THE HOESE. 
IX 
HISTORY. 
causes unknown to us. He sustains tlie temperature of the most burning regions; but there is a degree of cold at which he cannot 
exist; and, as he approaches to this limit, his temperament and external conformation are affected. In Iceland, at the arctic 
circle, he has become a dwarf; in Lapland, at latitude 65°, he has given place to the rein-deer; and in Kamtschatka, at latitude 
52°, he has given place to the dog. As he approaches to the limit of his natural habitat, he loses much of the fiery spirit and 
swiftness which he possessed in more genial climes. He may be hardy, sagacious, and enduring; hut he needs the whip and the 
spur, and is rarely roused to continued action by his natural energy and love of motion. The nature and abundance of his food, 
too, greatly affect his character and form. A country of heaths and innutritious herbs will not produce a horse so large and strong 
as one of plentiful herbage. The horse of the mountains will he smaller than that of the plains, the horse of the sandy desert 
than the inhabitant of the watered valley. By a combination of these, and, it may he, of other less apparent agencies, the Horse, 
like the Ox, the Sheep, and other creatures formed for the companionship of man, becomes suited to the conditions under which 
he is called to exist. In the mountains of the colder countries he is small, hardy, short, and muscular in his limbs, and covered 
with abundant hair. Such is the little horse of Norway, of a great part of Sweden, and other mountainous countries of the north 
of Europe. In countries of abundant herbage, such as Holstein, Jutland, Flanders, he becomes enlarged in his form, and fitted 
for the exercise of physical strength, with a diminution of the powers of speed. When he passes into countries where, from the 
heat of the climate, his natural food is burned up for a part of the year, he becomes of smaller hulk, and suited to subsist on 
scantier food. Thus, the horses of the south of Europe are of lighter form, and more easily nourished, than those of England 
and other countries where grasses are abundant; and this change of character still more appears when we have passed into Africa, 
or the sandy deserts of Asia. There the light and agile horse of the desert shows himself to be adapted to the scantier nourish¬ 
ment on which he must subsist. The heavy horse of England and the plains of Germany could no more subsist on the herbs of 
the sands of Tripoli than on the heaths of Lapland. He would perish in such circumstances, did not Nature provide the remedy, 
by adapting him to his condition. 
The pristine region of the Horse cannot, any more than the origin of other species of animals, be known from any records of 
tradition and history. We may form two opinions on the subject, supported in an almost equal degree by analogy and reasonable 
probabilities. Either we may believe that the Horse was called into existence in some one region, which may be termed the 
cradle of the race, and whence he has spread, as from a centre, to other parts of the world; or we may believe that the species was 
called into existence in more than one place, and was thence diffused as from different centres. If we shall adopt the former sup¬ 
position, it seems natural to refer his origin to the countries of Western Asia to the southward of the Euxine and Caspian Seas, 
because there we are taught to look for the origin even of man, because there the Horse is found in great numbers, because there 
the physical circumstances of the country are suited to a high development of his form and faculties, and because this is a fitting 
centre whence he might be diffused to other parts of the world. On the other hand, if we shall believe that the species has been 
diffused from different centres, we may suppose that one at least existed in Africa, and perhaps one in Eastern Asia. But without 
seeking to resolve this difficult problem, we may infer that the Horse presents a different type in the three great divisions of the 
globe, corresponding, perhaps, in some degree, with the three great families of mankind, the Ethiopian, the Caucasian, and the 
Eastern Asiatic. The Horse of Africa differs as much from the Horse of Western Asia as the man of Nubia from the Greek of 
the Peloponnesus. The Horses of Eastern Asia form a class of small active ponies, which extend, modified, however, by condi¬ 
tions of climate and food, through the vast regions of Chinese Tartary, through the great empire of China itself, through Cochin 
China, the countries of the Birmans, through the Malayan Peninsula, and the great Islands of Asia. 
The Horse appears to have been reduced to servitude from the earliest formation of human societies in the East. But the 
first country in which we hear of its existence is a kingdom of Africa; and there, as we learn from indubitable records, he was 
subjected to extensive domestication. Of the employment of the Horse in Egypt in the earliest ages of mankind, we have the 
testimony of history, sacred and profane; and the marvellous monuments of this great community, which have survived the lapse 
of more than 3000 years, attest the early subjugation of the animal. In innumerable sculptures, as fresh as if they had been 
chiselled yesterday, the Horse of the Egyptians appears as he was harnessed to the chariots of their warriors and kings; and the 
subsequent history of the same country shows how much it depended upon his power in war. Although the Egyptians employed 
the chariot largely in battle they were not ignorant of the use of cavalry, for we learn that they had their horsemen as well as 
charioteers, and mounted Egyptians are sometimes seen on their monuments. Like other nations of the same era, however, they 
gave the preference to the chariot, which consisted of a light low carriage, open behind, containing the charioteer and the com¬ 
batant, having a shaft or beam, and drawn by two or more horses yoked abreast. The chariot was likewise used by the Greeks 
in ancient times, by the Persians and other Asiatics, and by the early Celtic nations of Europe. 
It is from the records of the Jewish history that we receive the earliest accounts of the subjugation of the Horse in Egypt; 
