries, and by the ox in conjunction with the buffalo in others. 

 It is only in very advanced periods of society that it is used for 

 draught, and this chiefly in modern Europe— a matter, however, which 

 seems to be in some measure determined by the superior size, weight 

 and strength of the races of this part of the world. Throughout all 

 Asia, and indeed throughout the whole of Eastern Europe, the horse is 

 nearly unknown for draught, either in plough or carriage, while with 

 ourselves it has justly superseded the slow and heavy ox — clear evidence 

 of a superior intelligence and civilization. 



In the ancient monuments of Egypt, the horse is almost always seen 

 in draught only — a pair drawing a two-wheeled chariot, with a pole, in 

 the manner of a curricle. A pompous display would seem to have 

 been the only object. One or two samples only occur of a man on 

 horseback, and then sitting not astride, but sideways, without bridle or 

 saddle, and in mere frolic. But in due time the Egyptians had a 

 cavalry, for when the king of Egypt pursued the Israelites, after their 

 escape from bondage, he did so with horsemen as well as with chariots, 

 and this is supposed to have happened about 1500 years before the 

 birth of Christ. The ancient Britons had their war chariots, while 

 Gauls, Numidians, and other cotemporaries not more advanced, had 

 cavalry, but not chariots. Whether cavalry or chariots were used in 

 war was probably a matter of chance. I may here remark that the 

 mere capacity to construct a wheel carriage, however rude, is a fact 

 which shows that in the days of Julius Csesar we were not such arrant 

 savages as we have been sometimes represented. We had not only the 

 skill to construct chariots, but even to arm them with iron scythes. 

 The iron, no doubt, must have been rather scarce, for we used it at the 

 same time as our only money, and probably valued it as highly as the 

 Roman conquerors did silver. 



So much for the origin of the horse, and I may now offer a brief 

 comparison of his utility to man in the work of labour, as compared with 

 that of other domesticated animals, a fuller account of which must, however, 

 be delayed for another opportunity. The camel, unsuited for draught, is 

 the beast of burden of the Desert and of dry lands. It is wholly unfit 



