15 



must have been introduced at a very early period into Europe, gradually drifted 

 north, more or less mingled with the blood of the Norse horse and thus lost 

 to human recognition until very recently, when our attention has been directed 

 to these finer points. The Celtic pony is a very fine hardy animal; in winter 

 it has a finely protected fetlock, and the great tail brush grows out as pro- 

 tection against rain and wind storms. Why are not these ordinary tail hairs? 

 Because they are shed annually, so that they represent a growth of hairs of the 

 back which have come down over the upper part of the tail. 



The last topic of the evening is the Arab, the second of the great stock 

 of horses. The pure type of desert Arab, contrary to the general opinion, is a small 

 animal about 14 hands high. The discovery of the Celtic pony is a great dis- 

 covery, but perhaps a still more important one has peen made by Ridgeway, 

 namely, as to the origin of the Arab. 



The Arab is a contradiction in terms. It is proved, I think beyond ques- 

 tion, that the Arab is not of Arabian but of North African origin and that he 

 has descended from a type of horse now extinct, which at one time was culti- 

 vated by the ancient Libyans west of Egypt. 



The better known type of Arab is of larger size, and I might say that wher- 

 ever the Arab is domesticated and fed it attains larger size and rises to 15 1-2 

 or over 16 hands. Quite a famous horse, was Nimr (son of Kismet) one of 

 the Arabs belonging to the stock of Mr. Huntington of Long Island. This 

 animal unfortunately died, but we have secured the skeleton and it is soon to 

 be exhibited in the American Museum, showing the osteology of the Arab, 

 which is quite distinct from that of the Norse horse. Nimr was a finely bred 

 animal, it had the characteristic hollow or dish-face of the Arab, with a splen- 

 did neck and the extreme docility and kindliness of temper which distinguishes 

 all members of the Arab breed. Another characteristic is the fast walk, by 

 reason of the so-called extension of the fore limb, which is moved not as in our 

 high-steppers, but is raised slightly above the ground, and then as the hind 

 limbs propel the animal forward, these fore limbs have a way of shooting forward 

 and covered ground without any loss in action. Fig. 7. 



Ridgeway has shown that in the early periods of their history 

 the Arabians had no horses but lived only with mules and camels and that they 

 were constantly getting their supplies of horses in from the south or from Asia 

 and Africa. In the intermediate period, apparently. King Solomon did a roar- 

 ing horse trade by means of animals imported from Africa and sold into Asia. 

 When the Greeks took possession of north Africa they found a superior breed 

 of horses there. 



Before and after the Libyan horse became domesticated in large numbers 

 in Arabia, the fine natural north African breed, slightly modified by human 

 selection, came up from the south spreading all over into Asia and into Europe, 

 and gradually modifying the Norse type. All the better horses of Europe there- 

 fore are believed to contain more or less of this southern blood. Even as far 

 back as the time of the ancient Gauls, when the wars were on between the Ro- 

 mans and Celts and Gauls, the Gauls were sending south — when they had wealth 



