10 
INTRODUCTION OF THE ORIENTAL 
was under the dominion of the Carthagenians : the horses from 
the coast of Barbary, from Lybia as far as the western rivers of 
ancient Mauritania, deriving their origin from Arabia, Persia, 
&c. must in course have been such as they are at present, cle¬ 
ver, sprightly, full of animation and impetuosity. % 
The blood of the Scythian horses, mixing with that of the Sar- 
matians and other nations more westward, must of necessity 
have diffused itself over all the north of Europe; although two 
paramount causes operated against the amelioration of the indi¬ 
genous breeds: one, according to Strabo, is the usage among the 
Scythians of castration, in order to render their horses more 
tractable, leaving in course a less number of stallions; the se¬ 
cond is, that these horses transported into the moist and fertile 
pasturages of Lithuania, Pomerania, Germany, Switzerland, 
and the northern coasts of Gaul, at length degenerated them¬ 
selves. 
Ancient Scythia, situated towards Imaus, from its elevation 
and dryness and a soil of loam upon a bed of granite, possesses 
pasturages as salubrious as those of Arabia; but the herbage, 
influenced by the coldness of the climate, is not equally luxu¬ 
riant and fragrant. The horses reared in those regions occupied 
by the Bashkirs, the Kirguses, the Bochars, &c. have, it is true, 
like those of the interior of Asia, the thin, veined, characteris¬ 
tic skin, and are clean-legged; but they have no such shaped 
head, such knit limb, such fineness of mane and tail, such ele¬ 
gance and beauty of form, such grace and gaity as the oriental 
horses; and the hoof is rather heavy than light: still, they pos¬ 
sess qualities that render them highly valuable for warfare ; they 
are indefatigable, hardy, requiring but little care, gentle, long- 
winded, strong and enduring. These animals, in common with 
the indigenous Asiatic horses, have something particular in 
their manner of looking, a sort of grimace, as it were, laying 
down their ears and biting, pawing and kicking: characteris¬ 
tics possessed by no western horses, with the exception of the 
English, and they are full of Arabian blood, as any experienced 
observer of the Eastern race will readily perceive. 
The horses of Europe, prior to any communication with the 
East, could not have been worth much; being of Asiatic origin, 
they must have owed their degeneration, both in blood and 
form, to poor pasturage and a humid climate. The horses of 
the south of Poland were probably superior to the others, having 
better and drier pasturages; but even these were nowise re¬ 
markable for beauty of form. 
What goes to show the inferiority of the European breeds 
is what Polybius says respecting the passage of the Trebia by 
