1853,] 



THE HOKSE AND ITS RIDER. 



181 



mounted wavrior, and of the figure of a riding sportsman, catch- 

 ing a deer with a casting-net, found in tlie ruins of that city. As 

 I before observed, saddle-horses do not appear to have been much 

 used iu South- Western Asia ; for, on the authority of Herodotus, 

 Cyrus opposed camels to the Lydiau Cavalry of Crojsus. After 

 this time it is probable that the Persian sovereigns a\-ailed them- 

 selves of the services of various equesti'ian tribes from the higher 

 Asiatic regions, coming through the passes of the Western Cau^ 

 casian range, along the coast of the Caspian ; for from the time 

 of Cyrus we find cavalry invariably mentioned as forming a part 

 of the Aramean legions, and in various parts of Persia they are 

 found in the sculptures of a later period. I before observed, that 

 though by the express command of God, the Israelites were for- 

 bidden to use horses, Solomon broke the command, and imported 

 both horees and chariots from Egypt. In the First Book of 

 Kings, chapter x., verso 29, we have the record of exactly what 

 he paid for them: reduced into English sterling, each horse cost 

 about £l7, and each chariot about £68. The trade was evidently 

 carried on by the gross or string, as the price was not for different 

 values of single horses : and from the same record we learn ano- 

 ther important fact, that in Phceuicia horses were either dear or 

 scarce, for Solomon, after supplying the armies of la-ael, traded 

 in horses with the Phoenicians. The Tyrians, another mercantde 

 people of great renown, imported horses fi'om Armenia, and 

 carried them to their colonies in Africa, to Crete, Sicily, Spain, 

 and Greece. Thus may have arisen the old Greek fable, that 

 Neptune, the god of the sea, produced the horse b}^ striking the 

 earth with his trident. It was also the belief of the Circassians, 

 that the Shalokh, the noblest of the Cabarder breeds, sprung from 

 the sea; probably becau';e iu either case the parent stock was 

 imported by water. There is another mythological curiosity 

 about the horee. As the camel was styled, by the camel-riding 

 tribes of Arabia, the ship of the desert — so was the ship styled, 

 by the Celto-Seythians, the horse of the sea. Hence, under the 

 names of the hoi-se and mare, were typiiied in the Druidical 

 woi-ship, the helic and lunar arkite enclosures, a worship and a 

 mystery which would of themselves form the subject of a lecture; 

 hence the Eastern mythological fables of Perseus and Bellero- 

 phon. 



It was the opinion of Buffon, the great French naturalist, that 

 Arabia had no horses in the early ages, nor even at the com- 

 mencement of the Roman Empire, and hardly imj at the date of 

 the Mahometan Hegira. He supports this ojsiuion by the fact, 

 that 200 years after the Christian era, horses were sent as a pre- 

 sent to the Arab princes; and that 400 years' after, one of the 

 Roman emperors sent 200 Cappadoeian steeds to the same 

 country ; while in the 7th centnr}-, Mahomet had but two horses 

 in his army, when he fought with the Koreish, and did not cap- 

 ture a single horse in his victorious campaign. But, admitting 

 the truth of the first two facts, as stated by Buffon, the argument 

 by no means holds good in the case of Mahomet. Mecca and 

 Medina were in the midst of the Edomite Arabs, then, and to this 

 day, for the most part a camel-riding tribe ; but this by no means 

 proves that the northern tribes, the Bedoueens and the clan of 

 Yemen had no horses. The land of the Edomite Arabs has no 

 pasturage whatever for horses, nor does it grow the golden barley, 

 the food with which the Arab of Yemen delights to feed his 

 favourite mare. On the authority of Laborde, the Etiomite speaks 

 with envy and admiration of the glorious chargers of his brethren 

 the equestrian Arabs. Robber by profession, what could the 

 Arab do \\-ithout a horse ? Long before the fall and destruction 

 of Jerusalem b)- Titus, bands of Jews, stray remnants of the cap- 

 tivity of Sennacheril), of the tribes of Gad and Manasseh, had 

 taken to the desert, and adopted Arab customs and means of sub- 

 sistence ; under a succession of their native princes, they exercised 

 a nomade warfare, fought great battles, captured Mithridates, and 

 utterly defeated a Persian army, entu'ely composed of horsemen. 



And what after all was Abraham, the father of Isaac and Jacob 

 and the patriarchs, but an Arab Sheik, an Arab of the Arabians ? 

 In revenge for this defeat, a fearful massacre took place among 

 the Iranese Jews, and whole families of them, flying from the 

 slaughtei', took refuge in the tents of Yemen, where they became 

 Matnoub, a term denoting the concession by the host to the 

 guest to pitch the tent on the same line ; and in return for the 

 hospitality, some years after joining their sabres to those of their 

 Arab hosts, they in one day prostrated the Parthian empire on 

 the field of Kadesiah. That the Arabs had horses at the com- 

 mencement of the Cresarian Era, we know from the work of 

 Hirtius on the wars of Alexander; for he says expressly, that 

 Caisar sent to Malchus, that is Melek, for a reinforcement of 

 cavalry ; while a Kttle later, but still before the time of Mahomet, 

 we hear of a war between two tribes, that lasted forty years, on 

 account of a horse-race. Better evidence still is found in ancient 

 Arabian poems, once suspended in the Kaaba, all dating before 

 the time of Mahomet, which in animated and glowing terms 

 speak of the horse and its qualities, give splendid pictures of 

 cavalry battles, and notices which prove that those who wrote 

 them had deri\ed from their ancestors a noble breed of horses. 

 Nay, if with many of the commentators, we take the Book of 

 Job to have been wi-itten before the time of Abraham, and that 

 Job was an Arabian or Idumajan prince and prophet, what shall 

 we say to his description of the horse and his rider, " Hast thou 

 given the horse strength ? Hast thou clothed his neck with 

 thunder ? Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper ? The 

 glory of his nostrils is tei'rible. He paweth in the valley and 

 rejoiceth in his strength ; he goeth on to meet the armed men. 

 He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted, neither turneth he back 

 from the sword : the quiver rattleth against him, the glittering 

 spear and the shield. He swalloweth the ground with fierceness 

 and rage, neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet. 

 He saith among the trumpets. Ha, ha ; and he smelleth the bat- 

 tle afar off; the thunder of the captains and the shouting." 

 A passage probably one of the most sublime ever written, and 

 which could have been written by no man not well acquainted 

 with the character of the animal, particularly when employed in 

 warfare. It is a valuable passage also, because it shows that the 

 horse was known in Arabia before it was in Egypt, and was then 

 used by riders in war, as we ha\'e seen that the horse was not 

 known in Egypt in the time of Abraham. Again, as to Maho- 

 met, however badly provided with horses he may have been at 

 the outset of his career, we find that in repeated passages of the 

 Koran, he inculcates on his followers the utmost respect for the 

 useful qualities of the animal. In one remarkable passage these 

 words occur : " Thou shalt be for man a source of happiness and 

 wealth ; thy back shall be a seat of honor and thy belly of riches ; 

 every grain of barley given to thee shall purchase indulgence to 

 the sinner." 



Let us also remember what the Arabians were, and what they 

 afterwards became, when to their original love of adventure and 

 disposition for conquest was added the fierce spirit engendered by 

 religious- enthusiasm ; but no mere enthusiasm could have 

 effected the transfer of simple herdsmen into the best, the most 

 daring cavalry of their time, or indeed of any time ; have 

 enabled them to desti-oy the vast mounted armies of the Persians, 

 or encounter on equal terms, on many a field, the scientific dis- 

 cipline of the eastern empire, and in little more than 100 years 

 after the prophet's death, given wings to the sword of Islam, and 

 carried its green standard from Arabia to India in one direction, 

 and France in anothei'. In the year 631 Mahomet died : 366 

 years aftei', so great was the increase of his followers, that we find 

 the horsemen of Islam numbered b^'' the hundred thousand. 

 When Mahmoud, the Gaznevide Sultan, the conqueror who car- 

 ried away the sandal-wood gates of the temple of Somnauth, at 

 Gnzerat in Hindostan, and placed them at Cabool, whence the}' 



