GENERAL HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 
417 
asses, and camels,” but no mention is made of horses : this 
was 1920 years before the birth of Christ. 
But after this time they seem to have propagated and 
greatly increased in Canaan ; as it is said in the eleventh 
chapter of Joshua and fourth verse, of certain kings op¬ 
posed to Joshua, that there were “much people, even as th* 
sand that is upon the sea-shore in multitude, with horses 
and chariots very many.” 
From many other parts of holy writ we find that horses 
were numerous in most of the kingdoms of the East, but no 
mention of the country from whence they were originally 
derived. It is a generally received, although erroneous 
opinion, that Arabia was the native country of the horse. 
We find that even so late as the seventh century of the 
Christian era, when the prophet Mahomet attacked the 
Koreish, not far from Mecca, he had only two horses in his 
train ; and although, in the plunder of this horrible cam¬ 
paign, he carried with him in his retreat twenty-four thou¬ 
sand camels, forty thousand sheep, and twenty-four thousand 
ounces of silver, there is no mention of horses being part of 
the booty. 
Solomon’s stables seem to have been magnificent. He 
kept horses both for pomp and gain. His stud, even in 
our own times, is unequalled. He is said to have had four 
thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand 
horsemen ! The price of a horse in those days was fifty 
shekels of silver, which amounts to about seventeen pounds, 
two shillings sterling ; a very large sum at that remote 
period. * 
* Dr. Scot wrote me upon this subject:—“ We allow that there is 
some controversy among scholars about the exact number of the 
stalls, and we dare not say that no mistake is introduced into the text 
The probability, indeed, is very great that the most ancient and 
