i o Horfes. 



breed different from any other of either Africa or Afia. They are ufually of a black 

 colour, but there are fome bright bays and forrels. 



" The Egyptian horfe," fays Burckhardt, " is ugly, coarfe in fhape, and looking more 

 like a cart-horfe than a racer. Thin legs and knees, and fhort and thick necks, are 

 common defers among them. The head is fometimes fine, but I never faw good legs 

 in an Egyptian horfe. They are not able to bear any great fatigue ; but when well fed 

 their a&ion is occafionally more brilliant than that of the Arabian. Their impetuofity, 

 however, renders them peculiarly defirable for heavy cavalry, and it is upon this quality 

 alone that their celebrity has ever been founded." 



Of courfe this defcription applies to the horfe of Lower Egypt, while that of Bruce 

 refers to the Dongola, or Nubian horfe, which may be confidered as reprefented by the 

 fculpture at the entrance of the fmall temple of Beit-Oualley (Plate i). The horfes 

 reprefented in the frefco-painting from the tomb of a Scribe (Plate a) are likewife Nubian 

 horfes. 



The AfTyrian horfes, from a bas-relief of the north-weft palace Nimroud (Plate 3), 

 belong evidently to another variety. The fhortnefs of their fore-legs, if not a fancy of the 

 artift, would incline them to rear up ; but we muft fuppofe the AfTyrian fculptor was not 

 here over particular about proportions in the animals which he reprefented. 



This fpecimen of the AfTyrian way of harnefling horfes fhows, like the two preceding 

 Egyptian ones, that thefe ancient people brought the furcingle clofe to the fore-legs of 

 the horfe, thus inconveniently interfering with the free movements of the fore-part 

 of the animal. The plunging of the fhaft was alfo confiderably increafed by this arrange- 

 ment, and it muft have rendered the aim of the warriors in the chariot very unfteady, and 

 fcarcely therefore very dangerous to the enemy. 



The horfes on the monuments of Sardanapalus III. (Plates 4, 5) are remarkable 

 for their trappings no lefs than for the elegance of bearing of the noble creatures which 

 they reprefent. Others, taken from an ancient bas-relief in the Palace of Forty Pillars 

 (Chekel Minar), Perfepolis (Plate 6), are of a much heavier fhape, but well proportioned. 

 " The two remaining perfons of the group," fays Sir Robert Ker Porter in his Travels, " are 

 in charge of a chariot, which is drawn by a pair of magnificent horfes. . . The horfes 

 are without trappings, but the details of the bit, and the manner of reining them, are 

 executed with the niceft care. . . . The pole of the car is feen paffing between the horfes, 

 projecting from the centre of the carriage, which is in a cylindrical fhape, elevated rather 

 above the line of the animals' heads." In the bas-reliefs of Nakfhi-Rouftan (Plate 7), 

 " the part of the bridle of the left horfe which covers the animal's head," fays the fame 

 traveller, " is thickly ftudded with round, plain knobs, and large circular plates adorn the 

 (traps round the cheft and buttock. A muzzle panes from between the noftrils to the 



