THE HOKSE. 
XV 
HISTORY. 
distinction in Persia ride on horseback, and scarce any one will deign to go the shortest distance on foot. Sir John Malcolm 
gives an amusing anecdote illustrative of the national feeling. A naval officer belonging to one of the British frigates, in paying 
a visit to the Envoy, thought it fitting to procure a horse; but unfortunately, like other gentlemen of his profession, he did not 
feel himself quite at home, as we say, in the saddle, that is, he rode very ill. The native who supplied the ship with vegetables, 
jealous of the honour of his European friends, excused the matter to his countrymen by giving it out privately that the English 
gentleman was drunk, conceiving it to he less dishonourable to his new friends to be drunk at noon than to he unable to ride. To 
the north and east of Persia are countries of great fertility, where the same form of the Horse presents itself, but large and 
powerful, and suited for the exertion of physical strength. The horses of the Turcomans near the Caspian Sea are sixteen hands 
high, and of fine action and great powers of endurance. Further to the north, however, beyond the latitude of the Caucasus, we 
enter the elevated plateau of Central Asia, extending all northward to the Arctic Ocean, and all eastward and southward by the 
elevated mountains of Thibet to the sea of Japan. This vast region, comprehending the Russian Empire in Asia, and what is 
termed Chinese Tartary, consists chiefly of immense plains of great elevation, and possesses a climate of which the rigour of cold 
is intense during a great part of the year. It produces, however, gramineous and other plants suited for herbage, which grow 
with tolerable luxuriance during the warm months, but which, for the remainder of the year, are nipped by the rigour of the 
climate, or buried beneath the snows. Towards the confines of Europe this region inclines somewhat to the west, and has a milder 
temperature : towards the east the declination is easterly and northerly, and the cold of winter is intense. In the western part, 
which is greatly the smallest division, are found the Tartar nations, known generally to the ancients as Scythians. Towards the 
eastern slope are the vast countries of the Kalmuks, and other Asiatics of the same great family of mankind. All these countries 
have been possessed in every known age by nations of migratory herdsmen, possessed of sheep, oxen, and troops of horses, up to 
the latitudes in which the Horse ceases to be found. This region, towards its western limits, possesses a race of low stature, hut 
muscular, strong, and fleet. Proceeding eastward and northward, the horses gradually diminish in size, until, towards the eastern 
limits, they become dwarfish, scarcely exceeding thirty-six inches in height. Some of the tribes possess them in vast numbers: 
thousands are sometimes to be seen together, free as the air they breathe, yet readily driven to their allotted watering-places and 
pastures. They are the cherished possessions of these wandering people, who feed upon their flesh and milk, sometimes converting 
the latter into an intoxicating liquid. The stout little horses of the western Tartars are carried in great numbers into Russia in 
Europe, and even to Poland, Hungary, and other countries of the Danube, where they are greatly esteemed for their hardiness 
and activity. The yet smaller races of the eastern region are diffused through the mighty empire of China, the countries termed 
India beyond the Ganges, and the larger Asiatic Islands. 
Hindostan may not unreasonably be supposed to have derived its horses as well as its human inhabitants from Western Asia; 
and we may further believe that, in these vast and gorgeous regions, the Horse has been subjected to domestication from the re¬ 
motest antiquity. Over a country so vast and diversified, numerous breeds necessarily exist, whose characters have been formed 
by the nature of the localities in which they have been naturalized. But besides this source of diversity, there is that produced 
by the introduction of foreign races, either by the various conquerors of the country, or by the means of commerce and otherwise. 
In general, it may be said that India is not a country very favourable to the production of the Horse. The tallest and strongest 
are found in the northern provinces, in the countries near the Indus; but towards the warmer countries of the south and east, the 
horses fall off in strength and development of parts. The Indian horses are generally of the smaller class, seldom rising above 
fourteen and a half hands in height, and mostly falling below that standard. They are showy enough, but are deficient in bone 
below the knee, and are often of bad temper. But there are great numbers of fine horses in India, chiefly of foreign lineage. 
There is a constant trade in these animals going on from Persia and Caubul; and a continued importation from Arabia to Bombay 
and other parts of the coast. This is due to European individuals and the wealthier natives; and the East India Company has 
long employed active means to improve the indigenous races by the establishment of studs, to which strong half-bred stallions are 
sent from England. In this manner are superior horses introduced, and the races of the country preserved from deterioration. 
A breed of small ponies, widely diffused, termed Tattoos, are in great estimation by the common people for their hardiness and 
easy subsistence. 
Turning to Europe, the horses partake of the mixed lineage and character of the inhabitants. Northward and westward of 
the great chain of the Caucasus extend the gigantic dominions of Russia in Europe, comprehending the countries inhabited of old 
by the Sarmatians, and other warlike nations of herdsmen and soldiers. The horses of these countries are hardy, muscular in their 
limbs, and capable of enduring great labour and privations. The finest of these races are in the countries near the Black Sea, 
and especially in the Ukraine, a rich and fertile region lying between the Don and the Dnieper. These countries have in various 
ages poured their swarms of emigrants and conquerors westward or southward, carrying with them their horses, the great engine 
