THE HORSE IN ASIA AND AFRICA. 
19 
horses are entertained, all being necessarily entire, is to 
provoke emissions of sperm, which likewise enervate them. 
The most simple means of obviating this is to tie perma- 
nently around the penis a cord tight enough to give pain on 
erection. 
Wandering tribes regard horses as foremost among 
quadrupeds. And, indeed, they do constitute their chief 
patrimony, that in which they find their principal resources. 
For, should they have lost their wealth, or have their liberty 
threatened, or be in danger of dying from a dangerous wound, 
recurring ever to their old proverb —Despair of nothing so 
long as the hoof of thy horse does not fail thee , they ever rely 
upon the speed of their horse. And above all, the Arabians 
boast of the excellence of their horses of first caste. They 
take every possible care of them, caress, and even fondle 
them ; and not only clean them with great pains, but paint, 
or rather stain with enna , their manes and tails of a bright 
red, and withal adorn them with jewels, and also charms, 
which serve to guard them against the eyes of the envious, 
and all accidents that might befal them — and the charms 
reckoned the most influential, are such as are made out of 
sentences taken from the Koran, and inclosed within a little 
bag by some holy personage, who, in doing so, pronounces 
certain appropriate orisons from the same admired source. 
This excellent breed is thought to have sprung originally 
from the stables of Solomon, wherein it was miraculously 
made perfect and pure and uncontaminated. Howsoever all 
this may be, certain it appears that this breed, which is ac- 
counted the most generous, has sprung up from time imme- 
morial in Arabia, whence, under the appellation of haillan , it 
has undergone division into different branches of greater or 
less estimation. 
Touching the origin of the horse, the Bible informs us that 
the Jewish princes, before the time of Solomon, made use of 
asses and mules only, which indeed were the fittest animals 
for this mountainous country. We also learn from the same 
source, that the horses which, under the brilliant reign of 
that king, adorned Palestine, were by Solomon’s orders pur- 
chased in Syria and Egypt ; though in all these countries, 
instead of veritable traditions, spurious tales have, through 
ignorance, got abroad, and become adopted by the native 
inhabitants. 
It is certain, according both to the Scriptures and the He- 
brew antiquities of Josephus, that horses, some of the greatest 
beauty, existed both in Asia and Africa. The kings of Tyre 
and Sidon, on hearing the wonderful accounts of the wisdom 
