CHAPTER II. 



THE ARAB AND THE BARB. 



EARLY DOMESTICATION OF THE HORSE — THE HORSE IN EGYPT — ASSYRIA — JUDAEA — GREECE- 

 PERSIA — BITS AND STIRRUPS — CHARIOT RACES — THE ARAB HORSE — EXAGGERATED PEDIGREES 

 — THE BEST ARABS — THEIR TRAINING — ATTACHMENT OF THE ARAB FOR HIS MARE — SPEED 

 AND ENDURANCE — THE BARB — THE SAME HORSE AS THE ARAB — ABD-EL-KADER ON THE 

 HORSE. 



NO historian tells us what nation first subdued the horse. Pic- 

 tures of the horse are not found on the monuments of Egypt till 

 the eighteenth century before the Christian era, when the 

 Pharaohs of the " New Kingdom " employed them to draw their war- 

 chariots. As these animals are represented well-trained and harnessed, 

 they must have been domesticated for several generations previously, 

 unless we suppose that they were introduced from Asia by the nomad 

 tribes who visited the delta of the Nile. But from whatever source they 

 derived their horses, the Egyptians were the first to give systematic 

 attention to improving the breed : the symmetry, beauty, and color of the 

 steeds represented on the ornaments show that they were designed from 

 high-bred types. Grooms are represented as rubbing their joints, and 

 sedulously attending to their comfort. If we turn from the sculptures 

 of Egypt to the bas-reliefs of Assyria, we find the horse again serving 

 for warlike purposes, and harnessed to the chariot. The Jews, accord- 

 ing to the Book of Deuteronomy, were prohibited from breeding or 

 importing horses. At all events, they seem not to have used them for 

 five hundred years after their migration from Egypt ; Solomon, however, 

 possessed fourteen hundred chariots, and stabling for forty thousand 

 horses, most of which were imported from Egypt. In the Homeric 

 poems, the oldest Greek records, we again find the horse, used solely for 

 drawing chariots. Mounted cavalry is not heard of till comparatively a 

 late period. The Persians were the first to become celebrated for their 



