ON BREEDING. 
19 2 
It is but reasonable to conclude, with Lucretius, that the un¬ 
skilled act of mounting: must have been antecedent to the use of 
the chariot and its complicated harness; and in those early 
ages it is probable that they understood not the method of 
governing horses with reins and bits, but managed them only 
with a rope or switch, and the accents of their voice. ‘ “ This we 
find/' says Archbishop Potter, u to have been the practice of 
several nations, as the Numidians, Getulians, Libyans, and Mas- 
sylians, of whom Lucan speaks thus:— 
“ ‘ Et gens qua? nudo residens Massylia dorso 
Ora levi fiectet froenorum nescia virg&.’ ” 
All the ancient authorities describe the primitive inhabitants 
as a rude and unpolished kind of beings. Kings and princes ap¬ 
pear to have had little else to do than to attend to their flocks and 
herds, which constituted, at that time, their principal property. 
Thus Achilles, in Homer, tells Agamemnon, that it was only to 
oblige him he had engaged himself in the war against the Tro¬ 
jans, from whom he had never received any just cause of quarrel; 
“ Since they, by impious theft, have ne’er detain’d 
My oxen, horses, or, on Phthia’s land 
Destroy’d my fruits.” 
And in the different migrations which mankind undertook in 
search of new settlements, into whatever distant climes they ex¬ 
tended their course, whether to the severe northern regions or to 
the parched soils of “ Afric, or of either Ind,” they undoubtedly 
took with them a few of those useful quadrupeds, such as the 
horse, ass # ,* dog, sheep, camel, &c. 8cc., which even now ac¬ 
company mankind in their various wanderings, and are found 
capable of supporting the different varieties of climate and situa¬ 
tion ; who, after increasing and extending over the surface of the 
globe, have sustained a variety of alterations, in their bodily 
formations, by the existing influence of climate and manner of 
living. Contrast, for instance, the animated countenance of the 
beautifully-proportioned and spirited Arabian with the sluggish, 
inanimated features, of the old-fashioned English cart-horse. 
Compare the swift and stately Barb with the shaggy-haired indi¬ 
genous breed of shelties and galloways; or the huge London 
dray-horse with the small and diminutive animal of Tibet and 
Ceylon. This last comparison is, perhaps, the most remarkable 
* Herodotus remarks, that horses were able to bear the extremest cold 
in Scythia, which the asses could not. This assertion is confirmed by Pliny, 
who says, “ Ipsum animal asinus frigoris inaxime impatiens: ideo non 
generator in Ponto, nee aequinoetis verno, et csetera pecua admittitur sed 
solstitio.” 
