HEAVY STOCK AND STRONG FOOD 137 



Syria, Mesopotamia and Arabia had no native 

 horses. The Egyptians got horses from the 

 Sahara, the Asiatics mainly through Armenia. 

 I cannot believe that the crossing of small 

 Duns with small Bays in any region bred heavy 

 horses for the needs of war. 



A practical nation in the breeding trade 

 would not rely for heavy stock upon the cross- 

 ing of light strains. The way to get heavy 

 stock is with strong food. Such oases of great 

 .desert§ as Egypt and Mesopotamia had very 

 little pasture, so long as their nations pros- 

 pered. Every acre then was needed for strong 

 grains. The well-mounted conquering nations 

 were not those with splendid pasturage like 

 Northern Africa or Southern Russia, but those 

 which had no pasturage at all, who were com- 

 pelled to feed horses on fodder more potent 

 than any natural grass. The King's people 

 might go without, but one may be perfectly 

 certain that the King's horses lived on corn. 

 What tribe or race of folk inherited Egypt or 

 Mesopotamia mattered nothing, what strain 

 of horses they owned mattered verj^ little, but 

 the people and the horses, for the. time being in 

 possession of irrigated oases walled about by 

 deserts, raised the chariotry or the cavalry 

 which ruled the surrounding world. 



