26 THE HORSE. 



Syrian, who, as Pharaoh's manager in the time of the great 

 Egyptian famine 1707 years B. C, exchanged bread-stuff for 

 horses with the Egyptian cultivators and stock breeders, thus 

 placing himself on record as the first horse dealer in history. 

 At the death of Joseph's father, Jacob, we read that his 

 funeral was attended by both chariots and horsemen. Job's 

 description of the equine monarch upwards of 3,400 years ago 

 is familiar to most of us. 



Although man was given " dominion over all beasts of the 

 field" it was only after long acquaintance and trial that the 

 horse was subdued to his will. At first he was only driven 

 before the war chariot ; later, he was ridden in battle and ap- 

 pears to have been speedily adopted for use in battle, and since 

 which time, during all these 3,385 years, the war horse has 

 been the right arm of a mighty power on hard contested bat- 

 tle fields of nearly all nations and in nearly all climes. The 

 first account we have of horses being used in war was by one 

 of the Pharaohs, King of Egypt, when he pursued the children 

 of Israel in their escape from Egyptian bondage, with 



"A thousand horse and men to ride, 

 With flowing tail and flying mane ; 

 A thousand horse, the wild, the free, 

 All buried in the deep, Red Sea." 



This chariot cavalry goes on record as the first in history 

 and with very disastrous results, 1,491 years B. C, or 3,385 

 years ago. 



The shepherd kings of Egypt, whose origin is unknown,, 

 introduced him into Lower Egypt, which afterwards became 

 his principal breeding district, from whence he gradually be- 

 came introduced into Arabia and other Asiatic countries. 



The first we know of his advent into the New World, and 

 the first importation into America for stock purposes was by 

 Columbus in 1493 — some four hundred years ago — thus plac- 

 ing Columbus on record as the first importer of this animal 

 into this country. 



The first horses ever landed in the United States were im- 



