ON BREEDING. 
17 
“ This constant intercourse produces a familiarity, and creates a 
tractability in the horses, that could arise only from a regular good 
usage, little acts of kindness, and a soothing language, which 
they are accustomed to from their masters. They are quite un¬ 
acquainted with the spur: the least touch with the stirrup sets 
these * airy coursers ’ in motion; they set off with a fleetness that 
surpasses that of the ostrich, yet they are so well trained, as to 
stop in their most rapid speed, by the slightest check of the rider. 
There are some instances related of their being mounted without 
either bridle or saddle, when they show such compliance to their 
rider's will, as to be directed in their course by the mere motion 
of a switch 
“ Paret in obsequium lentae moderamine virgae, 
Verbera sunt praecepta fugae, sunt verbera fraenaf.” 
The Circassians breed some beautiful and useful animals. They 
are very fleet, and capable of great exertion. 
The Persians are principally indebted to the Arabians for their 
horses, which are larger and handsomer than their progenitors, 
owing, probably, to the superior richness of the Persian soil. 
The horses bred in the East Indies and China are very small, 
and some of them so diminutive as scarcely to exceed the size of 
a large dog. Those which are used by persons of distinction are 
chiefly brought from Persia, Tartary, and Arabia. 
Arabia has been considered, by some authors, as the primaeval 
seat of the horse, from whence Africa and other places were sup¬ 
plied ; whilst others believe the reverse, and give Africa the credit 
of having furnished Arabia with its beautiful breed, through the 
medium of the Egyptians. 
Nothing is more probable, than that the horse was first subju¬ 
gated to the purposes of man in Egypt. She was the first civil¬ 
ized country in the world; her wisdom was the admiration of 
every country; her institutions and laws were the model of the 
classic Greeks: philosophers resorted to her, 
“ As the mother of science, and the house of gods 
legislators, as to the abode of knowledge'und the laws; and poets, 
as the land of literature and poesy. Every thing we read respect¬ 
ing this singular nation gives us a very high idea of their sagacity, 
and leaves us not a doubt respecting their claim to having first 
tamed the dessert-born horse, and taught to “ bear the reins 
but, from the nature of the country, Egypt never could have been 
a place capable of breeding horses in very high perfection, though 
she possessed them in great numbers. Diodorus Siculus informs 
* Pennant’s Zoology, quoted from Taverner’s Travels, vol. i, (53. 
t Nemesion Cyneg. 267. 
vot. Ill, l) 
