1858] 



THE HORSE AND ITS RIDER. 



Ijis 



just as applicable to any of tlie Peaks in tlie Hindu-koli, Hindu- 

 cosh, Himnialeb, or Altai chain, as is the e pecial mountain in 

 Asia Minor, marked Mount Ararat on the Maps, and as for 

 localities assigned as that of Paradise or the Garden of Eden, 

 there are at least twenty of them, between Thibet and Dales. 

 In this region too, on the West side of Thibet, is the vast table 

 land of Raraese, known in Eastern tales as the Back Bone of the 

 world — not yet distinctly marked on the map. Here is the Lake 

 Surikol, itself one of the great Asian mysteiies ; here are the 

 mountains of the Hindu-Coosli, the probable prima3val seat of 

 the Scythic or Teutonic races, tribes that have spread in number 

 and power till the third part of the earth is directly or indirectly 

 under their control, and as every tribe or stock, at least of Cau- 

 casian, or Semi- Caucasian origin has its tradition of a primordial 

 City of the Gods — the hero progenitors of their race — as the 

 Assyrians had their Babel; the Indo Nigritians their Maegara 

 the Indo- Persians their Pasagarda, and our own Teutonic ances- 

 tors their Asgard— so we find tliat the tribes bordering on the 

 west and south of Thibet, acknowledged in their traditions the 

 sanctity of Balkh or Rembala, a city not far from the Hindu- 

 coosh region, a little to the northward of which is Samarcand, 

 from all antiquity, a city of great commercial importance as the 

 seat of the largest trade in horees carried on in the whole East. 

 It is no less strange than true, and it is a most astonishing con- 

 firmation of the theory that this portion of Asia was the original 

 seat of the human race, that almost every animal which man has 

 subdued to his use — every plant which furnishes him with food, 

 is to be found in its indigenous state, in and around this truly 

 wonderful region. Here are yet found in the wild state, the dog, 

 the hog, the horse, ass and camel ; the ox, sheep and goat ; the 

 elephant once stalked, in its majestic strength, through the forests 

 on its southern border ; aud wild cats, precisely similar to the 

 domesticated breeds, still haunt its jungles ; every known species 

 of domestic fowl originated in the south-east of Asia — many of 

 them are yet found wild in the jungles. On the western side are 

 to be found the parent plants of many of our fruit bearing trees 

 and shrubs — the walnut, chesnut, filbert, apple, medlar, and 

 cherry, and almost all the cultivated berries. Not far from here, 

 at Slassa, in Thibet, the vine, given to gladden the heart of man, 

 flourishes in the greatest luxuriance; wheat and barley of many 

 varieties are indigenous on the skirts of this i-egion, some species, 

 so hardy that they thrive on the sides of the Himmaleh chain 

 10,000 feet above the level of the sea; buck-wheat and oats are 

 found in the plains to the northwest ; onions and turnips are 

 met with wild in many paiis. In the northern plains we find 

 both flax and hemp, and in the valleys of Cashmere, melons, 

 pumpkins and gourds. In no other part of the world are there 

 found clustered together so many of the necessaries essential to 

 civilization; none of them existed in the Western Caucasus, and 

 therefore, we especially conclude that they must have been car- 

 ried westward in their migrations by those nations, who must 

 long have been acquainted with their value ; nay, how do we 

 know that the power to distinguish what was " good for food," 

 was not part of the original revelation made by God to man, 

 and derived by the post-diluvian nations fi-om their fathers, mira- 

 culously preserved through that catastrophe. It is also probable 

 that the tribes in moving westward met with many other edible 

 fiuits and roots, during their wanderings, which they carried with 

 them to their final western resting place ; the mulberry, apricot, 

 and date palm ; the olive, fig and plum, were, without doubt, 

 brought in this way — and last of all the orange, which we know 

 to be a native of China. 



The horae, then, and its congener, the ass, we find to 

 be indigenous in Central Asia, and in that part of it 

 which is on very good grounds concluded by the best ethnolo- 

 gis'.s to have been the primaeval seat of the human race. 

 We hive strong reason to believe that the ass was 



subjugated to the use of man long before the horse; that such 

 was the case we find indicated in many parts of the Old Testa- 

 ment legends, as in the sacrifice of Abraham, in his visit to 

 Egypt, where we find it recorded of the reigning Pharaoh, that 

 he had sheep and oxen, asses and camels — but nothing is said of 

 horses — and in the account of the plunder of the subjects of 

 Hamor by the Sons of Jacob we find asses mentioned among 

 the spoil, but not horses. 



But Bell, the authoi' of a work entitled, " British Quadrupeds," 

 is in favour of the opinion that the horse was first reduced to 

 servitude by the Egyptians. We certainly know from the Bible 

 and from paintings and sculptures extant on Egyptian monu- 

 ments of almost fabulous antiquity that they possessed trained 

 horses and used them for almost every purpose for which they 

 are used at this day ; but as the horse was not indigenous in 

 Egypt, as we never find it mentioned by any author sacred or 

 profane, as existing in that country in a wild state, but on the 

 contrary, always as a trained or domestic animal, it is evident 

 that the original horse-tamers must be looked for elsewhere, and 

 where so likely as in the land where the horse was indigenous, 

 in that Central Asia, the primitive seat of civilization, whence 

 knowledge radiated with population to Egypt, India and China. 



We shall look a little more closely into this question, for it is 

 one of great historical interest. As population increased in the 

 original seat of the human race; and when, in short, and to use 

 a homely phrase, they wanted elbow room, it is natural to sup- 

 pose that each stock or tribe departed on its migrations by the 

 course of the great rivers, as a means of facilitating its progress, 

 — but in course of time when these great roads of colonization 

 had been trodden by many nations, a different result followed, 

 at the hands of a very different class of colonists ; by this time, 

 man had learned to use the horse for his convenience, and there 

 are many reasons, principally derived however from philological 

 enquiries, which induce the belief that this conquest over brute 

 power firet took place in Central Asia, probably about Samar- 

 cand, and then in the neighbourhood of the Seythoe, who were, 

 perhaps, themselves the first horse-tamers. With the acquisition 

 of the horse came the era of invasion and plunder — first of all 

 by means of expeditions in chariots and afterwards by mounted 

 bands of warriois, who passed rapidly over immense distances, 

 carried with them few or none of their wives and children, but 

 invariably slaughtered or enslaved the males in the conquered 

 countries and appropriated their female relations. Thus from 

 conquest by military invasion, then arose privileged families and 

 tribes in nearly every nation, who became a master class. It is 

 worthy of notice that in the various mutations produced by these 

 incursions of conquering hordes, no nations escaped servitude, 

 but those who fled to the mountains, whither cavalry could not 

 follow them — the people who lived in islands had no security, 

 for where horses could not swim boats were rowed, and hence we 

 find a master race even in the South Sea Islands. Except in 

 Africa and in the very eastern part of Asia, where the Mongol 

 or beardless type predominates, this master race is in eveiy cir- 

 cumstance, directly or indirectly, of Caucasian origin. But it 

 also appears that from very remote times, in the mythological 

 periods as it were, small bands of these fierce and restless Scyth- 

 ians, had been accustomed to migrate towards the west, au'i as 

 we shall see these migrations gave rise to the old fabulous legends 

 of giants, titans, and so forth. Now these giants are invariably 

 described, not so much as men of great stature, but of great 

 strength and fierceness. They are always spoken of as fair haired 

 and blue-eyed — they are the Gog and Magog — -the Og and 

 Goliath, the Nephilim, Rephaim and Anakim of Scripture — the 

 Titans, Cyclops, Typhon and Anteus of the Greeks and Romans. 

 The Bei-sarkees and Blaumaus of the Scandinavians, the Gams 

 and Hunen of the Celts and Teutons. These are the giant 

 Goths still figured on the brazen gates of Augsburgh, of Byzant-^ 



