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THE

NATURALIST'S LIBRARY.

EDITED BY

SIR WILLIAM JARDINE, BART.

F.R.S.E., F.L.S., ETC. ETC.

VOL. XX.

HORSES.
BY LIEUT.-COL. CHARLES HAMILTON SMITH,

K.H. AND K.W., F.R. AND L.S., PRESIDENT OF THE DEVON
AND CORNWAJ^s-TJAl'.. jkiyiT-SQC., ETC. ETC.

THE -r

[VEBBIT

CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY.

BIOLOGY

LIBRARY

G

CONTENTS.

PAbA

MEMOIR OP GESNER

NATURAL HISTORY OP THE EQUIDJE.— Introduction .

Breeds of Horses noticed by the Ancients

Medo-Persian Horse, ancient maned Dun Stock, from
Bas-reliefs of the Che-el-minar Plate A. fig. 1 —
Egyptian Horse, Ancient Bay Stock, from Thebes,

.fi.2. . 83,109

Skeleton of the Horse, Plate I.

External Muscles of the Horse, Plate II.

The Wild Horse

The Tarpan Wild Horse, primaeval Bay Stock, from a

Drawing sent from Russia, Plate III.

Feral Horses of America . .173

THE EQUID^B IN GENERAL .
The Horse. Equus caballus .
The Domestic Horse. Equus caballus domesticus
Races and Breeds of Domestic Horses
The Arabian Race. Plate VIII.

OO4

The Barb of Morocco

The Shrubat-ur-reech, grey, of the Morocco Desert,
from the print published in Italy, Plate XI.

The Bornou White Race of Africa, drawn from life by
Col. Hamilton Smith, Plate X.

The Dongola white-footed Black, from the Lithograph
published in Italy. It represents the horse which
carried a Mameluke chief from the Upper Nile across
the Desert to Tunis 1 Plate X.* . • 223

CONTENTS.

PAGE

The Turkish Race . . . .231

The Persian . . . . . 233

The Toorkee Races . . . . .238

East Indian Races (see Advertisement, p. viii.) . 241

The Paramero of Peru, from a. beautiful Model done

in Peru. Plate XII. . . . . 248

The English Breeds of Horses . . .250

The English Race-horse. Eclipse, from the print,

drawn to scale by Sainbel. Plate IX. . . 253

The Villous Horse, primaeval White Stoek, drawn from

life by Col. Hamilton Smith. Plate IV. . . 262

Marengo Arab, once the property of the Emperor Bo-
naparte, white breed of the Bay Stock, from the
print. Plate VIII. . . . . 263

Crisp-haired Horse, probable original Stock of the
Black Horse, drawn from life by Col. Hamilton
Smith. Plate V. . .266

The English Draught Horse, Black Race, from life, by

Col. Hamilton Smith. Plate XIII. . . 263

Decussated Horse, Eelback Dun of the Ukraine, drawn

from life by Col. Hamilton Smith. Plate VI. . 274
Head of Hungarian Horse, with slit septum naris, from

a drawing by Zoffani. Plate XXXI. . . 278

Shetland Pony, from life, by Mr. Stewart. Plate XV. 283
The Saran Race ..... 287

The Tangum, or Tangan, Piebald primaeval Stock of
Tibet, domesticated race of Sikim, Lower Tibet ;
drawing sent from India. Plate VII. . . 288

The Koomrah (by mistake named Lalisio), Equus hif>-

pagrus, from life, -by Col. Hamilton Smith. PI. XVI. 2.94
The Asinine Group . . . .298

The Yo-to-tze (by mistake named Hippagrus), Asinus

equulens, from life, by Col. Ham. Smith. PI. XVII. 304
The Onager, Asinus onager, from life, by Col. Hamil-
ton Smith. Plate XVIII. .... 307
The Wild Ass of Persia, Asinus kamar, from Sir R.

Kerr Porter. Plate XIX. 313

CONTENTS.

PAGK

The Domestic Ass. Asinus domesticus . . 314

Tie Djiggetai (by mistake engraved Quagga Male),
Asinus -hemiwtus, from the print, An. Litluxjraph., of
Fred. Cuvier. Plate XX. . . .317

The Hippotigrine Group of Zebras „ . . 320

The Zebra Male, from life, by Col. Hamilton Smith.

Plate XXI. . . ... . 321

The Angola Dauw, Hippotigris antiquorum, by Mr.

Stewart. Plate XXII. . 327

Dauw Mare and Colt, Hippotiyri* Burtfielli, by Mr.

Stewart. Plate XXIII. . .329

The Quagga, Hippoligris quaclia, from life, by Col. Ha-
milton Smith. Plate XXIV. . . 330
The Isabella Quagga, Hippotigris isabellinus., from spe-
cimen in the British Museum, by Col. Hamilton
Smith. Plate XXV. .... 832

The Mules ...... 334

Brood Mare and third Foal, with marks of Quagga,
. from the paintings by Agasse, in Surgeons' College,
London. Plate XIV. . . . 342

Filley, bearing ditto, from ditto. Plate XXVI. . 342
Colt, bearing ditto, from ditto. Plate XXVII. . 342

Hybrid first Foal of Brood Mare and Quagga, from

ditto. Plate XXIX. . . . o42

Hybrid Ass and Zebra, from drawing by Mr. Stewart.

Plate XXV1H. . . . . .3*5

The Hinny, from a drawing made at Paris, by Col.

Hamilton Smith. Plate XXX. .'.'-. .346

PORTRAIT OF GESN i^ ... 2

Vignette Title-page ... . . 3

In all Thirty-Jive Plates in this Volume.

LIST OF PLATES.

PLATE PAGB

A. MedoPersian and Egyptian Horses, from ancient

Bas-reliefs . . . .83, 109

. — -1. Skeleton of the Horse.

2. External Muscles of the Horse.

3. The Tarpan Wild Horse, primaeval Bay Stock . 160

4. The Villous Horse, primaeval White Stock . 262

5. Crisp-haired Horse, probable original Black Stock 266

6. Decussated Horse, Eelback Dun of the Ukraine . 274

7. The Tangum Piebald, primaeval Stock of Tibet . 288

8. Marengo Arab, once the property of the Emperor

Bonaparte, white breed of the Bay Stock . 262

9. Eclipse. The English Race-horse . . 253

10. The Bornou White Race of Africa . . l 228
1 0.* The Dongola Race . • . . 229

11. The Shrubat-ur-reech . . . .227

12. The Paramero of Peru . . . .248

13. The English Draught Horse, Black Race . 269

14. Brood Mare and third Foal, with marks of Quagga 342

15. Shetland Pony . . . . .283

1 6. The Koomrah. Equus hippagrus . . 294

17. The Yo-to-tze. Asinus equuleus . . . 304

18. The Onager. Asinus onager . . , 307

19. The Wild Ass of Persia. Asinus hamar , . 313

20. The Djiggetai. Asinus hemionus . . . 317

21. The Male Zebra ..... 321

22. The Angola Dauw. Hippotigris antiquorum . 327

23. Dauw Mare and Colt. Hippotigris Burchelli . 329

24. The Quagga. Hippotigris quacha . . 330

25. The Isabella Quagga. Hippotigris isabellinus . 332

26. Filley, bearing marks of Quagga . . . 342

27. Colt, third issue of Brood Mare, and second by a

Black Arab ..... 342

28. Hybrid Ass and Zebra .... 343

29. Hybrid first Foal of Brood Mare and Quagga . 342

30. The Hinny ..... 34G

31. Head of Hungarian Horse, with slit septum naris 278

PORTRAIT OF GESNER .... 2

Vignette Title-page ..... 3

' In all Thirty-five Plates in this Volume.

MEMOIR OF GESNER.

MEMOIR OF GESNER.

IN several of the biographical memoirs accompany-
ing former volumes of this Work, we have, given
a record of the labours, and attempted to appreciate
the merits, of some of the most eminent naturalists
who flourished in the sixteenth century. Such of
them belonging to that early period as deserve to
be held in remembrance, are comparatively few in
number ; but these few are entitled to our warmest
gratitude. It was by their means that Natural
History was enabled to emerge from the obscurity
in which it was sunk, in common with every other
department of knowledge, during the long intellec-
tual night of the dark ages. The generations who
may be described as having " eyes but who saw
not, ears but heard not, and understandings but un-
derstood not," had given place to others in which
the senses and faculties were beginning to be con-
verted to their proper use. Individuals appeared
in various countries making observations for them-
selves, collecting and appropriating the knowledge
which had been transmitted by the sages of Greece

18 MEMOIR OF GESNER.

and Rome, and, in short, accomplishing, though in
a smaller degree, for natural history, what Dante,
Petrarch, and others, had previously done for lite-
rature.

Among the small band of congenial spirits by
whom this result was brought about, there is none
more meritorious than Conrad Gesner. Indeed,
when we consider his high scholarship, indefatigable
industry, general knowledge of natural history, arid
the influence which his works have had on the pro-
gress of knowledge, it may perhaps be doing him
injustice not to assign him the first place. We
should not at least hesitate to do so, were we to
trust implicitly to the eulogiums that have been
passed on him by his admirers, for he has been
affirmed to be the greatest naturalist the world had
seen since Aristotle, the discoverer of the only true
principles of a botanical arrangement in the flower
and fruit, to which the very existence of botany as
a science is owing, — as the German Pliny, a pro-
digy of diligence, learning, and penetration. Even
the more philosophical and discerning judgment of
Cuvier allows him a high degree of merit, which
will, we think, be fully borne out by the character
of his works hereafter to be examined.

CONRAD GESNER was born at Zurich on the 26th
March. 1516. His parents were in very humble
circumstances; his father, Ours Gesner, being a
worker in hides, and his mother, Barbara Friccia.
of a very poor though respectable family. Having

MEMOIR OF GESNER. 19

a numerous offspring besides Conrad, his parents
could do little to encourage the love for reading and
learning which he showed at an early period. But
his maternal uncle, John Friccius, who was a minis-
ter, did every thing in his power to promote the
talents which he could not fail to discover in his
young relative ; and it was to this individual that
Conrad was indebted for the rudiments of his edu-
cation. Besides instructing him in the elements of
literature, his uncle inspired him with a love for
the study of plants, from which the transition be-
came easy to other branches of natural history.
He had a garden well supplied with plants, in-
cluding many of the rarest kinds then known, the
care of which was in a great measure entrusted to

o

young Gesner, who even at this early period, ac-
quired some reputation in his immediate neighbour-
hdod as an herbalist. But before his progress had
been considerable, this valuable friend was removed
by death, and Gesner's prospects assumed a very
unpromising aspect. He was taken for a while,
however, into the family of John James Ammianus,
a professor of polite literature, who gratuitously
superintended his studies, and showed him many
acts of kindness otherwise for a period of three years.
Shortly after the death of his uncle, his father,
who was engaged in the civil wars of Switzerland,
was killed in the battle of Zug (the same in which
the famous reformer Zwinglius perished); and thus
deprived of any assistance that might be expected
from that quarter, he was thrown entirely on his

20 MEMOIR OF GESXER.

own resources. He was at this time about fifteen
years of age.

He proved for a time, however, so unfortunate in
obtaining the means of prosecuting his studies, that
he was reduced to great extremities ; and he is even
said, by one of his biographers, to have repaired to
Strasburg and engaged himself as a servant. * The
same authority on which this statement is made
informs us, that his master soon discovered his
strong inclination for study, and was so indulgent
as to afford him every opportunity of doing so,
consistently with the duties of his station. The
knowledge he now acquired, added to his previous
attainments, rendered his scholarship highly respec-
table, and he was employed for a time by Capiton,
a distinguished scholar of the day, to assist him in
his literary labours. With the means acquired in
these various ways, and aided by a contribution
from the prebendaries of Zurich, who manifested
considerable interest in the welfare of their towns-
man, he was enabled to repair to Bourges and com-
mence the study of medicine, a profession which
both expediency and inclination led him to adopt,
Subsequently to this, and wThen he was about
eighteen years of age, he visited Paris, where he
remained for a considerable time, devoting himself
entirely to the acquisition of different branches of
learning, and completing his acquaintance with the

* This circumstance is not mentioned by Schmiedel, one of
Gesner's ablest biographers, and may therefore be considered
as questionable.

MEMOIR OF GESNER. 2J

ancient languages of Greece and Rome, in which he
attained more than usual proficiency. During his
residence in the French capital his circumstances
were often much straitened, and he was frequently
relieved on these occasions by a young Bernoin of
nohle family, named Steiger, with whom he had
contracted a friendship. But all his resources were
ultimately exhausted, and he was obliged to return
to Strasburg, in the hope that his friends in that
city would be able to obtain for him some employ-
ment either as a private or public teacher. Here,
however, his stay was very short, for we find that,
in 1536, he returned to his native place, and opened
a school for teaching the languages and philosophy.

He was now about twenty years of age, and
although his professional studies were far from being
completed, and his situation in life unsatisfactory
and precarious, he thought proper to marry ; and
notwithstanding the remonstrances of his friends on
the imprudence of such a step, under the circum-
stances, he never appears to have had the least
reason to regret having taken it, but in every
respect the contrary.

We are not informed what success attended him
in his, capacity as an instructor of youth, but while
so employed he conciliated the good will of the
magistrates of Zurich, who, appreciating his learn-
ing and abilities, sought to obtain him the means of
turning them to better account. Through their in-
fluence and support, he was enabled to repair to
Basle for the purpose of resuming his medical

22 MEMOIR OF GESNER.

studies, which had suffered a considerable interrup-
tion. His residence there, however, was but short,
not upwards of a year, for the senate of Berne had
founded an academy at Lausanne, and prevailed on
him to become one of the teachers. Here he conti-
nued for about three years, employed, most of that
time, in teaching Greek. His worldly circum-
stances being by this time greatly improved, he
was enabled to reside for about a year at Mont-
pellier, then the seat of a celebrated school of me-
dicine, and the resort of learned men from all parts
of Europe. Here he formed a friendship with Ron-
delet, professor of medicine at Montpellier, and one
of the ablest naturalists of his age, whose excellent
work, De piscibus marinis, * illustrated with wood-
cuts of great merit, has rendered his name known
and honoured even in the present day. It was, in
all probability, owring to his intercourse with this
naturalist, and others then residing at Montpellier,
that his predilection for the study of Nature was
fully confirmed, and the resolution, which he ap-
pears- to have formed at a very early period of his
life, of illustrating it by his writings, first carried
into effect.

* Gulielmi Rondeletii Libri de p'scibus marinis, in quibus
verse Piscium effigies expresses sunt. Lugduni, 1,554, 1 vol.
fol. The figures are rudely engraved, as might be expected
from the state of the art at that period, but the outlines are in
general accurate, and highly characteristic of the species. "We
will not say this much, however, for the Bishop-fish^ and some
others, which afford curious instances of the credulity of
Jhe age.

MEMOIR OF GESNER. 23

After many vicissitudes, the most important of
which have already been alluded to, he obtained his
degree of doctor of medicine at Basle in 1540, being
then in his twenty-fourth year. * He shortly after-
wards settled as a medical practitioner in Zurich,
and his success was such that he was enabled to
devote a portion both of his time and money to the
prosecution of the studies which he had so much at
heart. He even had it in his power to make excur-
sions, at intervals, through various parts of Switzer-
land, Savoy, &c. in search of plants and other natural
objects; and, in 1545, he paid a visit to Venice,
where he became acquainted with many individuals
who were in a condition to promote his views, and
where he had an opportunity of consulting many
rare books and manuscripts, whence he derived
valuable materials for his numerous works both on
literature and natural history. While there, he de-
voted much of his time to the examination of the
fishes of the Mediterranean, writing descriptions of
them, and getting drawings made by the best artists
he could obtain.

From this period the life of Gesner was of a
pretty uniform tenor, and affords not very many
incidents of sufficient interest to be deserving of
minute record. Every moment of his time was

* It is worth while to mention the subject of Gesner'a
Thesis, as an example of the questions then discussed on such
occasions : — I. An cerebrum sit principium sensus et motus,
an cor ? II. An qui crescunt, plurimum habeant calidi in-
nati ? III. An qualitates formae sint elementorum ?

24 MEMOIR OF GESNER.

employed on the numerous works he had on hand,
and scarcely a year elapsed in which he did not lay
several before the public. The most important of
these will be afterwards alluded to ; the mere enu-
meration of their titles would occupy a large space ;
many of them, moreover, were only of temporary
value, and a particular account of these could not
be of much interest in the present day. The cele-
brity which Gesner had now acquired, both as a
scholar and naturalist, caused his correspondence to
be courted by most of the learned of Europe ; and
we find him in communication with nearly all
those whose names have come down to us as pro-
moters of learning and science. His botanical gar-
den included many of the rarest and most curious
plants then known ; and the numerous specimens
of natural objects sent to him for examination, formed
the basis of a general museum. Much of his time
was spent in the most zealous exertions to collect
materials for his history of animals and • plants ;
his reading was interrupted only for the purpose
(to use the words of one of his biographers),
" domi et foris videndo, subinde sciscitando a qui-
busvis doctis, indoctis, civibus, peregrinis, ventori-
bus, piscatoribus, aucupibus, pastoribus, et omni
hominum genere," in order that his works on these
subjects might be more perfect than any that pre-«
ceded them.

In the midst of his multifarious occupations con-
nected with literature and natural history, he con-
tinued his practice as a physician ; and, indeed, it

MEMOIR OF GESNER. 25

was from this source that his income was princi-
pally derived. In 1554 the magistrates of Zurich
appointed him chief physician (agx/argo$), and pub-
lic professor of philosophy and natural history, an
honour which he justly merited, and which he
seems to have valued highly. He had scarcely at-
tained this more influential sphere of action, than
he exerted himself to turn it to the public good ;
and he succeeded in establishing an association of
medical men to watch over the public health. By
these means, a college of medicine and surgery was
ultimately established ; and Gesner may thus be
regarded as the founder of an establishment which
has been of great service to the city of Zurich up
to the present day.

His natural history expeditions into various parts
of Switzerland, Germany, &c., were frequent, and
he had an additional motive for undertaking them
besides his love of collecting, for his constitution
was naturally feeble, and he had still further im-
paired it by ardent study. Among other excur-
sions of less note, we find, that in the year 1555,
he visited Lucerne and the places adjacent, in com-
pany with two brother physicians, and a draftsman
named John Thoma. He was received with dis-
tinguished honours by the magistrates of that place,
— honours such as were wont to be paid only to
those invested with offices of public authority. He
asked permission, as was then the custom, to ascend
Mont Pilate (mons fractus), and a public officer
was appointed to conduct him, and guard him from

26 MEMOIR OF GESNER.

danger ; for the well-known superstition regarding
the vicinity of this mountain, was at that time in
full force. He ascended on the 21st of August,
passing the .night in a hay-loft. He carefully
examined everything in which he felt interested,
and a few days after his return home, published an
account of the mountain, along with his curious
treatise, " De Lunariis." *

It has just been stated that Gesner was of a deli-
cate constitution, and this circumstance had a- con-
siderable influence on his proceedings during several
of the latter years of his life. While a youth, he
was threatened with general dropsy, and although
the immediate effects of this malady were overcome,
it seems to have produced a permanent debility,
which peculiarly exposed him to the inroads of other
disorders. In 1565 we find him complaining, in a
letter to a friend, of an affection of the brain, which he
says lasted nearly nine years. In 1 559 he was afflicted
with calculus, and used all the remedies then in
vogue, against that excruciating disease. He like-
wise tried to find relief by travelling, as he was
wont to do on like occasions. Some of his friends
at the court of Ferdinand, Emperor of Germany,
thought that his visit to that country on this
occasion, afforded a good opportunity of introduc-
ing him to that monarch, to whom his celebrity as

* Conr. Gesneri, de raris et admirandis herbis, quas sive
quod noctu luceant, sive alias ob causas, Lunar ise Dominant ur,
&c. Ejusdem descriptio mentis fracti, sive mentis Pilati,
juxta Lucernam in Helvetia. Tigurini, 4to. (without the year).

MEMOIR OF GESNER. 27

a scholar and naturalist were well known. His
reception was highly flattering, and led the way
to several important favours, which he afterwards
received from the hands of the emperor. On this
journey, Gesner likewise visited Ulm, and ulti-
mately repaired to the warm baths of Baden, that
he might try their effect on his health. These
proved more beneficial than he anticipated, and he
returned to Zurich greatly invigorated both in body
and mind.

The following year he was much occupied in
forming a new botanic garden, to facilitate the study
of plants, which now engaged a large share of his
attention, as he designed to publish a general his-
tory of vegetables. Shortly after his appointment
to the professorship of natural history, he had em-
ployed his increased means in building a museum,
of such extent, that it contained fifteen windows.
These windows (we translate the description of his
biographer, Schmiedel), he ornamented in a manner
as unusual, as it was agreeable ; on each of them
he painted most elegantly on the glass, arranged
according to their classes, different species of marine,
river, and lacustrine fishes. His shelves contained
an immense quantity of metals, stones, gems, and
other natural productions, which he had either ob-
tained as presents from his friends, or purchased. The
most liberal of the contributors to his museum was
his friend Kentmann, who, among other objects,
presented him with a collection of fossil fishes, and
a great many different kinds of metals. Amidst

28 MEMOIR OF GESNER.

these riches of nature, he was often wont to spend
his time, seeking tranquillity of mind from the con-
templation of them, and refreshing himself after the
numerous toils and vexations of life, from which the
best are not exempted.* As a necessary adjunct
to this museum, he now enlarged and enriched his
botanic garden, stimulated thereto by having wit-
nessed the superiority of that of Didymus Obrecht
at Strasburg. He obtained rare plants from most
parts of Europe, in particular from France, Italy,
Britain, Germany, and Poland, and it contained
many of the most curious kinds found in his own
country, which is of such great interest in this re-
spect, as well as in most other of its natural
features.

Towards the close of 1560, his health again gave
way ; he wTas afflicted with severe pain in the
limbs, and almost entirely lost the use of his right
leg. Having tried various remedies, without de-
riving much benefit, he again repaired to Baden,
and the baths so far restored him, that he was able,
in the beginning of 1561, to visit many different
parts, both of Germany and Switzerland. He tra-
versed the Rhetian Alps, ascended Mount Braulius,
and penetrated into several of the most retired parts
of the country. Part of the Venetian territory was
likewise included in this extended expedition, the
chief object of which was the improvement of his
health, one, however, quite compatible with the
study of botany, which he prosecuted with unwea-
* Schmieders Vita Conradi Gesneri^ p. xxiii.

MEMOIR OF GESNER. 29

ried zeal. The advantage he derived from the warm
springs of Baden, seems to have likewise turned his
attention to various mineral springs in Switzerland,
with a view to ascertain their medicinal properties.
The water of some of these he used as a bath, and
others, of a chalybeate nature, were taken internally.
These various restoratives, in connexion with his
long travel, bodily exercise, and the agreeable society
of friends, of whom he had many scattered over the
whole country, so improved his health, that we find
him writing, on his return, to one of his friends,
that he was now stronger than he had been for
many years. Among other fruits of this expedition,
his herbarium, garden, and museum, received large
accessions.

He now enjoyed a respite for some time from his
various maladies, and we accordingly find him im-
mersed in a multitude of literary undertakings, in-
cluding several publications on botany. It was
probably, in a great measure, in consequence of the
too great exertions thereby entailed, that he was so
soon again compelled (in the month of August 1562)
to seek relief from the waters of Baden, whither he
repaired, for the third time, in company with his
wife, whose health had been all along as precarious
as his own. By using the waters in a manner
somewhat different from his former practice, he
speedily became convalescent, and in order to fol-
low up this favourable change, as he had been
accustomed to do on former occasions, by long con-
tinued exercise in the open air, he invited his friend

30 MEMOIR OF GESNER.

John Bauhine, the well-known botanist, to accom-
pany him back to Zurich on foot, that they might
have abetter opportunity of conversing by the way on
the eubject of their common study. This arrange-
ment, however, could not be effected, and Gesner
returned alone. It was soon after this that he
wrote a long letter to the English botanist, Turner,
in which he gave a particular account of all his
writings up to that date.

Although Gesner at no time neglected any of the
great branches of natural history, but used every
exertion to improve his various works, which may
be said to embrace them all ; yet, during the two
or three last years of his life, botany was his prin-
cipal study. One of the great objects of his ambi-
tion was, as has been already intimated, to produce
a history of plants, and foreseeing, doubtless, that
his life was not destined to be a long one, he re-
doubled his exertions to attain the purpose he had
so much at heart. This formed his chief occupa-
tion in 1563. He had plants in a living state
brought to him from all parts of the country ;
Bauhine sent him many dried specimens ; and even
when his health was most precarious, he was in the
habit of swimming in the lake of Zurich and others
in that neighbourhood, for the purpose of collecting
aquatic species. The utmost exertions were at the
same time made to have these plants drawn and en-
graved, -which was done entirely at his own expense.
The number, qualities, and ultimate destiny of the
engravings thus accumulated, we shall afterwards

MEMOIR OF GESNER. 31

Lave occasion to allude to. This, and numerous
other avocations, both of a literary and profes-
sional nature, were interrupted by a recurrence of
his old complaints, which occasioned a fourth visit
to Baden, the only quarter to which he was now
accustomed to look for relief, nor were his expec-
tations disappointed even on this extreme occasion.
Knowing the favourable opinion which the Em-
peror Ferdinand entertained of his services to science
and literature, Gesner felt desirous of obtaining some
public expression of his regard, not only as an en-
couragement to others to follow his example, but
as an honorary distinction to his family. This was
no sooner intimated by his friends, Alexander,
Amorfort, and Craton, physicians to the court, than
the wish was immediately complied with; and letters
patent were issued granting armorial bearings to
Gesner and his family, with a statement of the cir-
cumstances for which this honour was conferred.
Without attempting to describe the shield in the
technical language of heraldry, it may suffice to say,
that the devices were all emblematical of the sub-
jects which Gesner had illustrated by his writings.
Each of the four quarters was occupied by an ani-
mal— an eagle with expanded wings, a lion ram-
pant, a basilisk, and a crowned dolphin ; the crest,
a swan sitting on a crown of laurel, with three stars
on its breast, and a like number on each of its ex-
panded wings. As Gesner was childless, he obtained
permission that the same arms should be borne by
his uncle, Andrew Gesner, an old man of eighty.

32 MEMOIR OF GESNER.

as well as his offspring, who were very numerous.
This honour was accompanied by another mark of
the Emperor's esteem, which our naturalist valued
highly, namely, a present of some fragments of hezoir
stone, which was then very rare, and held in high
estimation.

Subsequently to this he again visited Baden, and
for the last time. On his return he was greatly
distressed by the death of his mother, to whom he
was very warmly attached : this event took place
in April 1564. Soon after, the plague, which had
for some time raged in Basle, made its appearance
in Zurich ; and Gesner, both on account of his pro-
fessional experience and scientific skill, was looked
to more than any other individual for some means
of checking its ravages. He was not slow in de-
voting himself to the inquiry ; and the result of his
investigations soon appeared in a work on the nature
of the contagion and the best means of cure. He
was fully sensible of the risk he incurred by visiting
so many patients, and had a strong presentiment
that he was himself to be a victim. In a dream,
which made a great impression on him, he thought
that he was bitten by a serpent ; this he interpreted
to denote the attack of the disease ; and he wrote
to several of his friends to intimate that he was now
preparing himself for another world. For the pre-
sent, however, it pleased Providence to spare him.
The severity of the disease gradually abated, and
Gesner was enabled to resume his former occupa-
tions, and for a considerable time to labour at his

MEMOIR OF OESNEB. 33

favourite work on plants, and likewise another on
the nature of stones and fossils.

Although the pestilence had abated, it had
never entirely left Zurich and its neighbourhood,
and v about the middle of July, 1565, it again
broke out in that city with greater virulence than
before. Gesner witnessed its approach with tran-
quillity ; but his presentiment again returned, and
he endeavoured to make preparation for the great
change which he believed to be near. He was
seized with the disorder on the 9th of Decem-
ber, when it had a second time greatly moderated,
and he had again almost overcome his apprehen-
sions. A large pestilential carbuncle made its ap-
pearance under his right arm, but it was accom-
panied with no pain in the head, fever, or other
bad symptom. His strength was so little reduced,
that he continued to walk about his apartment,
only reclining occasionally on a couch. But he
had seen many die with precisely the same symp-
toms, and from the first he indulged no expecta-
tions of recovery. He therefore called together
his friends, and delivered to them his will, in
which he made some provision for his wife and
nephews, and appointed his only surviving sister
his heiress. His library and manuscripts were en-
trusted to Caspar Wolf, formerly his pupil, and
latterly his colleague, with injunctions that his
writings should be carefully perused and arranged,
and such of them published as were likelv tc b »
serviceable.

c

34 MEMOIR OF GESNER.

These matters arranged, his whole thoughts were
turned to futurity, and he conversed calmly with
Henry Bellinger and John Simler (two clergymen
with whom he had lived on terms of the most inti-
mate friendship), using words of hope and resig-
nation. The fifth day after the commencement of
his disorder, his medical attendants saw that death
was near : but he thought himself better, and de-

O 7

clined having any one to sit by his bed-side during
the night. About eleven o'clock, however, of the
same night, he became conscious that his strength
could hold out very little longer against the violence
of the disease ; and calling his attendants, he re-
quested that they would carry him into his museum,
where he had caused a bed to be prepared for him
the day before. It was in this place, the scene of
many a laborious study, and among the objects
which he had collected with such indefatigable zeal,
that he breathed his last, in the arms of his wife,
on the 13th December, 1565, not having quite com-
pleted his fiftieth year.

The whole city was thrown into mourning by
Gesner's death, and his funeral, which took place on
the following day, was attended by a large con-
course of people of all ranks. He was interred in
the cloister of the great church of Zurich, near the
tomb of his intimate friend Frisius, who died the
preceding year. His funeral oration was pronounced
by Simler, who afterwards became his biographer.
Mcin^ \erses, both Greek and Latin, were written
in his praise ; and among the authors of these we

MEMOIR OF GESNER, 35

find Theodore Beza, and many others of scarcely
inferior name.

It may be inferred, from what has been alre?r;y
said regarding the frailty of Gesner's constitution,
that there was little likelihood of his attaining an
advanced age, even if he had escaped the contagion
which carried him off. The delicacy of his health
was indicated by a pallid and almost emaciated
countenance, the general expression of which was,
however, highly agreeable, and indicative of great
sensibility. His forehead was broad, high, and pro-
minent, marked with numerous deep wrinkles, the
result of severe study and profound thought. His
nose was long and elevated, without being aquiline ;
his lips thin ; mouth expressive and agreeable. His
beard was copious, long and dense, slightly curled
or undulating, " lenitatis ingenii indicium esse
potest," says his biographer ISchmiedel, on whose
authority we wish the statement to rest. Various
portraits exist, corresponding to this description;
that prefixed to this memoir is taken from one
which we regard as the most characteristic.

The voluminous works of Gesner may be di-
vided into three classes ; first, those on literary
subjects; secondly, those relating to medicine and
the materia medica ; and, thirdly, those on natural
history.

As it is most appropriate to the purpose we have
at present in view to consider Gesner as a natu-
ralist, we do not propose to enter, in this place, into
a very minute detail of his numerous productions

36 MEMOIR OF GESNER.

on the two former of these subjects; but some
account of them is necessary to enable us to form
an idea of the extent of his acquirements, his extra-
ordinary powers of application, and the wonderful
fertility of his genius. Shortly after obtaining his
degree, he published numerous translations of Greek
treatises, on various subjects of literature and criti-
cism, an edition of Martial, &c., besides editing
several works for his friends. Of the latter we may
mention that of his friend Moibau, of whose work
on Dioscorides he superintended the publication, in
order that the friends of the author might obtain
the emoluments : that of Valerius Cordus, " De
Historia Plantarum," a zealous naturalist, who died
at Rome at the early age of twenty-nine ; and
lastly, the " Lexicon Rei Herbarise Trilinque" of
his friend Kyber, who was carried off by the plague
at Strasburg at an equally early age. But his most
important work in this department was his BiUio-
theca Unwersalis, the object of which was not only
to give the titles of all the works then known, in
Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, whether actually exist-
ing or lost, but to afford some knowledge of their
contents, a specimen of their style, and a critical
estimate of the merits of the respective authors.
The idea was an excellent one, and has, as is well
known, been often acted upon since. It is said
to have suggested to Haller the plan of his Bib-
liotheca Britannica, and Biblioth. Anatomica. The
first part of the work was published at Zurich in
1545. This contained the names of the authors

MEMOIR OF GESNER. 37

arranged alphabetically. The second part, which
he called the Pandects, appeared in 1 548, divided
into nineteen books, and arranged according to the
nature of the subjects : the twentieth book was to
oe devoted to medical subjects, but was never
rinished, as the author was unable to satisfy himself
as to its completeness and accuracy; the twenty-first
embraced theological authors and did not appear till
about a year after the rest.* Many editions of
Greek and Latin authors, with notes and commen-
taries, were published by Gesner, as well as several
Dictionaries, amended and enlarged, such as the
Latin Lexicon Ambr. Calepini^ Greek Dictionary
of Favorini, &c. He likewise published many por-
tions of Greek manuscripts which he had copied
during his travels in Italy and Venice, such as the
Aphorisms of Abbas Maximus, Institutions of Theo-
philus, the Oration of Tatianus Assyrius, translating
several of them into Latin, and adding explanatory
notes ; besides many other treatises relating to an-
cient literature. One of the most curious and in-
genious of his productions on literary subjects was
published in 1555, under the name of Mithridates,
or an inquiry " De differentiis linguarum," an inves-
tigation for which his extensive acquaintance botli
with ancient and contemporaneous languages ad-
mirably qualified him. He originated many views
in this work which have been more fully developed

* An abridgment of the Bib. Universalis, with the addition
of a good deal of new matter, by Simler and J. J. Fries, was
published at Zurich in 1583, 1 vol. foL

38 MEMOIR OF GESNER.

since by authors who have neglected to mention the
source from which they derived them.

Medical men have often expressed their regret
that the portion of the Bib. Universalis relating to
the literature of the healing art was never com-
pleted; the materials which Gesner had amassed
Were certainly extensive (he expressly affirms so in
a letter to one of his friends), and their publication
would have been desirable, even although they fell
short of his own wishes. This desideratum, how-
ever, was to a certain extent supplied by the publi-
cation, in 1555, of a large volume entitled, " De?
Chirurgia Scriptores optimi quique veteres et recen-
tiores, plerique in Germania ante hac non editi,
nunc a Conr. Gesnero in unum conjunct! volumen,"
to which various treatises on medical subjects are
appended. Many small treatises on medical sub-
jects emanated at different times from his prolific
pen. He published more than one edition of Ga-
len; that of the date 1562 was enriched with pro-
legomena, an elaborate life of Galen, and a very
full list of the authors who had in any way illus-
trated his doctrines. With a view to induce medical
m«n to co-operate with each other, and communi-
cate their discoveries for the general good, he pub-
lished, in 1552, what he called " Thesaurus de
remediis secretis," &c. This at first appeared under
the fictitious name of Euonymus ; but it came into
great request, and was afterwards laid before the
public in an enlarged and amended form, with the
name of the author attached. " Libelli tres medi-

MEMOIR OF GESNER. 39

cinales ; unus de sanitate tuenda ; alter contra luxus
conviviorura; tertius contra notas astrologicas Ephe-
meridum in secandis venis ;" were printed at Zurich
in 1556. He was likewise the author, or editor, of
several other small works and treatises on subjects
similar to those mentioned, but we cannot here
afford space for a full list of them. A little work,
" De lacte," treating of milk and its various pre-
parations, which appeared in 1543, may, from the
mode in which the subject is treated, be regarded as
a contribution to medical dietetics.

We shall now proceed to give some account of
his principal works on Natural History, and shall
first mention his " Historia Animalium," for that
is the work with which Gesner's name is usually
associated, and on which his reputation principally
depends. It is certainly a singular mass of matter,
original and compiled, displaying a degree of erudi-
tion, research, and industry, which might well lead
us, as has been remarked, to believe, that instead of
being the work of a physician, who raised and
maintained himself by his practice, and who was
cut off in the midst of a most active and useful life,
it was the labour of a recluse, shut up for an age in
his study, and never diverted from his object by any
other cares. He had conceived the design of such
an undertaking at an early period of his life, but it
is not probable, when we consider his other avoca-
tions, that much of it was executed till a few years
before its appearance. The numerous friends in
various parts of Europe whom his reputation for

40 MEMOIR OP GESNER.

learning had procured him, encouraged his design
by transmitting specimens, and remarks on the ani-
mals of their respective countries.* The jour-
neys also which he had an opportunity of making,
afforded him a rich harvest of materials, of which
he did not fail to avail himself to the uttermost.
Still it is surprising how he could accomplish so
much, in the comparatively limited time which he
could devote to the task.

The work in question is divided into five books,
generally bound up, as he himself recommended, in
three folio volumes. The first part, printed at Zu-
rich in 1551, treats of viviparous quadrupeds; the
second, published in 1554, of oviparous quadrupeds ;
the third, of the date 1 555, of birds ; and the fourth,
1556, of fishes and other aquatic animals. The
fifth part was a posthumous publication, drawn up
from Gesner's manuscripts by James Carron, a phy-
sician of Frankfort. It is said to be rarer than the
others; it treats of serpents, and has usually ap-
pended to it a treatise on the scorpion, published
from our author's papers under the superintendence
of Caspar Wolf. The two latter treatises did not
appear till 1587, that is, twenty-two years after
the author's decease.

Besides this, the original edition, it may be pro-

* In the list of contributors, to whom he expresses his obli-
gations, we find the names of Gulielmus Turnerus, Anglus ;
Jo. Caius, medicus Londini clarissimus ; Jo. Fauconerus, An-
glus ; Jo. Parkhurstus, Anglus, theologus et poeta elegantissi-
mus ; and Theodorus Beza.

MEMOIR OP GESNER. 41

per to mention that a number of others subsequently
appeared, some in Latin, others in German, and one
or two in French. Several of these, we believe all,
are more or less abridged and altered in the arrange-
ment ; some of them are designed to be mere vehi-
cles for the woodcuts, with the addition of a portion
of the original text in explanation of the figures. It
is these later and less regular editions which are
most commonly met with in libraries.

The animals are simply arranged in the alpha-
betical order of their Latin names ; and the account
of each is divided into eight heads or chapters,
referring to the following particulars : 1st, the names
in different languages, ancient and modern ; 2d, de-
scription of parts external and (occasionally) inter-
nal, and varieties of the species ; 3d, various actions
and passions, whether natural or contrary to nature ;
4th, affections of the mind, manners, and instincts,
&c. ; 5th, various uses to man, besides food and
remedies; 6th, uses as food; 7th, diseases; 8th,
philology, or references made to them by authors,
whether in prose or verse, the epithets they have
applied, &c.

The general arrangement, if such it can be called,
differs but little from that of Aristotle, the grand
division being into land and water animals. As an
example of his mode of subdividing a primary group
into what he calls orders, we shall give a digest of
his arrangement of quadrupeds : —

42 MEMOIR OF GESNER.

Quadrupedes aut sunt viviparee, aut oviparse ; illas in sex
ordines distribuimus.

Continet igitur Quadrupedum vivipararum mansuetarum
ORDO 1. bestias mansuetas, quse armenta vel greges consti-

tuunt ; cornutae omnes et bisulcae sunt, et ruminant, non

utrinque dentatse ; ut boves, oves, caprae.
— — 2. ex mansuetis jumenta quse sine cornibus et solipeda

sunt ; ut equum, sues, canes, et felem domesticam.

Ferarum vero Quadrupedum vivipararum qua omnes utrinque

dentatce sunt,
ORDO 1. complectitur feras cornutas ; ut boves, capras, cer-

vum, elephantum, * &c.
2. non conmtas majores : quoa hominem aut alia ani-

malia unguibus et dentibus laedant, multifidae omnes

praeter aprum bisulcum ; ut sunt ursus, leo, tigris, &c.
• 3. ejusdem naturae reliquas media3 magnitudinis minus-

que noxias ; ut sunt castor, lutra, vulpes, &c.
• — — 4. minimas et murium fere generis ; quorum ea quas per

arbores aut parietes repere et scandere possunt ; ut sunt

cuniculus, nms, glis, talpa, &c.

Animalium Quadrupedum ovipararum

ORDO 1. et ultimus, complectitur chamaeleontem, testudinem
terrestrem, lacertarumque et ranarum terrestrium genera.
Nam crocodilum, ranas et lacertas aquatiles, aquatilium
libro subjunximus. f

At the period when Gesner wrote, any thing1
approaching to accurate views of classification or
arrangement could not be expected; indeed the
importance of the subject was never thought of.
But the above subdivisions are altogether arbitrary
and useless; nay, with our present notions on the

* He regards the tusks of the elephant as horns,
f Icones Animalium, &c. ed. sec. Tigur. 1560, p. 8.

MEMOIR OF GESNER. 43

subject, they cannot be regarded as otherwise than
ludicrous. Animals are referred to different orders
according to the accident of their being domesti-
cated or wild ; and size is assumed as determining
ordinal differences. Thus the lion and tiger are
placed in one order, while their near relatives the
panther and other smaller spotted felines, are re-
ferred to another, magnitudims ratione, as he him-
self expresses it. Perhaps his division of fishes is
preferable; but after having afforded one example
of this kind, it is unnecessary to dwell on the
subject.

His description and history of the animals them-
selves cannot in general be spoken of otherwise than
in terms of high commendation, particularly of those
kinds which fell under his own observation, the ani-
mals of Switzerland, for example. We have at full
length all that has been previously written respect-
ing them, combined with much original information.
Take the general history of hawks for an example,
in the commencement of his volume on birds. With-
out attempting to discriminate many of the closely
allied kinds, — an object which can scarcely be said
to be satisfactorily accomplished even in the present
day, — he enters into the generalities of the family
with considerable knowledge of their habits and
general history ; giving instructions for rearing them
and training them for the chace, for curing their
disorders, &c. All this, it is true, is mixed up with
a great deal of quaint information and obsolete
erudition; but when these are subtracted, not a

44 MEMOIR OF GESNER.

little sound natural history remains. As a good
specimen of his manner, we may refer to the ac-
count of the eagle, which extends to nearly thirty
closely printed folio pages. Much curious informa-
tion might be extracted from his volumes regarding
many species of almost every order, as, for example,
the account of the speaking nightingales ; but space
cannot be afforded in this place for such a selection.
We may translate, however, his short account of
the white ox of Scotland (what is now usually
called the Hamilton breed of cattle), which is curi-
ous in several respects. He names it the Bison
allus Scoticus, and gives a figure of the animal,
which, however, is not so well executed as many
of the others. " The Caledonian forest of Scot-
land produces very white oxen, having a mane
like that of a lion, but in other respects very similar
to the domesticated kinds. They are so fierce, un-
tameable, and eager to avoid human society, that
when they feel that any plant, tree, or shrub has been
touched by the hands of man, they continue to flee
from it for many days. When taken by any stra-
tagem (which is very difficult), they die soon after
for grief. But when they are aware that they are
pursued by any one, they rush upon him with great
fury and drive him to the earth. They fear neither
dogs, hunting -spears, nor any kind of weapon.
Their flesh is very agreeable to the taste, and parti-
cularly in request by the nobility, although it is
cartilaginous. Although they were wont to occur
throughout all the forest, they are now found in

MEMOIR OF GESNER. 45

only one part of it, which is called Cummernald ;
the rest having been destroyed for food. This race
of oxen," adds Gesner to the above account, which
is partly from another author, " seems properly to
be called the white Scottish or Caledonian bison,
because it is maned like a lion, as Oppian writes of
the bison."

We must now allude to what forms not the least
remarkable or interesting feature in this great work,
namely, the woodcuts with which it is so copiously
replenished. The great majority of the animals de-
scribed are represented by wood-engravings, many
of them on a large scale, those of the horse, camel,
and swan, for example, nearly filling a folio page,
and there are many others of equal magnitude.
The number, it is obvious, must therefore be very
great, almost every page presenting one or two,
and the majority several. By far the greater num-
ber of them are well executed, so much so in-
deed, that several can be pointed out which would
bear comparison with modern specimens of the art.
The outlines, in general, are accurately drawn, and
although the workmanship is occasionally rather
coarse, the figures are, in most cases, not only
perfectly recognisable, but even form faithful and cha-
racteristic delineations. It is a matter of surprise that
artists could then be found capable of representing
such objects so well, and that Gesner could incur
the expense, for he must have had what may be
almost called a little manufactory under his charge ;
and we are told that the artists resided in his own

46 MEMOIR OF GESNER.

house. We find him thus modestly speaking of
these figures in one of his prefaces : " With regard
to the Icones, I acknowledge that they are not all
very well drawn ; this, however, is not my fault ; but.
this is not the occasion to speak on that matter.
Most of them are very fair and tolerable, especially
those of quadrupeds, which may be esteemed the
best. None of them are fictitious, as some suspect ;
or if any of them be, they were not approved by
me, but pointed out and censured, such as the rein-
deer of Glaus and a few others among quadrupeds,
some among the water animals, certain salaman-
ders, &c. If I have not delineated such as these
myself (that is to say, superintended the engraving)
from the life, I have mentioned the authors frora
whom I received them, or the books from which
they are copied," &c.

The latter remark leads us to say a few words
respecting the numerous monsters scattered through-
out Gesner's work, which at first sight, and on
superficial observation, are apt to make us distrust
his authority altogether as a veracious author, and
indeed tend to throw an air of ridicule over the
whole. A careful perusal of his text, however, will
soon convince us that no author of early date has
been more solicitous to guard his readers against
mistaking what is imaginary for what is real, — for
placing that which has been merely supposed to
exist, on the same level with what has fallen under
the evidence of the senses. The most remarkable^
of these ideal figures are, a marine lion, covered with

MEMOIR OP GESNER. 47

scales, and having the face of a man ; the monk and
bishop fish, strongly resembling the parties from
whom they derive their names, but with the visage
somewhat distorted, and the figure slightly pisci-
form; a marine Pan or Satyr; several monstrous
cetaceous animals, with snouts like a hog, and al-
most capable of swallowing a moderate sized ship ;
the monoceros or unicorn; two wild men of the
woods ; the hydra with seven heads like those of a
human being, &c. None of these monsters origi-
nated with Gesner; they are in every instance
adopted from other authors, who produce a kind of
hearsay evidence to justify their descriptions. In a
general work like Gesner's, their entire exclusion
would have been scarcely warrantable ; he does all
that can be expected of him ; intimates his suspi-
cion of their authenticity, and cites the authority on
which they rest. "With regard to the seven-headed
dragon, the most absurd of the whole, he distinctly
states that it is to be regarded as equally fabulous
with Castor and Pollux, or any other fancies of the
heathen mythology ; and with this belief it would
have been better to have excluded it ; but he wished
to gratify his readers by the representation of a spe-
cimen said to have been brought from Turkey to
Venice, and which appears to have been so skilfully
manufactured as to deceive for a time even the most
incredulous. As to many of the sea-monsters, par-
ticularly the huge cetacea and snakes, we are not
yet in a condition to say that they do not exist ; on
the contrary, there is every reason, arising from

48 MEMOIR OF GESNER.

tradition and the incidental reports of voyagers, to
believe that there are such creatures, of extraordi-
nary size and aspect, although opportunities have
not occurred of examining them with sufficient care
to bring them within the established categories of
natural history. The existence of sea-snakes, of
enormous volume, has been proved beyond question.
But it may be asked, why figure and describe such
inhabitants of the " bottom of the monstrous world,"
until their forms and history can be more accurately
ascertained ? The answer of Gesner, which we give
in his own words, is judicious and satisfactory. —
" Falsas etiam vel prorsus vel aliqua ex parte ima-
gines, illarum rerum, quarum veras adhuc nemo
dederit, exhibere, modo nominato authore et nulla
dissimulatione id fiat, non est inutile : sed occasio
ad inquirendas ab aliquibus, aut communicandas ab
eis qui jam habent, veras."

One of the objects for which this great work of
Gesner's may yet be consulted with advantage, is
the ascertainment of the names of animals in many
different languages. A slight glance at his syno-
nyms often reveals the meaning of a common and
familiar name, and the transitions through which it
has passed before assuming its present form. The
name marmot (to take a simple example) does not
convey any obvious meaning ; but a very brief
synonomy renders it obvious ; mus montanus, Lat. ;
marmontana, or contracted, marmota, Jtal. ; mur-
montain, French, or adopted from the Italian, mar-
mote ; whence the English name, a literal transla-

MEMOIR OF GESNER. 49

tion of mountain-mouse. Most of the English
names of animals were communicated to Gesner by
the famous botanist, Dr. Turner. *

This work, the most famous of Gesner's produc-
tions, continued for a considerable period to be the
principal authority on zoological subjects. Much of
it was copied by Aldrovandus, in his voluminous
compilations ; Jonson did little more than abridge
it ; and it has formed the basis of works of much
more recent date.

As it was designed to be a general work on ani-
mals, it necessarily formed part of the author's plan
to include insects, and with this view he had col-
lected a good many materials, but of these his early
death prevented him making any use. His manu-
scripts and wood-engravings on the subject fell into
the hands of Dr. Penny, an Englishman, who was
at that time travelling in Switzerland, and had be-
come intimate with Gesner. It is conjectured by
Pulteney that Penny was present at Gesner's death ;
and, being a zealous botanist, that he assisted Wolf
in arranging the plants of his deceased friend. How-
ever this may be, it is well known that Penny
studied insects with great care, t and must have

* Prefixed to the third volume of the Frankfort edition of
Gesner 's Hist. Anim., 1620, we find a letter from Dr. Turner
relating to English fishes. It consists of three pages, briefly
describing more than fifty species ; and seems to be intended
to give information respecting English names, which Turner
r-iad carefully noted, and often added the provincial appella-
tions. Pulteney^s Sketches of. Botany, vol. i.

f As a proof of this, and as an example of the subjects which

5'0 MEMOIR OF GESNER.

highly valued such an acquisition as the manu-
scripts and drawings of so distinguished a zoologist.
The use he made of them is well known. They
formed a portion of the work on insects published
in England in 1634, under the title of " Insec-
torum sive minimorum Animalium Theatrum olim
ab Edoardo Wottono, Conrado Gesnero, Thomaque
Pennio, inchoatum ; tandem Tho. Movfeti, Londi-
n-atis opera sumptibusque maxime concinnatum,
auctum, perfectum, et ad vivum expressis iconibus
supra quingentis illustratum." Schmiedel supposes
that it is chiefly the figures of butterflies that were
obtained from Gesner. These are, in most cases,
recognisable, but they cannot be compared to the
icons of plants.

Although Gesner was unable to complete the

then interested entomologists, the following extract from a let-
ter written by Penny to Camerarius is worth quotation. " Te
exoro, si quid certi de insectis sequentibus habeas, ut me, cum
otium nactus fueris, certiorem per litteras facias: TsvS-^^v
Aristotelis quid sit lubenter scirem ; et an in nostris regionibus
reperiatur? ~Bop,$ovft.ios vero an sit Humlen Germanorum intel-
ligerem? Hgeuroxovgis an sit species erucse, ut D. Gesnerus
arbitratur? Tgagff-XAjf an sit bestiola cauda bifurca, quern
Germani Orenmotel vocant, quamque ut arbitror, Hadr. Junius
in suo nomenclatore Fullonem Plinii non recte arbitratur.
Scias Auriculariam alas habere sub >cingulo absconditas, ac
al;quando volare quod idem experientia didici. Arodit flores,
si quae alia, etc. Blattam fcetidam spero etiam reperisse, Sca-
rabajo pilulari similis est, sed corpore magis oblongo, nee tarn
crasso ; caudam habet mucronatam, vel ut Plinius loquitur,
ucutam. Nullas habet alas, tardigradum arninaicuiuni et valde
fyetens."

MEMOIR OF GESNER. £1

great work on botany which he so anxiously con-
templated, the result of his labours were by no
means lost; and these, in connexion with what he
did publish, have proved of the greatest service to
the science. In order to appreciate his merits in
this respect, we have only to consider the state of
botany at the time when it first attracted his atten-
tion. It was considered solely as a branch of the
materia medica. The only authors consulted on
the subject were the ancient writers of Greece and
Rome. Manuscripts of Theophrastus, Dioscorides,
Pliny, and some other writers of similar character,
had been at all times rare ; and while they conti-
nued as manuscripts, even the meagre information
they contained was consequently accessible to few.
Pliny was first printed at Yerona in 1448.; Dios-
corides, in Latin, at Cologne in 1478; and Theo-
phrastus at Venice in 1483. Numerous editions,
both in Latin and in Greek, soon followed, and
these works were now in the hands of most of the
learned. It was long, however, before the latter
made any attempt to add to the knowledge which
they contained; contenting themselves by writing
voluminous commentaries, translations, &c. of the
original text. This continued to be the state of
things till a good while after the commencement of
the sixteenth century, when several individuals ap-
peared who entered upon the study with more
enlarged views, and a juster estimate of its import-
ance. The following names include the. most dis-
tinguished of these " Patres Botanici :" Brunsfelsius,

52 MEMOIR OF GESNER.

Tragus, Fuchius, Cordus, Csesalpinus, Clausius,
Turner, and Gesner. They began to study in the
fields, and instead of confining themselves to the
closet and the musty glosses of the scholiast, en-
deavoured to peruse the illuminated page of Nature
herself.

The original motive with most of these, was still,
perhaps, the laudable one of improving the materia
medica. Gesner made great exertions for this pur-
pose, and discovered many useful remedies, some of
which, with slight modifications, are still in use.
Like Sir Humphrey Davy, he frequently made
himself the subject of his own experiments, and, as
happened on several occasions with the eminent
philosopher just named, he once nearly killed him-
self by an over dose of the root of doronicum.
When he recovered, he amused his friends by an
account of his sensations while under its influence.
But although the sanatory properties of herbs may
have first led most of these individuals to investi-
gate them, they soon ceased to be restricted by that
consideration, and zealously studied the subject, as
it ought to be studied, for its own sake, and irre-
spectively of the benefit that might arise from it in
any economical point of view.

Several works on botanical subjects have been
already named as edited by Gesner for his friends,
as well as an original work of his own, " De Lu-
nariis, &c." His earliest botanical work was entitled
" Enchiridion Historiae Plantarum, ordine Alpha-
betico, ex Dioscoride sumtis descriptionibus, et

MEMOIR OF GESNER. 53

multis ex Theophrasto, Plinio et reantioribus Graecis;
facultatibus autem ex Paulo Aegineta, &c.," Basle,
1541. This, however, is deserving of little con-
sideration, as it was a work of his youth, and pro-
fessedly a mere compilation. In 1552 he wrote an
elaborate preface to Tragus's History of Plants, and
superintended the publication of the work. A long
letter addressed to Melch. Grilandinum, a celebrated
botanist of Padua, in which Gesner discussed an-
cient and modern names of plants, and many other
matters relating to them, appeared in 1557- Several
productions of a similar kind exist ; but it is unne-
cessary to allude particularly to them, because the
reputation of Gesner as a botanist rests on what
was laid before the public long after his death. In
the specimen, published by Caspar Wolf of the
plan of his great work on plants, Gesner first gives
the various names, including Hebrew, Greek, Latin,
and most of the modern languages of Europe ; se-
condly, Descriptions, derived both from ancient and
recent authors, with the addition of his own re-
marks in reference to the leaves, roots, flower and
fruit, habit, sex, &c. of the plant ; thirdly, the time
of flowering, ripening of the seed, and places best
adapted for germination ; fourthly, Sympathia and
Antipathia; fifthly, Culture, and various matters
relating to its use in agriculture and gardening;
sixthly, the various useful purposes to which the
plant may be converted ; seventhly, the Remedies
prepared from it, and temperamenta ; eighthly,
Philologia.

54 MEMOIR OF GESNER,

Such was the extensive plan on which the work
was conceived. In prosecuting his task, we have
the high authority of Sir J. E. Smith for saying,
that he united the investigation of the external cha-
racter of plants with a careful study of the fructifi-
cation, the importance of which, as affording stable
and ohvious characters for the distinction of species,
had been previously very little understood. In
many of his figures the parts of fructification are
delineated separately, as well as the root and other
important parts of structure. In letters to his cor-
respondents, he often tries to impress them with
the necessity of attending to such parts as yielding
the most valuable characters. The figures of the
plants are much more accurately executed than
those formerly spoken of as illustrating the History
of Animals. Many of them, in fact, are finished
with considerable delicacy ; they are highly charac-
teristic of the habit of the plant, and display no
small degree of freedom and skill in the drawing.
The fate of these excellent figures we cannot better
describe than in the words of Pulteney. * " It
forms," he says, " a mortifying but curious anec-
dote in the literary history of the science of botany.
Of the fifteen hundred figures left by Gesner, pre-
pared for his c History of Plants,' at his death, in
1 565, a large share passed into the Epitome Mattkioli,
published by Camerarius in 1586, which contained
in the whole a thousand and three figures ; and in
the same year, as also into a second edition in 1590,
* Sketches of Botany, vol. L

MEMOIR OF GESNER. 55

they embellished an abridged translation of Matthi-
olus, printed under the name of the ' German Her-
bal/ In 1609 the same blocks were used by
Uffenbach for the herbal of Castor Durantes, printed
at Frankfort. This publication, however, compre-
hended only nine hundred and forty-eight of these
icons, nearly another hundred being introduced of
very inferior merit. After this period, Camerarius
the younger being dead, the blocks were purchased
by Goerlin, a bookseller of Ulm, and next served
for the ' Parnassius Medicinalis illustratus' of Be-
cher, printed at that city in J 663 ; the second part
of which work contains all those of the Epitome,
except six figures. In 1678 they were taken into
a German herbal, made up from Matthiolus by
Bernard Yerzascha, printed at Basle ; and such was
the excellency of the materials and workmanship of
the blocks, that they were exhibited a^sixth time in
the Theatrum Botanicum of Krauterbuch of Zwin-
ger, being an amended edition of Yerzascha, printed
also at Basle in 1696, with the addition of more
than one hundred new blocks, copied from C. Bau-
hine and TabernEe-montanus ; and finally into a
new edition of the same work, so late as the year
1744.

" Thus did the genius and labours of Gesner add
dignity and ornament to the works of other men,
and even of some whose enmity he had experienced
during his lifetime.

" Besides the above mentioned, Gesner left five
volumes, consisting entirely of figures, which, after

56 MEMOIR OF GESNER.

various vicissitudes, became the property of Trew
of Norimberg. Sensible that, whether we view the
extent of Gesner's knowledge and learning or his
singular industry, such must be the veneration for
his character, that any of his remains must claim
the attention of the curious, the possessor gratified
the public, by the pen of Dr. Schmiedel, with an
ample specimen, published in 1753." *

The work alluded to by Pulteney is an ele-
gant folio in two volumes. The first, which in the
copy now before us bears the date of 1751, con-
tains an elaborate and interesting life of Gesner by
Schmiedel, to which we have been largely indebted
in drawing up the present biography ; portrait and
armorial bearings of Gesner; the history of his
works on plants; commentaries on the fifth book
of Valerius Cordus, with a notice, De morbo et
obitu Yalerii Cordi ; the first book of Gesner's His-
toria Stirpium ; and an extensive series of his wood-
engravings, followed by others on copper by Se-
ligmann of Nuremberg. This work is beautifully
printed and embellished, and forms a kind of reper-
tory of the botanical lore of the period, of the
highest interest to the historian of the science.

Much valuable botanical information is likewise
to be found in Gesner's letters to his friends, many
of which letters still exist. His views with regard
to arrangement are chiefly to be derived from this
source.

When we have mentioned our author's work,
* Pulteney's Sketches of Botany, vol. i.

MEMOIR OF GESNER. 57

De omni rerum fossilium genere, gemmis, lapidibus,
metallis et hujusmodi," (Zurich, 1565), a publica-
tion which excited great attention at the time, and
contains much curious information, as well as many
illustrative engravings of a no less curious character,
we shall have noticed the most important of Ges-
ner's contributions to the general stock of know-
ledge. An entire list of everything he wrote may
be collected from Schmieders life, the additions of
Tussier to the eloges of M. de Thou, and his own
letter to William Turner.

Every one who has written of Gesner has ex-
pressed surprise that he should have been able to
accomplish so much; and when we consider the
difficulties he had to encounter in his youth, the
laborious duties of his profession at a subsequent
period, his frequent illnesses, and his early death, it
is impossible to regard the results of his labours in
any other light. His devotion to literature and
natural science must have been intense; his appli-
cation unceasing; the facility and fertility of his
genius such as are rarely met with. "With much
that is crude, obsolete, and useless, the necessary
consequence of the period and circumstances under
which he wrote, his publications must be regarded
as of great merit, displaying a wonderful accumula-
tion of knowledge derived from previous writers,
with an important accession resulting from his own
observation and original power of thought. Whether
we consider them as a repertory of the existing
knowledge of the times, or in reference to the light

58 MEMOIR OF GESNER.

which they for the first time shed on the subjects
of which they treat, they must ever secure for their
author a venerable name among the Fathers of
Natural History.

In accordance with the praiseworthy practice of
botanists, whose beautiful science it is desirable to
surround with all agreeable influences and asso-
ciations, the name of Gesner has been conferred
on a species of tulip, — Tulipa Gesneriana. Not
contented with this, Plumier, who has indulged in
the practice more than any other botanist, has de-
voted to his honour an American genus of the family
CampanulaceW) under the name of Gcsneria.

THE

NATURAL HISTORY OF EQUIDJE,

OR THE

GENUS EQUUS OF AUTHORS;

COMPREHENDING

THE HORSE, THE ASS, THE ZEBRA AND
THEIR CONGENERS.

A HISTORY of the Solipede animals,, of the species
contained in the Linnaean genus Equus, and more re-
cently designated by the appellation of Equidse, would
be liable to disappoint a scientific reader if with
Zoological views alone, he expected to find in its
pages much that was new or unobserved by anterior
writers; for, when we consider, that in the genus,
two species, the Horse and the Ass, have been the
object of the most unremitting attention to man from
the beginning of human civilization, that poets, philo-
sophers, statesmen, historians, rural-economists, war-
riors, hunters, speculators, physiologists and veteri-
narians have all objects where the horse at least
forms a conspicuous element, that from the inspired

60 INTRODUCTION.

poetry of the book of Job, from the times of Homer,
Aristotle, Xenophon, Herodotus, Virgil, Varro,
Columella, Gesner, Aldrovandus, Johnston, Buffon,
Linnaeus, Pennant, Pallas, Gmelin to Cuvier, Bell,
and a host of others, ancient and modern, facts and
observations have been accumulating, researches
pursued and descriptions produced, where we trace
patient investigation and often eloquent description.
It must be confessed that the inquiry is all but ex-
hausted, and that we must confine our views to a
collection of the more prominent facts, for the atten-
tion of those who have neither time nor inclination
to search the whole field, and while due place is given
them, draw forth from their general or particular
tenor some observations and comparisons that perhaps
have not as yet been offered to the public or have
only met with transient attention. Thus we may
still hope to submit in the result of our labours some-
thing worthy of notice to the learned, and not unin-
viting to the casual reader, whose object is merely to
obtain correct information combined with amusement.
Where historical reflections embracing the earliest
periods of antiquity are concerned, we hope to point
out some philological considerations that may obtain
the assent of linguists and assist inquiries on the pro-
gress of the more ancient human colonies ; particu-
larly the irruptions of the first Equestrian conquering
hordes, and the indications where the Mongolian
variety of man commences to press westward upon the
Caucasian. In the discussion on the fossil remains of
Equidae there also may be found arguments deserving

INTRODUCTION. tf]

attention,, as regarding their original distribution, and
the sources whence mankind first drew the animals
it subdued and subsequently mounted. Finally, a
review of the breeds noticed by the ancients will
expose some facts in history which we think both
new and curious.

/In the 12th edition of the Linnsean system, the
horse, or genus Equus, is placed among the Belluse,
constituting the sixth order of his Mammalia ; it, is
a group very distinctly characterized, and perfectly
natural ; but, at the same time, remarkably isolated
from all other genera, by the form of particular
organs, which remain so constantly similar in the
several species as to make in their turn but slight
approximations to surrounding families, and leave
but trivial distinctions to separate the genus into
subordinate parts, or mark the difference of species. ,
These circumstances appear to have induced systema-
tic writers to admit them all into one. Gmelin,
indeed, in the 1 3th edition of the system of Linnaeus,
formed two, making his first out of Molinas Equus
Bisulcus, or cloven-footed horse, now universally
regarded as fabulous, or as a mere variety of Lama,
and the second of the solidungular species, which
constitutes the true Equidee. Storr formed for it a
distinct order under the name of Solipedes, and
ranged it after the Ruminants ; while Illiger, adopt-
ing this order, followed Erxleben, who had located
the horse between the elephant and camel, which
was nearly the same as the arrangement of the
Swedish naturalist: one corresponding to Bell use,

£2 INTRODUCTION.

the other to Ruminantia : hut Baron Cuvier, follow-
ing at first the same distribution, finally made the
genus horse one of the pachydermous order, and
leaving it undivided, fixed the location -last in that
series, and immediately before Camelus, which con-
stitutes the first of the next.

Mr. Gray, in the Zoological Journal, Vol. I.,
defines the family of Equidse as distinguished from
.all other animals by the form of the hoof being un-
divided, the stomach simple, and the female having
two teats on the pubes: the teeth are, incisors f,
canines in the males -J--J-, molars f-|=40. He
.further divides Equidae into .two genera: namely, 1st,
the horse; (Equus Caballus;) and 2d, the ass;
(Asinus;) embracing Hemionus, the common ass,
.and the zebras ; the former type being destitute of
stripes, having warts or callosities on both arms and
legs, and the tail furnished with long hair up to the
root, while the .latter are .generally white, more or
less banded with blackish brown, and always have a
distinct dorsal line ; .the tail furnished with a brush
only at the extremity, and warts existing on the
arms alone. These distinctions have been considered
by M. Lesson, insufficient to constitute two genera ;
and although Mr. Bell supports the views of Mr.
Gray, and justly contends that several of them are
structural, we do not admit all the facts of either
naturalists as unexceptionable to the extent required
to constitute separate genera ; there being in reality
.not two, but three types or distinct groups, as will
-be shewn in the sequel; and exceptions to uni-

INTRODUCTION. 63

formity, which even then point to a further sub-
division*^

^* The Equidee seem appropriately placed between
Pachydermata and Ruminants, from their conforma-
tion being intermediate,* and also, because they are
found in a fossil state, accompanying the debris of
both, and thereby proving that they co-existed in a
former Zoology, or at least in a Zoological distribu-
tion, more ancient than the present ; for, among the
organic remains in limestone caverns, in osseous
breccias, in tertiary or alluvial strata, (the pliocene of
Lyell) in the fresh water deposits, and in the Eppes-
heim sand, among several species of Elephant, of
Hhinoceros, of Bovine and Cervine genera, their
bones are found along with the remains of a former
hyaena, or of a species perhaps still extant. Their
debris, often in great abundance, are spread over
an immense surface of the Old World, from eastern
Tahtary to the west of Ireland, and from the Polar
regions to the south of the Himalaya mountains,"!
and to an unknown distance in northern Africa,,t_J

* Such as the rudiments of two other toes attached to each
of the canon bones, the structure of the stomach, the teeth, are
pachydermous ; the consolidation of the phalanges, separately
immoveable, homogenous ; but the conformation of other parts
approximates the ruminantial character.

•f We have seen teeth of Equidae found in Polar ice, along
with the bones of the Siberian Mammoth, others from the
Himalaya range, down to its southern spurs, mixed with frag-
ments of lost and unascertained genera ; many more from the
Oreston and Torquay caverns, with bones and teeth of hyaena
and sheep; some from Ireland, and one from Barbary, com-

64 INTRODUCTION.

Although different authors have bestowed specific
names upon the remains of these animals found in
different places, such as Hippotherium of Caup,
Equus fossilis, Equus Adamiticus, of Schlotheim,
Equus (Caballus) primigenius, Equus (Mulus) primi-
genius, and Equus (Asinus) primigenius, we find,
from the confession of Baron Cuvier, that he never
discovered a character sufficiently fixed in the exist-
ing species, and therefore still less in the fossil, to
enable him to pronounce on one from a single bone.
All the remains of Equidse hitherto discovered, ap-
pear so perfectly similar in their conformations to
the domestic horse, (Equus Caballus,) that they can
scarcely, or at most only in part, be ascribed to other
species of the genus. From the commixture of their
debris, there cannot be a doubt that they have existed
together with several great pachydermata, and with
hyaenas, whose teeth have left evident marks, pro-
miscuously, upon a great number of them : but what
in this question is deserving of attention is, that
while all the other genera and species, found under

pletely fossilized. Horse bones, accompanied by those of
elephant, rhinoceros, tiger and hyaena, rest by thousands in the
caves of Canstadt, in Wurtemberg; they have been found with
elephant bones at Sevran, in digging the canal of Ourcq ;
at Fouvent-le-prieur£ ; at Argenteuil ; in Val d'Arno with
Mastodon ; and on the borders of the Rhine with colossal
Urus. Crawfurd does not notice any among the organic re-
mains observed by him in Ava ; but Captain Cantley found
Equine bones in the sandstone, and among fallen cliffs of the
Sewallick mountains, at the southern base of the Himalayas
between the Sutleje and the Ganges.

INTRODUCTION. 05

the foregoing conditions have ceased to exist, or
have removed to higher temperatures, the horse alone
has remained to the present time in the same regions,
without, it would appear, any protracted interrup-
tion ; since, from the circumstances which manifest
deposits to he of the earliest era in question, frag-
ments of its skeleton continue to be traced upwards
in successive formations, to the present superficial and
vegetable mould.

(Moreover, the hones of Equidse, in all their
localities, agree sufficiently, at least so far as our
researches extend, to fix the stature of the animals
at or near the standard of the wild horses of
Asia, and the middle-sized unimproved breeds of
the present day; while nearly all the others, and
particularly those of Ruminants, found in the same
deposits, often announce structures considerably
larger than their present congeners. Now, as
the debris of Mastodons, Elephants, Bovidee and
Cervidse, have likewise been discovered in the
western continent, but it would seem without those
of the horse, or the hyaena, it appears that neither
were at any time indigenous, while in the old con-
tinent, both are found ; one having only retreated
to a southern latitude, and the other continuing to
reside without, or with no sensible difference of
characters, in its primeval location : as if, while
several very remarkable species of animals have dis-
appeared, and others are now only extant in climates
of higher temperature, the horse alone had escaped
the operation of some great agency in nature, which

6$ INTRODUCTION.

acted with decisive power to the destruction of all
the other Mammals in question.*

These considerations, and more particularly the
presence of horse-hones upwards to the surface,
seem to indicate the original residence of the pre-
sent domestic horse to have extended over the same
surface of the Old World as the anterior fossil ani-
mal ; we say the domestic horse^ without therefore
excluding the Hemionus, which once resided as far
west as Prussia, or denying that the Koomrah
existed in northern Africa, which is of the true
form of Eq. Cahallus, though the specifical identity
may be doubted. We are also inclined to question
the positive unity of species in the Tangums and
Kiangs of the central high' ridges of Asia, and even
that of the wild horses originally indigenous in the
British Islands : possibly the Sarans of the great
Indian chain may be distinct, although the homoge-
neous character of their structure cannot be doubted :
they, and other varieties hereafter to be mentioned,
appear to be different forms of one type, very closely
allied, yet distinct.

We do not as yet know the limits of what con-
stitutes a genus, nor have we a satisfactory definition
of species, since it is admitted that hybrids derived
even from assumed distinct genera, are not without
the power of procreating a fertile offspring, with

* From this view burrowing Canidae and Rodentia are
purposely excluded, because, from their habits, they may be
found in the same localities, without belonging to the same
era.

INTRODUCTION. 67

either of the parent species, if not among them-
selves ; thus implanting new forms and new charac-
teristics in a progeny, which may again and again
receive additional blood of the foreign stock, with
the more facility, since the hyhrid conformation is
already prepared for further adulteration ; and, not-
withstanding the known tendency to sterility, obli-
terate specific distinctions, and form a homogeneous
race.

[The circumstances of the existence of dissimilar
forms of a common type, are parallel to those of the
Argali, (Ovis Ammon,) equally found identical or
different in Asia, Africa, and the islands of the
Mediterranean, which existed anciently in Spain,
and at this moment is spread over a great part of
western North America. In no case are these ani-
mals suspected to have been transported by human
intervention, and yet they are located in some places
where, without the aid of man, they cannot have
migrated, unless we admit of changes on the surface
of the earth since the present Zoology was in being,
of such magnitude, as to include the formation of
the Mediterranean — the separation of the British
Islands from the continent of Europe — of the Indian
Islands from that of Asia — and the formation of a
channel to cut America from connexion with the
Old World. How this genus Ovis could have re-
sisted the effects of extreme alterations of climate
such as then must have occurred under the two con-
ditions of existence before and after the great catas-
trophe, forms a further case of difficulty ; while to

68 INTRODUCTION.

make the whole still more inexplicable, it may be
added, that no fossil remains of any of the genus
exist, excepting, perhaps, of one to all appearance
belonging to the domestic sheep found under ques-
tionable conditions in the Devonshire deposits.*

If the Argali, therefore, are all of the same
species, they must have been separated during the
great diluvian catastrophe, at the time the species of
rhinoceros, of buffalo, tiger, and others, found in the
Indian Islands, were likewise separated from the
continent, and placed in locations where species un-
known to Asia, such as the Tapir and Marsupiata,
still exist, who have congeners only in South Ame-
rica. The more we pursue these reflections, the
greater is the dilemma. Without attempting to ex-
plain in what manner, we must ultimately revert to
the opinion of a Zoological distribution being effected

* The existence of debris of horses in South America, in
company with the Megatherium in aqueous deposits, is not
yet sufficiently proved to be coeval ; and with regard to the
teeth of a horse, at least equal in size to our great domestic
breeds described by Mr. J. C. Bellamy, and found in the
ossiferous caves of South Devon, the difference of size is not
so great as to change the nature of the general conclusions ;
and several of these sites, where the remains of sheep, of a
canine, possibly a wolf, flint knives, potsherds, and even
human bones have been detected, although with or near those
of rhinoceros and hyena, lead to doubts respecting the real
cause and time of their juxtaposition. If the discovery of
true Equine debris in South America be now admitted in de-
ference to the late report of the accurate Owen, it remains to
be ascertained whether they do not belong to the Austral
group, that is, to the zebra form.

INTRODUCTION. 69

at so remote a period, that our conclusions respect-
ing identity of species, are only inferential and for
the convenience of classification : that, notwith-
standing the superabundant inclination in man to
assume dominion over matter, there appears to be
distinct evidence to prove, by their fitness, the in-
tention of the Creator regarding the destination of
several animals was meant for human use. For if
we do not admit these views, there remains only
the supposition of a creation of pairs, or of only one
family of each species, which, gradually increasing,
extended and migrated to a multitude of localities
in many cases so inaccessible, as to demand more
violent causes, more unphilosophical necessities thaa
the former; disregarding withal a totally unba-
lanced state in the system of co-ordained organic
beings.^

/•This conclusion we have already endeavoured to
draw in the history of the Canidse : it will be farther
illustrated in that of the domestic horse ; is more or
less perceptible in all the thoroughly domesticated
animals, and when we examine their capacity to bear
in man's company, the variations of climate and
changes of food to which he has subjected them, we
may take the law of sterility in the commixture of
different species to have its limits where the forms
cease to be sufficiently homogeneous ; a law unques-
tionably ordained for the wisest purposes, but marked
with exceptional modifications for purposes not less
beneficent : — There are so many proofs of the beauti-
ful flexibility of their action upon organized beings,

70 INTRODUCTION.

that to reject the ahove conclusion, evidently reduces
us to the necessity of regarding the wolf and the dog,
the camel and the dromedary, the goat and the sheep
as constituting but single species ; for all these pro-
duce fertile offspring.

It seems therefore more consonant with the distri-
bution of several genera of animals on the earth's
surface to believe, that osculating forms existed ab
initio distinct, circumstanced to accomplish certain
ends, such as the service of man, and therefore framed
so as to render them fusible into one species. The
Argalis or wild sheep before-mentioned, bear all the
evidence of this fusibility, and that the domesticated
varieties spread over the Old World, have the blood
of more than one original species in their organization,
may fairly be inferred from several of Persia and
High Asia bearing a near resemblance to the wild in
their vicinity. We may even assume, that civilized
man, if it had been his lot to deal with the zebras of
Soutb Africa instead of the horses of Asia, in due time
would have succeeded in amalgamating the three or
four species now existing into one domestic animal
little inferior to our present horse : that the powers
of draught would have been found in the Quagga,
the qualities of charger in the Zebra and the properties
of mountain pony in the Dauw.

With these impressions, we may for the present
suspend our opinion ; whether several wild races of
horses were, or were not originally of the same species,
and with the greater cause, since there are Equidse
undeniably different who produce nevertheless mules

INTRODUCTION. 71

not totally sterile. There are besides phenomena as
yet not satisfactorily explained, in the few and partial
experiments that have been made relating to this
very question of intermixture,, and the traces it leaves
on succeeding generations : phenomena which the
remarks of Mr. Bell and Mr. Macdonald have not
set at rest, and where superfetation is out of the
question. We allude to the characters of the sire
of the mothers first offspring remaining impressed
upon the succeeding in form, colours and markings,
although the first was of a different species and the
second of the same as the female ; thereby showing
a tendency to propagate strange forms in preference
to the homogeneous. The most striking example of
these facts was made known by the late Earl of
Morton and recorded in the Philosophical transactions
for the year 1821, where it is stated that he had
bred an hybrid foal, between a chestnut mare of f
Arabian blood and a Quagga, which in form and
colour bore decided evidence of a mixed origin ; this
was her first foal ; but where interest was most ex-
cited occurred five years after, when the same mare,
then the property of Sir Gore Ousely, bred by a black
Arabian horse a filly and the next year a colt, by the
same parent, which, although both were then unques-
tionably J§ths of pure Arabian blood, of homogene-
ous species, still retained strong marks of the anterior
spurious commixture, in the character of the mane,
the colour of the hair, and in the striped markings
on the neck, shoulders and joints ! These facts were
fully corroborated by the late Dr. Wollaston and in

72 INTRODUCTION.

part came under our own observation. Portraits of
the animals, painted by the accurate Agasse are pre-
served in the Museum of Surgeons College, London.

We represent the 1st 2nd and even 3rd produce of
this mare and black Arabian, where these marks
are all conspicuous. In the last foal the mane retains
its Quagga character as much as in the first, and in
all the streaks on neck and back are more decided
than even in the mule ; which we shall figure when
the Nat. history of Mules is considered.

It has been remarked on this tendency of the dur-
ation of characters belonging to the first male parent,
however different he may have been in form or colour,
that it recurs in the dog and hog, but Mr. Bell does
not attempt furthur to account for it, although the
question is of still stronger import, since, in the case
of the mare, the first male was of a different species,
and not of the same ; as according to his authority,
dogs and hogs are, when subject to these effects.
We, on the contrary, having already noticed this
question in the history of the dogs, and adduced the
example of hogs, to prove a plurality of homogeneous
forms in both, regard the facts above recorded as in-
dicating a plural origin exceeding the limits of even
our own inferences.

Mr. Macdonald's remarks, which we know only
from an abstract in the Athenseum No. 612, 1839,
refer the phenomena described in Lord Morton's
communication to a possible cross in the progenitors
of the mare with an Eelback dun, which is always
marked with a streak on the back, and not unfre-

ro?i

-7/

"V

INTRODUCTION.

quently with cross bars on the joints : but this con-
jecture would not account for the stripes on the neck
and shoulders, and though far fetched, explains only
the dorsal streak and bars on the limbs, which the
Eelback dun seems to have derived from an ancient
cross with Hemionus, for this race of horses is nearest
in colour and markings to the Isabella breed of
antiquity, so renowned for mounting the Median
cavalry, and not always destitute of a cross on the
shoulder.

Whether one or more species of wild horses con-
stituted the primseval forms of the distinct races of
the northern half of Asia, and merged gradually into
the Equus caballus of systematic writers, is a question
not likely to be fully determined, but beside them
there are at least two other Equidse, one ranging
over the Steppes of Tahtary, and from thence south-
ward to the plains of Persia, is known by the names of
Hemionus and Dziggetai, and the other a more south-
ern animal, though ascending in summer as far north
as Lake Aral, is questionably regarded as the original
wild ass, and bears the names of Hymar, Ghoor-Khar
and Kulan ; while a third, the Kiang of Ladauk, is
not as yet sufficiently described, and a fourth more
nearly allied to Hemionus, probably the Yo-to-tze of
China, will be noticed by us under the appellation of
Asinus Hippagrus. All these species or varieties have
been confounded by travellers and naturalists until
their names and distinctive marks cannot be completely
rectified. There exists besides in the northern half
of Africa an Equine animal designated by the natives

74 INTRODUCTION.

as tlie Koomrah,* which the Mograbiris report to be
the offspring of a bull and mare, the Hippotaurus of
older naturalists. It is nearly allied to the true horse,
but small, a tenant of the mountains and distinct from
the wild ass which Pliny took to be the Onager
noticed by Leo Africanus, Mannol and lately by M.
Lin ant.

Regarding Equus Caballus Equus Varius arid Equus
Lalisio as belonging to the same type, the last
mentioned shewing an approximation to A sinus, we
take Hemionus and Onager or Hymar as belonging
to Asinus, although we may doubt the Kiang and
Kulan being identical with either, and A. Hippagrus
must be considered as absolutely intermediate. Be-
sides these two general types, there is a third entirely
confined to the South side of the Equator and belong-
ing to Africa, but distinctly separated by the uni-
formity of the striped liveries which invariably adorns
the three or perhaps four species it contains.

^The domestic ass supposed to be derived from the
wild Hymar of the desert and the horse of Asia,
enter at a remote period into the circle of human
economic establishments. The first mentioned, as
might be expected, resided in the same regions where
the dawn of civilization commenced, and gifted with
inferior powers of resistance, is presumed to have
been subjugated several ages before the second, be-

* Koomrah, Cumri seems to be a Mauritania!! mutation of
Hymar, mixed up with the Negro Kumrie, (white) the animal
being found in the snowy mountain range of Nigritia, and hence
also the idea that it is white.

INTRODUCTION. 75

cause we find it repeatedly indicated in the Penta-
teuch before the horse is noticed, such as, in the
sacrifice of Abraham ; in his visit to Egypt, where
he received presents of Abimelech ; and in the spoils
of Shechein, where asses are numbered with other
cattle, but the horse is not mentioned. Yet that
noble animal, by nature provided with greater phy-
sical capabilities, with more intelligence, and more
instinctive tendencies for adapting his existence to
the circumstances of domestication in every region,
is in his servitude grown larger, more adorned,
more acute, and more educational than in a state of
nature ; while the ass, in similar circumstances, has
degenerated from his pristine character, becoming,
even in the greater part of Persia, smaller in stature,
less fleet, less intelligent, and by his own impulses
less the associate of man. When the horse, from
thorough domesticity, is again cast upon his own
resources, he resumes his original independence,
provides for his own safety and that of the herd
under his care, without altogether losing his acquired
advantages ; the ass, on the contrary, although never
a spontaneous associate in his domestication, is no
where known to have again become wild, or to have
sought his freedom with a spirit of persevering
vigilance ; and in cases where by accident he has
found himself in freedom, he has made no energetic
efforts to retain it, nor recovered qualities that
restore him to the filiation of the Hymar or the
Kulan. When emancipated, he becomes, without
effort, the prey of the lion, the tiger, the hyaena, or

76 INTRODUCTION.

the wolf, and in America he has been known to
succumb under the beak of a condor. It is evident
that the difference in the relative conditions of the
two species, is, with regard to the ass, not entirely
referrible to human neglect and want of kindness, but
in part, at least, must be ascribed to inferior sensibility
and weaker intellectual power; both being alike
evinced by the hardness of his hide, by his satisfac-
tion with coarser food, and his passive stubbornness.*
We know, besides, so little of the social condi-
tion of the primitive seat of civilization, of the
original centre, whence knowledge radiated to China,
India, and Egypt, perhaps in Bactria, in the higher
valleys of the Oxus or in Cachmere, that it may
be surmised the first domestication of the horse was
achieved in Central Asia, or commenced nearly
simultaneously in several regions where the wild
animals of the horse form existed, and in point of
date, perhaps, even earlier than that of the ass,
whose natural habitat is more superficially extended

* What Don Ulloa says respecting wild asses in Peru, and
Molina of the same animals in Chili, are mere local accounts
of a few strayed animals that may have bred in independence
on the borders of the plantations, but they do not resume cha-
racteristics of vigilance, of liberty, and of voice, such as are so
beautifully depicted in the glowing images of the Hebrew pro-
phets and Arabian poets ; they are not noticed by later travel-
lers, and in no case appear in droves on the Pampas or troops
in the mountains, in a fixed feral state, like the horse. There
were feral asses, according to the Buccaneers, in St. Domingo
and other places ; yet though they ought to be the most vigi-
lant, the least sought, and the most inaccessible, they have
disappeared, while the feral horse still remains.

INTRODUCTION. 77

to the south of the great mountain range of Middle
Asia.

^In the natural history of the horse, lately pub-
lished, there is an opinion expressed, contrary to
the conclusion of others, that the species is of Afri-
can origin. With a view, therefore, of instituting
some inquiry into the primitive habitat and period
of domestication of the horse, by a philological
research concerning the names bestowed upon ani-
mals of that family in the most ancient known
languages, we find in the Hebrew, the oldest criti-.
cally studied tongue of the Semitic branch, a variety
of terms applied to Equidae, some of which in our
biblical version seem to be occasionally translated
with questionable accuracy, or are more generical
than specific, and there are others whose radical
Hebrew origin maybe doubted* • Aware how vague
and inconclusive studies of this kind are deemed to
be by many persons of erudition, and how open
they are to abuse in themselves, still, to one whose
attention has been long and repeatedly called to
linguisitics, and who in his inquiries into the origin
of the older nations of history and of the West has
met with numerous relations between the remotest
times and the present, between the most ancient
languages and those of the older dialects spoken in
Europe, the affinities are often so obtrusive, that the
result may be worth noticing in an abstract form
and confined to the object we have immediately
before us. We find, for example, the name of the
ass, "Pllf, orud, if it be onomatopoeically an imita-

78 INTRODUCTION.

tion of braying, that S1!D, pra, another assumed
name for the same animal, is not likely again de-
rived from an imitation of the asinine voice, and be
equally from an Hebrew root, in a language not
remarkable for extent or richness in its vocabulary.
JTTN, atun^ is a third designation repeatedly trans-
lated by female ass, and also asserted to mean a
particular species or race of saddle-asses, and "pEil,
cJiamor, in Arabic ckamara, hamar, and hymar, in
^Ethiopic cehmiri, one decidedly Semitic, refers to
the wild ass, and appears again to allude to the
voice of the animal. As for ttQ"7, reches^ translated
mules, and not found until about the time of the
first kings of Israel, we think the true meaning to
be a carrier, equally applicable to a mule and to the
swift dromedary, hedgeen, as seems proved by 32*1,
recheb) a chariot ; and again traceable in the West-
ern Arabic shrulat-er-reech, the celebrated fleet
horses of the desert, or swallowers of the wind.
The names of animals, in original and in most an-
cient languages, unquestionably are often to be
traced to imitations of their voice, or to some pre-
dominant obvious quality in their form, colours, or
uses, and we find this fact particularly applicable
to Equidae. Now, taking pra, para^ pered, perdah,
to mean an ass, a mule, or more properly a riding
beast, and comparing them with t£TQ, paras, horses,
and O**t£n3, Parasim, Persians, later Parthians,
that is, horsemen, we see that the root has a more
eastern origin, and belongs to a people coming from
the regions of Hindukoh, whose name was derived

INTRODUCTION. 79

from the quality of riding or charioteering; in a
secondary sense, an exalted people, and was con-
nected with a dialect, if not Sanscrit, at least Zend
or Pelhevi, not remote from Maesogothic and Teu-
tonic, where pherd, perd, paert are dialectical varia-
tions of the same origin, and even the Latin ferro *
is not an alien. We may therefore suspect that
pra, para, &c., in common with many other Indo-
Sacian, Germanic, or Scythic t words abounding in
the Arabic and other Semitic languages, were im-
ported by the first equestrian colonies that invaded
Syria and Egypt. We find it in a remoter sense in
the name of phre, a title of the sun, the charioteer
and the image of beauty, as it is again in the West,
where the Scandinavian freya and fray denote
beauty and pre-eminence : these inferences are fur-
ther supported by the Babylonian name ninus,
ninnus, Mnnus, through the Greek www, from an

* Probably through the imperative fer, which is radically
the same as Phra, Phar, the " Car-born" Pharoah and, Per-
sian, Varanes seem both to be epithets derived from faren^
varen. Even the Sanscrit mystical boar Vahrahan^ Teutonic
Vehr, and Latin Verus preserves the character, if not of being
borne, but of bearing up ; for he upholds the world on his tusks.

f We use the term Scythic for want of one more explicit,
and understand by it the Caucasian nations of the northern
half of ancient Asia, who, being provided with horses, came
across the Jaxartes, down the Oxus and the Indus, across the
Tigris, the Euphrates, to the Bosphoms and the Nile, in the
character of conquerors more than colonists. Servius, in his
remarks on the language of Virgil, who in common with most
ancient writers gives the creation of the horse to Neptune,
states that some name this horse Scythius.

80 INTRODUCTION.

Asiatic root, always denoting a young Equine ani-
mal, and the old Persian name pful, * a beam of
the sun, a horse, a foal consecrated to the sun, t and
the later asp, *_***!, both epithets and names of a
whole series of kings and princes. J Surely these
inferences are more admissible than to take phar or
phra from the forced root fugit. With regard to
the oldest Sanscrit names of the horse, it is true we
find none directly sounding like pro, or perd; they
are aswa and turanga, with several other epithets:

* An object to cross ; a bridge.

•f* The Centaurs, children of Centaurus, son of Apollo, among
whom Pholus appears to be again pful, or ful, fallen, foal.

£ The original idea seems always to refer to conveyance, —
being carried, riding, drawn, sailing, ever associated with ele-
vation, grandeur, velocity : hence, in Hebrew, equally appli-
cable to a horse and an ass. Northern words, in the Arabic
alone, amount to several hundred, derived most likely from an
unknown parent sto'ck through Zend or Pelhevi, and closely
allied to Gothic and Sanscrit. The known Indo-Sacse and
Germanii had first proceeded south before they moved west-
ward at a later period, and cannot have had such strong influ-
ence upon the Semitic tongues : we must look for an earlier
and more permanent cause to account for the fact ; perhaps to
the giant invasion of Canaan, or of the shepherds in Egypt.
That there were inroads of cavalry nations from the north-east
at a later period, is sufficiently implied by the predictions in
Deuteronomy, where the expressions " from afar off, even from
the ends of the earth, as swift as an eagle flieth," are perfectly
to the purpose ; and at an earlier period these terrible invaders
would no doubt have been denominated giants. With regard to
the word Asp, it affords another indication of the original habitat
of the horse in the names of most ancient nations of Central
Asia noticed by Greek authors, such as the Aspii, Arimaspii,
horsemen and mountain-horsemen, probably Mongoles of Tibet.

INTRODUCTION. 81

the first of these, no doubt, parent of the Persian
asp, and the latter of Turan, the land of the swift,
an ancient appellation of Bokhara or the valley of
the Jaxartes, that river which in Hindu mythology
is always represented issuing out of a horse's mouth,
and therefore another indication of the quarter
whence horses became known to Southern Asia.
Now, referring to atun, we may believe it to be
another mutation like asp from aswa, or along with
aswa from a root still older, and be likewise in con-
nexion with wjro$ and equus, which are claimed to
be Pelasgian modifications, and that the Finnic epo
and upping, an ancient Anglo-Saxon and Frisic
term, is similarly related to twos. All these names
are expressive of qualities, and their roots may be
fairly traced. A similar slight mutation places the
Hebrew "HH, ramach, and the Celto-Scythic march*
a horse, a mare, in the same affinity; and if we
take one more name, 7v, sus or sush, in Turkish
still sukh, the most ancient term for that animal
known in the south-west of Asia, and the origin of
Susiana and Susa, whither the earliest Caucasian
invaders appear to have come to settle with their
horses in the pastures along the river Choaspes, we
have also an indication of colour, for sush, a muta-
tion of sur, the inversion of rhus, applies to bay, the
general livery of horses ; a name which in the West
slightly varied to rhos, or hros, and horse, belongs to
both the animal and the colour ; while the word bay,
in Latin badius^ and in old Teutonic bayert, may be
imported from Arabia, where leyal denotes the same

82 • INTRODUCTION.

animal, or is again a coincidence between the Ara-
bic, the old Pelasgian, and the Teutonic.
V Thus we may infer, that the_original horse of
f\ South- western Asia came already domesticated from
the north-east, and therefore we find no mention of
it made, till the patriarch Joseph, holding the highest
ministerial power in Egypt, went up with chariots
and horsemen to bury his aged father in the cave
of Machpelah : for, if he resided at Zoan on the
borders of Goshen, or at On (the Greek Heliopolis),
where the sun was honoured under the title of phre
and phar, he was in the region where the grazier
Hyksos, invaders and charioteers from High Asia,
had until lately resided.*

If, without the aid of horses, the progress of
colonization could at first be effected only by a
gradual and slow advance, and that of military
conquest could not be extended beyond a mere
vicinity, w.e see how readily Sesostris availed him-
self of the spoils obtained from the expelled shep-
herds ; that with the aid of horses, which they first
brought to Egypt, he retaliated and passed eastward
to the very sources whence they had issued ; and

* The Hyksos or Huikos, that is, Haik wearers, is a name of
ancient Upper Armenia, and denotes a garment, from which
we retain the old word Huck, and the ancient Belgians Fuik.
Snorro gives to Scythia the name of Sarkland^ the land of
Tunic, i. e. huck wearers, which coincides with the received
opinion of the region whence these Scythic invaders had issued,
and the direction they took in their retreat, although it is pro-
bable that they went no farther north than the Hauran, beyond
Jordan.

INTRODUCTION. 83

although he may have missed their line of retreat
across the Jordan, by taking the road along the
Syrian coast, it appears, if faith can be placed in
relations more legendary than historical, that he
penetrated into Bactria ; and from his era horses
are evidently used in Egypt. But although these
animals are seen in numerous battle-pictures repre-
senting his wars and conquests, and are drawn with
a skill which marks the perception of high bred
races, we must not take them to be all coeval, but
as tokens of refinement in art during successive
ages. The abundance of war-horses they pourtraj
is an exaggeration, for, as already shown, they art
unnoticed until the era of Joseph, and therefore of
recent introduction, when the shepherd kings were
already expelled; nor numerous at the time of
Exodus, since the whole that could be called out,
indeed on a short notice, but still from that part
of Egypt where provender was most abundant,
amounted, in the pursuit of Israel, only to six hun-
dred chariots of war, " all the chariots of Egypt ;"
which implies either an enormous destruction in the
murrain of cattle, or a very scanty establishment of
horses in the district of Memphis, two being the
amount for each chariot in Egypt. This shows
how little reliance can be placed in the profane
historians, who allowed twenty-seven thousand cha-
riots to Sesostris, and one hundred thousand chariots,
with a million of horsemen, to Semiramis. *

* These hieroglyphic pictures show by the cross, — the Swas-
teka cross of Budhu, figured on the robes of several foreign

84 INTRODUCTION.

From motives that may be assigned to the inten-
tions of Moses, or from causes operating at this
moment in part of Arabia Petrea, horses were not
permitted to be bred by the people of Israel, who
being intended to live isolated from other nations,
might not become conquerors, — and destined to oc-
cupy a mountainous range enclosed between deserts
and the sea, could not come down into the plains
without danger, and only became predominant under
the kings who first disregarded the injunction. *
The case wras similar on their nearest border in
Arabia; for even in the time of Saul, the conse-
quence of a victory over Arab tribes furnished the
Hebrews with plunder in camels, asses, and sheep,
but not in horses. In the Psalms, horses are gene-
rally noticed as used by their Canaanitish enemies :
David himself, in a battle where a number of priso-
ners were taken, ordered most of their horses to be
slain. But although these facts apply to Judea

nations, — that they are not themselves of the era of Sesostris,
Remses II. or III. ; they also indicate the region whence Egypt
derived horses, since, in the tribute paid by a conquered
people, horses, and even chariots, are represented : now, this
people is painted with long dresses, light complexions, brown
hair, and blue eyes, and named Rot-n-no. Among other objects
of interest there are bears, and elephants with short ears and
high foreheads, peculiar to the Asiatic species, all offering
proofs of the Rot-n-no being residents in High Asia and not
Africa, though it involves the difficulty of elephants being then
found to the west of the Indus and of Hindukoh, but it is
probable that they were already imported from India at a re-
mote period. See Wilkinson's " Ancient Egyptians," vol. i,
* Deuteronomy, xvii. 16.

INTRODUCTION. 85

and part of Arabia, all round these regipns horses
had multiplied at an early period, as we shall see
in the sequel.

In the most ancient legislation of India, dating
back to a period nearly coeval with Moses, horses
are mentioned, and in particular, where the asica-
meda jug, or sacrifice of these animals is enjoined,
which, during the predominance of the worship of
Kali, was an awful solemnity, only next to the im-
molation of a human victim. The importance thus
bestowed upon a horse shows, however, the scarcity
of the species at that period; but in later ages,
horses for sacrifice or ascribed to mystical purposes
occur, already bearing denomination of breeds and
of native countries : thus the Ay, explained to refer
to Arabia, on account of their swiftness are designed
to carry angels ; the tahzees of Persia belong to
Kundhorps, or good genii ; the wasba, a deformed
kind of tahzees, are ridden by Gins and demons;
and the ashoor, of Toorkee race, perform the jour-
neys of mankind. Although this legend is evi-
dently of a comparative late date, it is remarkable
that no Indian indigenous horse is mentioned, and
as for the Hy, interpreted Arabian, the explanation
is probably still more recent. *

* See also the Mahdbarata, where, under the mystical de-
nominations of gods and superhuman agents, Kauravas and
Pandavas, it appears that the first great military religious in-
vasion of India is recorded ; and in the enumeration of the
AkshaushintS) or corps of armies, both chariots and cavalry are
mentioned.

86 INTRODUCTION.

Nor should the arrival of the Centaurs be over-
looked in these researches, for though poetical
records are not history, the fact of their presence,
their superior attainments, and the character of their
horses, proves that a basis of truth was wrought up
into fictions, which, though they conferred upon that
horde impossible characters, nevertheless, in their
circumstances, permit reason to detect the first ap-
pearance of a riding nation, mounted upon a breed
of horses which we shall trace out in the sequel.
This irruption belongs to the earliest movement
of the cavalry hordes from Central Asia, coming
upon Thrace and Thessaly by the north of the
Black Sea and across the lower Danube ; while
another, not long after, evidently composed of a
more southern tribe, broke into Asia Minor, and
was known in tradition by the appellation of Ama-
zons. The first, most likely, were northern Scythae
of High Asia, real horsemen ; the second, high land
SacsB, Stri-rajas, perhaps Pandu followers of Crishna
and Ballirama, led by martial queens, wearing long
clothes, and detached westward from a cause un-
known, * but both more civilized than the Pe-
lasgians of either side of the -ZEgean : the first
exclusively riders, the second both riders and cha-

* The Stri-rajahs, or women princes of Marawa, opposite
Ceylon, have in Indian records all the characteristics of Ama-
zons, and are represented with similar attributes in sculpture.
At present the robber tribe of Kalures, occupying the same
territory, have women in chief authority, and polygandry is
the law.

INTRODUCTION. 87

rioteers, with institutions akin to those of Indian
nations. *

Both events synchronise with the heroic age of
Greece, and are sufficiently near the periods of the
expulsion of the shepherds, the invasion of Asia by
Sesostris or Remses II. and III., and the Indian
epic legends, to establish the epoch of gre^it move-
ments through all the regions in question, and fix
the period when horse, chariot, and rider first make
their appearance : the northern nations exclusively
as riders ; at Nineveh, t in Asia Minor, and in

* If the half-civilized Centaurs divided at the foot of the
Carpathians and pushed onwards to the Baltic, traces of which
might be pointed out in their peculiar horses, we would have
a clue to the arrival of the first Asa race in Northern Europe,
and account for their riding gods, their Indian divinities, their
horse sacrifices, and their language approximating to the San-
scrit, and the mythical legends of Sagara and Asa-manga.

^ Mr. Rich mentions a bas-relief of a man on horseback,
carved in stone, being found at Nineveh, but destroyed for
building purposes before his visit to that city ; and he repre-
sents a cylinder having the figure of a riding sportsman catch-
ing a deer with a casting-net, found at the same place.

Sesonchosis first mounted a horse according to Apoll. in
natalis comes.

Bellerophon on the winged Pegasus in Pliny, the Amazons
in Lysias Rhetor , and, lastly, Mareo, a person half-man half-
horse, first taught riding to the Italian people ; his name is the
same as Maron, a horse, in the Thracian tongue, and shows, as
Centaur or Lapitha, that he was of the race of mounted in-
vaders from Asia. There is even an older evidence that riding
was not unknown in the days of Jacob, in Genesis xlix. 17, —
" An adder in the path, that biteth the horse's heels, so that
his rider falleth backward."

88 INTRODUCTION.

India, as charioteers and riders; and in Greece,
Palestine, and Egypt, as charioteers only.

Although no people could be conversant with
horses, or accustomed to mount asses, without learn-
ing the practicability of sitting on horseback, these
differences are distinguishable in written authorities,
and visible on fictile vases, bas-reliefs, and Egyptian
painted outlines : they are a general result of the
apposite manners of nations, according to the cli-
mates they inhabit; intensely cold, or relaxingly
warm. As they reside among marshy rugged steppes,
or dry hard plains, they adopt short dresses of
peltry or long encumbering clothes; they ride or
they drive, but necessity, fashion, and habit change
their inclinations ; they fight from chariots, because
more convenient to carry heavy darts and shield,
till they experience the superiority of mounted
opponents, and then modify their own customs.

Now, if we compare these considerations with the
claims in favour of Africa set up by late writers,
who consider the domestic, Jhorse was first brought

__ i— »— O

from thence to be subdued in Egypt, we find no
true indigenous wild horse in that quarter of the
globe, unless the puny koomrah deserves that name ;
and we appeal to the current of human civilization,
which most certainly did not set in from Central
Africa towards the north-east. Although Numi-
dian horsemen occur, they are not charioteers, nor
noticed until Carthage and Greek Cyrenaica flou-
rished, or had already lost their independence, and
then they were naked riders, little acquainted with

INTRODUCTION. 89

the bridle or the saddle, and with less adaptation of
the arts of Asia than the modern Patagonians have
copied from those of Europe. Egypt was not a
country for wild horses; we have already seen
when the domestic first appear there : and surely it
was not from Nubia that the elements of progres-
sive civilization were taken, but from Asia, whence
the people came, and to which alone they acknow-
ledged affinity.

Even in that quarter of the globe there was a
difference respecting horses : in the northern half,
the whole male and occasionally the female popula-
tion have used the saddle ever since human records
began ; in the southern, within the commencement
of profane history only, the better classes alone are
mounted, and riding tribes, such as the Kyale
Arabs, formerly sate on swift camels (hedjeens),
and until now, on many occasions, continue to pre-
fer them to horses.

With regard to primitive Arabia, it should be re-
marked that its geographical limits are very indefi-
nite ; Hira and Gassan, or a great part of Western
Persia, and all Eastern Syria and Palestine, being
occasionally claimed as part of the national domain
in ancient times, and since the Hejira, they have
been extended eastward far beyond the Euphrates,
and west to Morocco. Ancient Egypt similarly
comprised, at times, part of Arabia, of Syria, and
all Palestine, which, with the Ethnic nations, was
always viewed as a province more or less under
Persia or Egypt. When, therefore, a question is

90 INTRODUCTION.

raised concerning horses in either, during antiquity,
we are liable to be misled for want of more accurate
geographical knowledge ; but this difficulty appears
not to apply in refuting the argument of Count de
Buffon, where he asserts the primitive horse to be
still found wild in Arabia; for all the peninsula,
and the provinces that can by any extension be
claimed as within the limits, having been tenanted
from the earliest periods by wandering tribes, graz-
ing camels, goats, and sheep on every space that
produced verdure, there are nowhere districts suffi-
ciently inaccessible, or cover properly qualified to
shelter horses in a wild state, although wild cat-
tle are mentioned, which in reality are not animals
of the bovine family, but oryges belonging to the
Antilopidce. * It is more probable, as before ob-
served, that there were no horses in this open and
barren region, until Scythic conquerors of the giant
race, Imilicon, Cuthites, or Hyksos, brought them
down from High Asia ; and that these hordes and
their animals were incorporated like the Idumeans,
or left their horses, and many words of their lan-
guage, when they perished or were expelled, t. If

* The leucoryx, and other antelopes, are usually classed with
oxen in Oriental relations.

t Events} of. this kind had occurred, and are again foretold
by the prophet Ezekiel, vi. 26, — " A king of kings from the
north, with horses and with chariots, and with horsemen," &c.
A king of kings, literally Chahgan. T,he Tahtars have a pro-
verb, that for seven years after a horde has passed, no corn will
grow. In the eleventh century, when the terrible Comans
overthrew Persian, Turk, and Christian, and took possession ot

INTRODUCTION. 91

the capture of wild horses be recorded and be fact,
we may rest assured that the term means either feral
animals, or, by misnomer, the wild ass of the desert.

In Europe, where there is reason to believe wild
horses existed, and in particular among the Celtas,
acquaintance with a domesticated breed seems to
date, on the continent, from the period when the
Celto-Scythic and Centomannic Gauls ascended the
Danube and crossed the Rhine, and in Britain when
commerce with Phoenician merchants first intro-
duced some practices of Asiatic origin ; for the for-
mer were riders, having the well known system of
trinal arrangement, called trimarchesia*^ in their
cavalry, and the latter were charioteers to the time
when the Romans first crossed the Channel ; the first,
therefore, had habits analogous to the manners of
the north, the second to those of the south of Asia.

It is to the beginning of the period when con-
quering horsemen had spread to the south and west
of the old world, that is, between the seventeenth
and fourteenth centuries before the Christian era,
that the veneration attached to the horse may have
commenced ; though, no doubt, a date still earlier
must be fixed when the zodiacal belt was deter-
mined ; t for, in the houses of the sun, no horse is

Jerusalem, their shaggy maned dun ponies were described and
figured in Europe like lions, and the riders like Chinese. See
MS. Marino Zanuti, Burgundy Library, Brussels, 1326.

* Noticed in Pausanias, seemingly from the Celtic tri-march-
kesec, that is, three horses combined, — a knight and his two
squires.

t Bailly and others have satisfactorily shown the earliest
astronomical observations to have been made, and the zodiacal

92 INTRODUCTION.

indicated ; because it may be that animal was then
already regarded as the moving emblem of the
planet of day, and had become one of its personifi-
cations. We find evidence to this effect among
those nations, neighbours of the Hebrews, who, as
before remarked, appear to have descended from
north-eastern Scythoe or giant tribes ; one of which
worshipped Ana-Melek, according to commentators,
in the form of a horse, probably the same idolatrous
divinity known to subsequent Arabs by the name of
Yauk. Other tribes, of more indigenous origin, had
similar idols under the form of their own native Equi-
dao ; such was Tarhak or Tartak of the Avim, who
typified their national god by the figure of an ass, and
Adra-melek is mentioned to have been formed in the
likeness of a mule ; which, if the assertion were cor-
rect, would establish the antiquity of that hybrid
produce at an early period indeed ; but most likely
we should understand by the name the hemionus
of naturalists, which once existed as far to the south
at least as Great Armenia and Asia Minor.

In Europe, the black horse was long considered
as a form of an evil demon; among the modern
Pagan Asiatics, Schaman sorcery is usually per-
formed with images of small horses suspended from
a rope ; and a sort of idolatrous worship is admitted
even by Mohammedans, when effigies of the horse of

constellations named, in a region more northerly than either
Egypt or the plains of India ; therefore, anteriorly to the civi-
lization of either, prior to the arrival of the horse ; and conse-
quently we are carried back to an unknown social state in
Bactria or Cachemire.

INTRODUCTION. 93

Hosein, or of that of Khizr. the St. George of Islam,
are produced.

The earliest cavalry nations set the example of
expressing beauty, power, exaltation, by terms
which they also gave to the horse, and particularly
in the north, made it a type of the sun ; thus, from
the commencement of the first Persian dynasties, as
already noticed, Var, Phar, Pful, and Asp, all
names of that animal, are not only titles of the sun,
but also names of frequent occurrence among the
sovereigns and grandees. * The same practice pre-
vailed among the Celtic and Gothic nations, where
March, Hengist, Horsa, Uppa, Hako, and Bayard
are similarly observable.

Pegasus and other winged horses figure in the
constellations of all ancient systems, and with or
without wings are types of victory, national em-
blems, and standards of battle, either by exhibition
of their skulls, their tails, or by whole or parts of
the animal in a sculptured form, t Most of the
solar and year gods had sacred horses, which drew
the idol's chariot, or were led before his shrine or
the perpetual fire. Those of the Persian Ozmusd,
as well as the royal stud, were invariably white,
and were derived from Cilicia. Even the kings of
Judah were repeatedly polluted by this idola-

* Ninus, Pful, Varanes, Pharnabasus, Phraortes, perhaps
Pharaoh ; again Lorasp, Gustasp, Sheerasp, Asphendiar, &c.

t The two-headed winged horse of Egypt, Pegasus. Sleipner,
the solar horse of Odin ; in the harvest month, Gulfaai, horse-
skulls of the Sueiones, the figures and heads as signa of Nisa,
Susa, Corinth, Thessaly, Etruria, Carthage, Beturiges,Silures, Se-
quani, Mauri feroces, Saxons, Tahtars, Turks, and many others.

94 INTRODUCTION.

try. * In India and in Western Europe, where the
same colour was venerated, one or more were annu-
ally sacrificed to the sun, and even to other divini-
ties, such as Ertha in the island of Rugen. From the

' O

Ganges to the Baltic, stalls for these animals existed
about the temples and in the sacred groves.

As the camel had been emphatically styled the
ship of the desert, so was the ship denominated the
horse of the sea. Under the names of horse and
mare, the helio and lunar arkite enclosure, or kid,
was typified by the Celtic Druids of the fifth and
sixth centuries, when their ancient lore became
amalgamated with Gnosticism; and the eastern
fables of Bellerophon and Perseus had their myste-
rious counterparts in western initiation.

To ancient Egypt we appear to be indebted for
the first systematic attention to rearing and im-
proving breeds of horses. Numerous carved or out-
lined pictures, in temples and halls, represent steeds
whose symmetry, beauty of outline, and even co-
lour, attest that they are designed from high bred
types, and evince the care bestowed upon them by
the addition of grooms, who are rubbing their
joints, and attend sedulously to their comfort on all
fitting occasions, in the same manner as is still the
practice in the East. In all these pictures, the
horses are represented harnessed to chariots ; no in-
stance occurring of a mounted rider, except on one
occasion, where the execution of the design is recog-
nised to belong to the Roman era. t

* 2 Kings, xxiii. 11.

*t* There are two or three, indeed, where riders occur in

INTRODUCTION. 95

The Homeric heroes of the Iliad, the Persian and
Babylonian warriors, likewise had these warlike
vehicles ; but the last mentioned had no mounted
cavalry until after the invasion of Madyes, or at
least till the conquests of Cyrus, for chariots alone
are sculptured on the bas reliefs of Persepolis ;
though, from the figures already noticed, found at
Nineveh, the Medes were in all probability a
mounted people at an earlier date. * Saddle-horses
were not common in the south of Western Asia,
and perhaps not even in Media, since Cyrus op-
posed his camels to the Lydian cavalry of Croesus ; t
and hence we may infer that riding steeds, of recent
introduction, by the passes of Caucasus, along the
west coast of tbe Caspian, gave the advantage to
that power which was most accessible to the ad-
Egyptian battle-pictures, but they always represent enemies,
such as those opposed to Remses in his Asiatic expedition.

* See note, page 87.

+ Herodotus, Aristotle, and Pliny are sufficient authority
for the original dislike of the horse to the camel, and the fact
proves their subjugation and domestic habits were not then
completely established, for now, and for several centuries past,
they are not only thoroughly reconciled to each other, but in
actual friendship, since she camels suckle foals, and many of
the best Arabians chiefly subsist on camels' milk. If Cyrus
be Kaikaus and reigned in Bactria, it might be inferred that
in Western Asia the first charioteers came through the Arian
desert to the lower Euphrates ; but it is most likely their route
lay between the Caspian and the Caucasus into Armenia ;
though it is more probable that the bay stock of horses spread
by the Sulimani range and Helmond to Southern Asia, Ye-
men, and Egypt.

96 INTRODUCTION.

venturous warriors who came from the north and
offered their services to the nearest sovereign. From
that time, however, a mounted cavalry became con-
spicuous in all the Aramean regions, and they are
often represented in sculpture of a later period, in
various parts of Persia.

The people of Israel, we have seen, though shep-
herbs of kindred origin with the Edomite Arabs,
had no horses in Goshen, and continued without
studs till the Mosaic prohibition was disregarded by
Solomon, who established a force of chariots of war,
and, it is supposed, of mounted cavalry. It was
then the kingdom extended in glory and in surface
far beyond its ancient boundary. With the mer-
cantile spirit of eastern princes, he monopolized a
trade in horses, importing them in strings from
Egypt, and out of all lands ; * he sold teams and
chariots to the Phoenicians, who, as they did not
possess land armies or extensive territories, evi-
dently bought horses for luxury, and still more for
exportation, t The Tyrians, at another time, ob-
tained theirs from Armenia, and, no doubt, both

* 2 Chronicles, ix. 28, and 2 Kings, x. 28.

+ The sacred historian gives the prices both of horse and
chariot : a horse from Egypt cost 150 shekels of silver, or about
£17 sterling ; a chariot, most likely in part of cast metal, was
worth 600 shekels, or £ 68 8s. sterling. This trade was evi-
dently carried on by the gross or string, as the price was not
for different values of single horses ; and it proves that even
then hi Egypt they required particular care and were expen-
sive in rearing, and that in Syria they were either scarce or of
inferior value. See 1 Kings, x. 29.

INTRODUCTION. 97

carried them to their African colonies, to Crete,
Sicily, Spain, and Greece. Thus it may have been
that, in their allegorical poems, Helenic fabulists
represented Neptune striking the earth with his
trident, and, producing the horse, distributed the
species to gods and heroes. Similar opinions are
held in modern times by the Circassians, who
deem the Shalokh steeds, the noblest of Kabarda
horses, to be sprung from the sea ; probably because
the parent stock was imported by water.

Recent authors have endeavoured to maintain,
with still less appearance of reason even than Buf-
fon's opinion concerning the original location of tha
domestic horse, that Arabia had no horses in the
early ages, nor during the Roman empire, and
scarcely any at the date of the hejira. In support
of this opinion we are told, that, in the second cen-
tury, horses were sent a present to the reigning
princes of that country; that in the fourth, two
hundred Cappadocian steeds were again forwarded
by the Roman emperor to the same region ; and in
the seventh, when Mohammed in person attacked
the Koreish, that he had but two of these animals
in his army; finally, that not a single horse was
captured by him in his sanguinary and victorious
campaign. * Without disputing the facts, we may
nevertheless refer to what has already been said in
the foregoing pages, to show the condition of the

* See the Horse, * Library of Useful Knowledge," 8vo. 1831 ;
a book we have consulted with great interest, and invaluable
in many particulars: its humane tendency is above all praise.

98 INTRODUCTION.

question as it regards the immediate neighbours of
Arabia, and next offer a few facts which we think
completely refute the argument. Although Mecca
and Medina, and the Edomite camel-riding clans of
the west coast and Wady Moosa, may not have
possessed many horses, the admission in no way
disproves that abundance of them were in the hands
of the Bedoueen tribes, and in Yemen. They are then
already described riding naked like the Numidians,
without saddle or bridle, and guiding their horses
with a rod or with a single thong. The first conflicts
of the prophet, with his own tribe and others, were
mere mob quarrels of townsmen and camel herds.
Even at this day, the Edomite Arabs, residing along
the upper part of the Red Sea, exclusively use ca-
mels or walk : their country is too barren to sup-
port more than sheep and goats; and the people
talk of the riding Arabs, and their splendid horses,
with winder, envy, and delight. * But the Be-
doueens, the true wandering Aral ibn Arab^ for
many centuries the neighbours of Canaanites, Baby-
lonians, Syrians, Persians, and Parthians, robbers
by profession, could not possibly be without them.
Already, before the fall of Jerusalem, Hebrews of
the tribes of Manasseh and Gad, stray remnants of
the captivity, had taken refuge in the desert, and
exercised a nomad system of warfare under a suc-
cession of their own princes. They fought great
battles, they captured Mithridates and two brethren,
Asinous and Anileus, and defeated a Parthian army,
* See Laborde, " Journey through Arabia Petrea."

INTRODUCTION. 99

commanded by Artaban in person, entirely com-
posed of cavalry.

"When, in revenge, the Jews were massacred in
Iran, they were not exterminated: whole families
sought refuge among the Eastern Bedoueens and
Southern Arabs of Yemen, where they were re-
ceived as Matnoub ; and several centuries later,
their wrongs not forgotten, they joined heartily in
the Islam cause, and avenged the memory of their
ancestors in the memorable battle of Kadesiah,
where the Parthian dominion was laid prostrate.*
In proof that they had horses at the commence-
ment of the Roman empire, we appeal to Hirtius
(de Bell. Alex.\ where Cassar is recorded to have
sent to an Arabian, Regulus, there styled Malchus,
that is, Melek, for a reinforcement of cavalry ; i
later, but still before the hejira, we hear of a war of
forty years' duration, between the tribes of Abs and
Dobian, which arose out of a dispute on account
of a race between two horses named Dahes and
Ghabra : next, when we look to the tenor of the

* Matnoub are strangers to whom is conceded the privilege
of pitching their tents on the same line with the hospitable
tribe. It is conjectured that these adopted families gradually
merged in the Arab tribes, and were the chief cause of the
numerous Hebrew names we find given to individuals, — such
as lesa, Haroun, Musa, Daoud, Suleiman, Jussuf, Ibrahim, &c.
It is natural that their fine intellects should give them influ-
ence, Islam a new impulse, and with the tenacity of tribal
reminiscence, revenge was an additional stimulus.

f Laborde shows the Nabatheans to have had cavalry, de-
riving their horses from the Scenite Arabs. The Nubian Arab
tribes are still headed by their Mclcks.

100 INTRODUCTION.

poems once suspended in the Kaaba, all reported to
have dated before the era of Mohammed, we find
in Amriolkais, Amru, and Antar, animated and
technical descriptions of the horse, splendid pictures
of cavalry battles, and notices, which attest that
the nation had their noble breeds from their ances-
tors. They are written with all the feeling of con-
noisseurs habituated for ages to excellent horses,
and show a thorough knowledge of what constitutes
their best qualities. Finally, if the Arabs had been
without horses, had not possessed them in abun-
dance, and of the best quality, at the time of their
uniting under the sway of the Koran, no enthu-
siasm could have suddenly transformed mere herds-
men into the best and most daring cavalry of their
era, or enabled them in a few campaigns to crush
the enormous mounted armies of the Sassanian Par-
thians and the disciplined science of Eastern Rome ;
none but a people long in possession of numerous
and well trained chargers could have given wings
to the sword of Islam, and in sixty years planted
its victorious banners on the Pyrenees and on the
banks of the Ganges.

Nevertheless, in these researches, no proofs of an
indigenous wild race of horses can be traced, nor, as
already mentioned, does the nature of the region
and of the vicinity offer the requisite conditions for
maintaining them. It is to care in breeding and
crossing imported races of animals, to attention in
selecting the finest forms, that Arabia owes the
celebrity of its studs. Evidently Egypt, Persia,

INTRODUCTION. 101

and Armenia first supplied the nomad tribes with
the means of producing their magnificent races, and
the comforts of the domestic tent, the constant pre-
sence of human kindness, the experience of interest,
the proportions of a scanty but nutritive food, the
abstemiousness in drink, and the dry sunny climate,
were necessary to the full development of the excel-
lent qualities they possess : hence, Arab chiefs may
have desired and willingly received horses as pre-
sents from renowned breeds of Egypt, or from the
warlike races of Upper Asia. Presents of horses in
the East have always been interchanged or given,
but that fact is no argument that the receivers were
in want of them ; it only shows Arabia and Lower
Asia to have been, as it still is, without horses in
such droves as are seen in the north, and that the
great variety of colours in the Arab breeds arises
from the introduction of foreign animals. With the
nations of Central and still more of Northern Asia,
the case formerly was very different, and in some
measure is still so. Attention and selection in
breeding is only casual, where immense herds of
horses occupy pastures of interminable surface;
where, from the absence of human interposition,
they retain the instincts of independence: under
such circumstances, the resident proprietors, little
valuing individual animals, care only for the aggre-
gate numbers ; the whole people are mounted, and
do nearly all their domestic work in the saddle;
they cross rivers by holding their horses' tails, or
fastening them to rafts or boats, convey themselves

102 INTRODUCTION.

and families to the opposite shores, sometimes seve-
ral miles distant. Of all the races of man, they
alone eat their flesh, drink the milk of mares, and
know how to convert it into cur mi, an intoxicating
beverage ; they marry on horseback, their councils
meet on horseback, and declarations of war, treaties
of peace or alliance, are dated from the stirrup of
the sovereign. *

The nations of High Asia were inventors of the
bridle, of the true saddle, of the stirrup, t and pro-
bably of the horse-shoe. With many of them, a
horse, a mare, and a colt were fixed nominal stand-
ards of value, such as the cow was once among the
Celtae. In a general view, equestrian habits be-
come more and more decided as we advance towards
the East. In Europe, the Poles continued to elect
their kings on horseback to our own times. At pre-
sent, no nation of the west can oppose an equal
force of cavalry to the Russian ; in the earlier cam-
paigns of Suwarrow, the Russian could not cope
with the Turkish ; a century ago, the Turks were
inferior to the Persian horse; and these were re-
peatedly overwhelmed by Usbeks, Afghauns, and
Toorkees, who, descending from North-eastern Tah-
tary, came from the Jaxartes down the valley of
the Oxus, each in turn propelled by riding armies

* Not a few of these habits are, however, already in vogue
among the Abipones and Pawnees, the new Tahtars of Ame-
rica, both in the north and south.

t Stirrup., or Rikiob, first mentioned by Avicenna. Of horse-
shoes we shall speak hereafter.

INTRODUCTION. 103

from the same quarter. Tahtar tribes repeatedly
swarmed westwards from the age of Attila to the
thirteenth century, when they still penetrated to
the Nile and as far as Silesia ; and twice within thr
middle ages, Tahtar hordes invaded and subduec1
China. To such a people, the present of a few
horses may appear an expression of consideration or
of value, on account of the rarity of their breed, but
a mere troop of horses, as such, cannot be deemed
of consequence to the smallest khan, in a region
where, according to Marco Paolo, the Chagan pos-
sessed more than ten thousand head of white horses
alone.

When, therefore, we endeavour to fix the original
habitation of the domestic horse, considered as a
single species, and we recal to mind the statements
already made respecting the remains of these ani-
mals found in the soil, the regions where they are
still observed in a wild state, as will be shown in
the sequel more at large, and compare the facts
with the foregoing reflections, it seems to be clearly
demonstrated that the aboriginal region, where the
wild horse was first most generally subdued, should
be sought in High Asia, about the fortieth degree
of latitude, the table lands whence riding and cha-
rioteer nomads have incessantly issued, penetrating
to the east, the south, and the west, from periods
evidently anterior to historical record, almost to our
own times ; that from Central Asia, northward and
westward, and including, to the south, Bactria, the
valley of the Oxus, Northern Aria, Chorasmia, and

104 INTRODUCTION.

probably the whole of Europe, constitute the great
primitive habitation of the horse. Far to the north
the species has no congener, but soon the hemionus
is known to be its companion ; and further south,
the wild ass extends eastward across the Indus to
the Bramaputra and west into Africa, far up the
banks of the Bahar-el-Abiad and Atbara. * Other
congeners there are on this side the equator, but
they are not sufficiently known, nor is their precise
location determined.

These reflections are in harmony with the earliest
appearance of horses in the south-west of Asia ;
they admit a succession of immigrations, and in
some degree point out the routes followed by colo-
nies and conquerors possessed of horses; and in
conjunction with other remarks, for which we refer
to our description of wild horses, the conclusion
appears to be further substantiated by an evidence,
which is generally regarded as the most ancient
written record in existence, namely, the book of
Job, — where the author, in a description of the
horse, unsurpassed in sublimity by any profane
writer, notices the flowing mane, or as our versions
express it, " a mane clothed in thunder." An allu-
sion to the mane of a horse, in bold and figurative
language, indicates the character of this fine orna-
ment to be conspicuous; but on reference to the
pictured forms of ancient Egyptian war-horses, or
to the high bred chargers of Arabia and Southern

* Voyage on the Bahr Abiad, or White Nile, by M. Adolphe
Lir.aut. Geogr. Journ.

INTRODUCTION. 105

Asia, it is but little applicable ; nor do we find it
long or flowing in wild horses ; those, however, of
Northern Asia and Eastern Europe, that belong to
a particular race, possess it in all the glory of poeti-
cal exuberance. In the inspired vision of the writer,
we fancy he descried one of those Scythian tribes,
belted haik wearers from the regions of Caspian
Caucasus, — riders, not charioteers, — who had pene-
trated to the region of the hippopotamus and croco-
dile* as conquerors or as hirelings, for such the
north has ever produced for the service of the south
of Asia.

These remarks, we trust, will not be considered
entirely irrelevant, for, without them, the natural
history of the Equine family would contain little
more than technical distinctions and enumerations
of species, races, and breeds, without touching upon
topics of high interest to the biblical reader, the
philologist, and the historian. All of them deserve
to be treated more at large, but we hope to have
done sufficient to excite attention and lead others
better qualified than ourselves to researches in the
directions here pointed out. "We shall now proceed
to give a succinct review of the races of renown
mentioned by the poets and historians of antiquity,
and mark in their descriptions the uniformity of

* Hippopotamus, elephant, or rhinoceros. The geographi-
cal position of the writer of the book of Job, as well as his era,
remains inexplicable ; although there exists a tomb ascribed
to Ayoub, perhaps of the Mevelevi Dervish of that name, near
Birs Nimrod.

106 INTRODUCTION.

colours and characters recorded of the primitive
breeds, to create a belief that the nations who first
subdued their horses derived each their own race
from the wild stock in their vicinity, and therefore
that varieties at least in colour occupied different
regions ; such as the pied in the central mountains
of Middle Asia, the dark bay southwards of the
banks of the Jyhoun or Jaxartes, the dun more
westward — as far as the Caspian, the white on the
north shore of the Euxine, and the sooty and black
in Europe. We shall find among these, races al-
ways clouded of two. colours, others constantly
marked with a black streak along the spine, often
cross-barred on the joints, with dark or black extre-
mities; and again, another, where circular spots,
commonly clearer than the ground colour, occur, —
whether they be bay, blackish ashy, or grey : the
durability of these distinctions, not obliterated even
in Our time, during more than three thousand years
of perpetual crossings of breeds, affords another
and a strong argument in favour of an aboriginal
difference of species in the single form of the do-
mestic horse.

BREEDS OF HORSES NOTICED BY THE ANCIENTS.

From what has been said of the apparent distri-
bution of the primeval forms of Equus Cdballus^ we
may consider the variety first known to the nations
of historical antiquity, was that which from geogra-
phical position would be the first to spread among

INTRODUCTI N. 10?

them ; this was the bay stock, which, coming from
the eastern borders of the Caspian, probably the
property of the shepherd kings, reached the Nile
and became an object of enlightened attention with
the government, from the moment the invaders were
expelled. The proof of a systematic care in breed-
ing may be presumed, from a similarly coloured
race being predominant in Asia Minor, Assyria,
and Armenia, but inferior in stature and beauty,
and with thick unsightly manes, as will appear when
we come to the Grecian horses. In Egypt, on the
government farms, they were evidently improved in
elegance, as may be gathered from the outline pic-
tures in the temples and tombs, where they are
figured equal in size to the present Arabian, but
shorter in the back, with rather slender arched
necks, straight chafFrons, large eyes, small pointed
ears, a small body, clean limbs, and the tail well
set on, not abundantly furnished with hair, and in
the oldest representations the mane hogged ; an in-
dication of recent subjugation : where these outlines
are filled with colour, the animals are painted red,
either bay or chesnut, and sometimes left white. *
A race of this stock was in possession of the Ca-
naanites perhaps before, but most certainly after,
the defeated shepherds, flying from the Cyrbonian
lake, retired to the Hauran, east of the Upper Jor-
dan,— for then commenced that breed which is still
of the first value, though now considered Arabian.

* I have been told of one instance where a pair of chariot
horses are spotted ; but not knowing the locality, they may
belong to a later date.

108 INTRODUCTION.

From this locality it is likely the robber remains of
Dan and Manasseh, in subsequent ages, first drew
their horses, and they may have been the means to
spread them in Yemen.

The bay stock is likewise seen in Egyptian pic-
tures, brought as tribute ; and on some occasions, ID
representations of battles, it is mounted by riders of
Upper Asia, equally advanced in the arts of civiliza-
tion. The Lydian breed, so valued for stature and
the. strength to carry heavy-armed riders, in the time
of Croesus, is to this day principally brown ; but the
Arian horses, probably allied to the Masacian, the
breed of Susiana, now, and possibly at an early pe-
riod, in the hands of an Arabian people, are not
described. Those of the breeding station at Aspan
Farjan, near Darab, in Persia Proper, are equally
unknown.

"We may refer with some confidence to the bay
Scenite race of Arabia, the Apamean studs of Syria,
where, according to Strabo, three hundred stallions
and thirty thousand mares were maintained for the
service of the government ; but the Babylonian of
Herodotus, who assigns eight hundred stallions and
sixteen thousand mares to that stud, may have been
of different origin. In Egypt, the system of atten-
tion to the breeding of horses relaxed, and gradu-
ally fell into disuse, when reduced to a province.
The Persians and Romans, from reasons of state,
would prefer building temples to rearing horses.

The breed of Syene, on the Upper Nile, is like-
wise praised, but not so much as the Calambrian
bays of Lybia, where there is still a valuable race

"\ V

INTRODUCTION.

of horses. The Numidian, Mauritanian, and fulvous
Gastulian, with long lips, bold lion hunters, but
smaller than the last mentioned, and less valued,
were of the same origin. The Cyrenian, handsome
and fleet horses ; the Calpe breed, and Lusitanian
of Spain, and the Agrigentine of Sicily, bays and
chesnuts, with some white, appear to belong to this
stock, conveyed westward by Phoenician and Car-
thagenian ships, and partially mixed with other
blood. But the dark bay, Peleian of Epirus, were
no doubt of the true original stock.

The next in historical importance was the Median*
race, best known by the name of Nisean ; because,'
in the plain about Mount Corone, there was in the
time of Darius an enormous hippobaton belonging
to the government, whence the ill-fated monarch
drew one hundred thousand horses to oppose the
Macedonian invasion, and still left fifty thousand in
the pastures, which Alexander saw in his march
through that country ; they were all, it appears, of
a dun or cream colour, which caused some Greek
writers to assert that the Median cavalry was
mounted upon asses ; * but shows that it was de-
rived from the wild race, further north, which is
still of a similar colour, with an asinine streak down

* " Nisa omnes equos flavos habet." Plin, The Nisean plain
is mentioned by Arrian and Diodorus. Ammian. Marcel, places
their pastures in the plains of Assyria, west of Mount Corone,
which forms a part of the Zagros chain. Alexander, in passing
through Kelone, on his march to Ecbatana, saw the remaining
herd. The spot is now a resort of the Beni Lam Arabs. This
locality does not agree with other authorities, who place tha
Nisean plain east of Casbeen.

110 INTRODUCTION.

the back, cross-bars on the joints, and even on the
shoulder; the muzzle, mane, tail, and pasterns,
black. Isaiah mentions a chariot drawn by asses,
xxi. 7 ; and Herodotus, that the Medes used wild
asses to draw their war- char iots ; both apparently
referring to the dun variety, which can be traced
even now in the Ukraine, and is known in Scotland
by the name of eel-back dun : or they confounded it
with the hemionus, which we may take also to be the
Caramanian asses used in war-chariots, or took it for
the same breed ; as also a cream-coloured one that
penetrated very early into Greece, and was known
in the time of Homer by the name of Epeian. The
Eleian Epirotic, of dun colours, and subsequent
Dacian and Sarmatian, were coarser varieties. The
Asiatic and Greek are stated to have been of good
stature, but those of the Danube low, with small
heads, huge manes and tails, exceedingly hardy and
vicious, which is still in some measure true of the
Wallachian, and more particularly the Ukraine
race. * It was most likely this race which gave
Media a momentary ascendancy : they had the
mane shorn on the near side, while the off hair was
suffered to hang down at full length. But there
must have been a breed emphatically the Nisean, of
great rarity, since Masistius is stated to have rode
one at the battle of Plata3a, and Xerxes was drawn
by four in his expedition to Greece: Alexander
gave another to carry Calamus to the funeral pile,
and the king of Parthia sacrificed another to the

* This race was the first emasculated, on account of its fierce-
ness ; and hence geldings, in Germany, are still called Wallach.

INTRODUCTION. Ill

sun while A pp. Tyaneus was at his court. There
is here, perhaps, some confusion in ancient authori-
ties ; for we find, that from the time of Cyrus to
Darius, the Persian kings were drawn by white
horses, and that Darius had his stud of that colour,
consisting of three hundred and sixty war-horses,
drawn annually from a Cilician breed. * This was
most likely the breed which supplied the horses of
the sun, always of a pure white livery, and particu-
larly mentioned for its stately action and arched
neck bedecked with a long flowing mane ; or there
was a white breed among the real Nisean, of such
value as to be reserved for the great, and to be the
object of particular mention in presents and on other
important occasions. The mare which carried Da-
rius, in his flight from the battle-field at Issus, was
probably more fleet than showy, but her breed is
not mentioned, If the beautiful mosaic battle-pic-
ture, lately discovered at Pompeii, may be trusted,
the Nisean horses of the royal chariot were certainly
elegantly shaped animals ; and it is from them, most
likely, that Phidias took the types of the beautiful
sculptured horse, of which we still possess the head
in the British Museum.

The Persians, at a later period, derived from the
Erythraean Sea a white breed, speckled with black,
and so highly valued, that it is still eagerly bought
up by grandees for purposes of parade.

Another breed of antiquity, one of older date as

* It seems, however, to be noticed by Homer under the
name of Dardanian. j^Gneas had a set, and those of Rhesus,
all attest the locality of the white stock.

112 INTRODUCTION.

a saddle-horse in the legends of Europe, and second
in speed only to the Persian, was that which, after
the overthrow of the Macedonian dynasties, became
conspicuous as the principal stock of the Parthian
cavalry, and was distinguished by a muscular form,
excellent feet, great courage and elasticity combined
with gentleness, but still more by being invariably
white, clouded with large deep bay spots, piebald,
or more technically called skewbald. This race was
known in Europe as early as the arrival of the
Centaurs, and historically constituted the Thes-
salian and Thracian breeds. It seems that Homer
indicates both its speed and colours by the epithets
of a/oXo-rwXov ffoxihodsg/Aovtg. *

Such also was Bucephalus, the celebrated charger
of Alexander, which he bought for sixteen talents
from Philoiiicus, out of his breeding pastures of
Pharsalia. The Parthians valued this race above
every other, and bred it almost exclusively, fancy-
ing even different coloured eyes in the same animal,
probably because they believed a wall or moon-eye
enabled it to see better by night. The Romans,
however, disliked piebald horses, because they were
more easily detected in the dark.

* Statius, when speaking of the mare of Admetus, points to
their Centaur origin :

" Quern et Thessalicis felix Admetus aboris
Vix steriles compescit equas, Centaurica dicunt
Semina (credo), adeo sexum indignantur et omnis
In vires adducta venus, noctemque diemque
Assimilant maculis internigrantibus albse.
In the sequel we sliall find Virgil equally attentive to these
characters, in describing the Ardean breed.

^sE^De^

UNIVERSITY

INTRODUCTION.

The clouded horses of the Huns are remarked,
we believe, as mounted by the Hiatili, who, coming
from the north side of the wall of China, or more
truly from Central Asia, seem to have been the last
tribe of Gothic blood that reached the west about
the time of Theodosius. * We next find Paul War-
nefried, in the time of Charlemagne, extol them as
the best for war, and when we come to describe the
wild horses, we shall revert to this race, evidently
sprung from the Tangum or Tannian highland form,
pursue the later accounts of it to our own times,
and by this genealogy point out a strong argument
in proof that the movements of conquest in Europe,
m China, in India, and in Persia, effected by so
many nations all upon the same race of steeds,
though at different periods, come from Central
Asia, where alone the original stock is found wild
in Thibet.

It appears, from what we have already said, that
the horses of Asia Minor and Armenia were early
in part of the bay variety, others of the pale dun
wild stock of the north of the Caspian, and the rest
the white : it is fair to presume, from the abundance
of horses of that colour belonging to the races of
Asia Minor and Armenia, all represented to have
been of high stature, that they were originally de-
rived from the dapple stock of the Scythian desert,
described by Herodotus as roaming wild near the

* In the Vatican fresco, where Attila is diverted fr^n
jiarching to Rome, Raphael represents one of these horses,
which bespeaks his information as an historic painter.

H

114 INTRODUCTION.

Euxine, about the river Borysthenes ; this applies
chiefly to the Cappadocian, and by what is said
of the white Nisean, a Ciliciari breed, their origin
is somewhat corroborated, there still being noble
white studs of horses among the Circassians. We
do not find whence Great Armenia derived its
hardy race with huge manes, but piobably it was
of the wild dun-coloured, and from that very cir-
cumstance occasioned the fashion of hogging it into
a ridgy crest, a practice followed in Greece until
the nation was subdued by the Romans. From
Armenia the Tyrians derived horses, and it is be-
lieved that trade existed already in the era of Nebu-
chadnezzar. The Romans, in like manner, preferred
these robust warlike chargers to the Egyptian, from
the time they obtained footing in Asia, and regu-
larly drew remounts from thence for their cavalry.
There was, in the time of Homer, in Asia Minor, a
Phrygian breed of caerulean or light ash colour,
clearly a variety of the white, but on account of
the livery ascribed to a marine origin, and therefore
styled Neptunian and Borean, because it came from
the north and was extremely fleet. At a later
period, the Colophonian, Chalcedonian, and other
Greek Ionian breeds, were of a mixed race, carried
across the Euxine by the colonies from Europe, who
had, by their geographical position in the mother-
country, tribes of different descent that had each
brought their own horses with them.

Greece, we have seen, possessed horses of various
origin, though the greater proportion were of the

INTRODUCTION. 115

dun and cream-coloured wild stock, which included
the Arcadian, much used for breeding mules, and
the Chaonian : the Argolic, having a good head and
fine limbs, hollow-backed but cat-hammed, were o/
the same blood, and appear to exist still in the
Morea: the Cretan were neglected, though appa-
rently derived from the best breeds of Asia and
Egypt : those of Attica, vaunted by Sophocles, and
probably mixed like the Cretan, if we may trust to
Greek and sculptured representations, were ewe-
necked, with large heads, shallow-chested, and hol-
low-flanked, but with excellent limbs and feet, and
possessed of high mettle. We know that the ^Eto-
lian and Accarnanian, nursed in solitary plains,
were large and warlike, scarcely inferior to the
Thessalian ; they were nearly allied to the Abidean
of Macedonia and the Pellan, which were chesnut :
the Taenarian, sprung from Castor's horse, were no
doubt white, and the glaucous or slaty ash-coloured
breed of Ericthonius, belonging to Mycenge, also
descended from a gift of Neptune, attest a foreign
marine importation : of the Maegarian and Eginetan
mention is made only in a proverb. All these Gre-
cian horses show no sign of an indigenous stock,
unless it was the same as the Istrian dun ; all the
breeds appear introduced by man, and, exclusive of
those of the north, were little superior to the Italian
and Gallic.

In Italy, the Tarentine were of Greek origin, the
same as the Apulian and Rosean of Rieti, praised
by VarrOj and now known b»" the name of Cala-

116 INTRODUCTION.

brese : among them was the Hirpinic breed, and
the Lucanian were the largest horses within the
Alps : of the Tyrrhenian or Etruscan, we only know
that they had a small nose, a very thick mane, and
hard hoofs, being probably of the Rasenic stock,
and allied to the horses along the Danube or Ister,
for they were compared to the Yenedic and Adriatic
race. In the islands the races were very distinct :
of the Etna and Agrigentine horse we have already
noticed their probable intermixture with the bay
race introduced by the Phoenicians, and the Greek
of different breeds; they were often victorious in
the chariot races of Greece, and inferior in speed
only to the Armenian and Iberian : but Sardinia
and Corsica possessed an indigenous horse, one
apparently not imported by man, perhaps of the
Koomrah species of Africa, and resembling the
smallest shelties of the Scottish islands : the former,
though small, were full of fire, and the latter, little
larger than great dogs, were so vicious, that it was
necessary to hoodwink them to be mounted ; their
feet were like asses', the manes short, and the tails
long : these horses are still wild in both islands.

Spain contained two very distinct forms of the
animal, one indigenous, the other imported from
Africa and improved by Phoenician attention ; this
was the Hispanic Iberian of Calpe, or Lusitanian,
so well known for fleetness and the fable of the
mares being impregnated by the Favonian wind.

M Ore cmnes versae in Zephyrum stant rupibus altis."
VIRG. GEORG. iii. v. 273.

INTRODUCTION. ] 17

A legend* which in after times the horse-dealers
modified so far as to pretend that the foals begotten
in this manner never survived their third year. The

Ancient Spanish Mare.

race was handsome, but timid, and had hollow
backs and soft hoofs; it was chiefly bred in the

* " Circa Olysipponem et Tagum equas favonio stante ob-
versus animalem concipere spiritum, idque partiim fieri et
gigni." Plin. viii. c. 42. Well represented in the Mosaics of
Italica ; see Alex, la Borde, " Descripcion de un pavimento en
mosayco," &c. folio. They were the Honesti spadices of Vir-
gil, and valued for the course in the circus ; hence Isidorus
says: —

" Color hie praecipue spectandus, badius, aureus."

DE ORIGIN, lib. xii. art. 41.

118 INTRODUCTION.

south -west of Spain, from Gibraltar to the Douro,
usually coloured dark bay, which shows the Asiatic
blood, and grey, derived from a Mauritanian race,
or from a mixture with the second : the Gallaican,
which was small, hardy, daring, with excellent feet,
and indigenous in the northern mountains of Astu-
ria, hence also called Asturcan and Celtiberian, and
spread through the Western Pyrenees, where those
of Bilbilis, now Callahorra on the Ebro, were cele-
brated, according to Martial, " Bilbilim equis et
armis nobilem." It was usually grey, and in the
Roman era was trained to ambling. Under the
name of Thieldones, we find these ponies praised
by Pliny and Martial, and extolled by Sflius and
Lemma Astureo, both native Spaniards. Lud. Car-
rio, in his notes upon Leutprand's Chronicle, quotes
the often repeated verses :

" His parvus sonipes, nee marti notus ; at idem
Aut in concusso glomerat vestigia dorso
Aut molli pacata celer tralrit esseda collo."

The other horses of Europe become known to us
only from the period when Eome had extended her
empire to the Danube, the Rhine, and to Britain ;
they may therefore be considered together, in their
own characters, and in connexion with the relation
they bore to the imperial administration.

Helvetian Algoici were in request for durability :
in common with the general breed of Gaul, they
were black or sooty, and, as will be shown hereafter,
were considered indigenous, long-backed, high-hip-

INTRODUCTION. ] 1 9

ped, and heavy-maned, with small eyes, thick lips,
covered with bristles: the best were Canterii, or
geldings. The Menapian, of Guelderland and Lower
Rhine, of the same colour, were, however, tall and
cleaner about the limbs, but still hairy-heeled; it
was, no doubt, upon this kind of steeds the Bata-
vian cohorts obtained their great reputation, for
they were thought to be the best south of the
river, though the breed extended into Germany.
From Pannonia, the Quadic and Sarmatian nations
residing on the Danube, the government bought
horses, usually geldings, of the wild dim-coloured
and dappled race before mentioned. * From Mysia,
the present Servia, the later emperors drew a valu-
able horse, and evidently not satisfied with those
reared within the pale of the empire, imported the
best they could obtain from the north and east of
Europe ; such was Hadrian's celebrated hunter, Bo-
rysthenes, most likely of the white or grey stock.
From the same region came the Gelonian, which
furnished its owners with milk, and served their
predatory expeditions by its fleetness. The Alan,
from the northern cantons of Germany, were inele-
gant and low, but equally hardy and rapid ; but the
Kugian was more esteemed for war. In the fifth
century, the Huns, according to Vegetius, had large

* There was among the Sarmatian a light bay breed, hand-
some, with big heads and arched necks ; and those that were
dappled in a particular manner on the shoulder and croup
were sometimes bought, and at others refused, from an unex-
plained belief that these marks were of evil omen.

120 INTRODUCTION.

horses, with a hawk's-billed head, prominent eyes,
broad jaws, a strong neck, and an immense mane ;
they had round ribs, a straight back, sound legs,
and a bushy tail ; their figure was low and long,
but they were gentle and sober.

In the British islands there was a race of indi-
genous poneys which Caesar found in part subdued
by the natives, and was known also for ages after
to roam in a wild state in every part of the island :
it is still imperfectly represented by the Scottish,
Welsh, New Forest, and Dartmoor breeds, they
having all the same characters of hardiness and a
long low form with bushy manes and tails; the
original colour may have been sooty, or else dun,
with the black streak on the spine which marks
the wild races of Northern Europe, — for these two
colours are, we believe, the most frequent. The
remains of war-cars discovered by Sir Richard Colt
Hoare, and still more the remarks of St. Austin,
attest their stature ; for he says, " The Mannii, or
poneys brought from Britain, were chiefly in use
among strolling performers, to exhibit in feats of
their craft/' Although the legions, and in particu-
lar the Alas of auxiliary cavalry, must have created
a new British race of horses, composed from the
different breeds brought to the island, and subse-
quently amalgamated with a part of the indigen-
ous race, the Anglo-Saxon co?«uflst necessarily
brought in a third, consisting of their own, a
Jute, Frisonic, Frankish, Scandinavian, and Da-
nish intermixture, — in which the Frisonic and

INTRODUCTION. 121

Danish, most likely, furnished most of stature and
of beauty.

It was with these instruments of war and police
that the Romans, in this respect far inferior to the
Greeks, acted for ages in a spirit of legislation
which evinced their ignorance of this branch of
national economy. In a host of some thirty writers,
poets, philosophers, and amateurs, among whom
some few seem to have understood what points a
good horse should possess, none felt the importance
of improving the breeds they had upon fixed and
sound principles; none saw in them more than
objects of parade, luxury, war, or draught, that
might be bought, like a murrhine vase, for money ;
more anxious for the reputation of rhetoricians than
for the acquirement of facts, they were busied in
the manner more than the matter of what Greek
authority had stated, never once correcting an error,
supplying a new observation, or discovering a mis-
statement; they believed in all the absurdities foreign
horse-dealers thought proper to invent, or their own
idlers gossiped into omens : such was the case with

O A

Cesar's horse, which they gravely relate had human
fore feet, and was an infallible sign of his coming
fortunes ; and what was at best a mal-formation, it
appears, was rendered important by a statue of the
animal set up in public. They believed that bay
horses were the best to hunt lions, slaty ash colour
to attack a bear, and black to pursue a fox and
other wild animals. Yegetius asserts that they were
constantly the dupes of dealers, who passed off in-

122 INTRODUCTION.

different horses for steeds of high foreign breeds.
There exist, indeed, a few fragments of the writings
of veterinarians, which the policy of the govern-
ment attached to the army, and these contain some
of the most valuable information relating to horses
the ancients have left ; but the Roman Italian ca-
valry was always despicable, though individually
brave ; for, seated on pads or inefficient saddles,
loaded with heavy armour and weapons, in all real
actions they were obliged to dismount, and could
only oppose equally inefficient enemies, pursue or
escape, without vigour or celerity ; they never were
able to cope with the Parthians, or face the Sar-
matas, excepting by means of their foreign auxi-
liaries, Numidians, Germans, or Asiatics ; in general
they acted only under cover of the legions, and
Caesar himself was so indifferent a cavalry general,
that the celebrated Prussian hussar officer, Warnery,
has ridiculed his dispositions, where cavalry are con-
cerned, with justice.

If other proof were wanting of the absence of a
true appreciation of the importance good breeds of
horses are to a state, we shall find it in the absence
of all government institutions of the kind, until
taught by the misfortunes this neglect had brought
upon the empire, some were tardily adopted in the
A&iatic conquests. * Private studs there were, but

* This was rather in the lower empire, under the Byzantine
sovereigns, who had retained the studs of Asia Minor chiefly
in Cappadoeia ; they favoured others in Syria, and in the
fourth century obtained their curule horses from a stud kept

INTRODUCTION. 123

they belonged to the wealthiest families of Rome,
and were managed by servants in Spain, Africa, and
the East, without the superintendence of the owners,
as mere objects of revenue ; and in a few cases by
young men of fashion in Italy, who sought notoriety
by being possessors of Pegasidae, a kind of fleet
horses, appvKffoi, or double horses, for the purpose
of imitating the Desultorii or mountebanks, who
vaulted from one to the other ; or Thieldones, which
were amblers ; or Guttonarii and Collatorii, trained
to step in cadence with their feet high, or perhaps
merely trotting ; all arts of education, and not qua-
lities of races.* There were, besides, poneys known
by the name of Manni, obtained from the Asturian
and British provinces, which served for boys to ride,
and it was the fashion in summer to shave all the
upper parts of their bodies, as is still done with
mules in the south of France. But where, in the
government statistics, the laws, and colloquial lan-
guage, horses were distinguished in the following
classification, no notions of races or breeds could be
generally entertained :

at Pampati, near the Mansio Andavilici, not far from Tyana,
in Caramania.

* The horses destined for the circus could not legally be
applied to any other purpose, and it became the fashion to
talk of their pedigrees in the horse-breeding provinces, such as
Spain ; hence Statius, in the second century, says, —

" Titulis generosus Avitis
Expectatur equus, cujus de Stemmate longo
Felix emeritos habet admissura parentis."

Lib. v. s. 4. Protrep. ad Crisp, v. 22.

1 24 INTRODUCTION.

1. Equus Avertarius, or Sagmarius. The bat or
sumpter horse.

2. Eq. Publicus. Horses maintained by govern-
ment for the Equites.

3. Eq. Sellarius, or Celes ; x&qg. Saddle-horse.

4. Eq. Agminales. Horses maintained for public
purposes, on cross-roads, where there were no posts.

5. Eq. Cur sales ) or Veredi. Post-horses.

6. Eq. Desultorii^ or Pares. Horses of mounte-
banks.

7. Eq. Funales ; 1 and 4 of a quadriga, 2 and 3
being jugales^ %vx&t.

8. Eq. Lignei ! Wooden horses, for youth to
learn riding.

9. Eq. Slngulares. Horses of volunteers.

10. Eq. Triumphales. The four or six horses
that drew triumphal cars.

Nations, whose ideas are thus undefined on the
subject of horses, we may rest assured are never
really equestrian. In the above series we find, how-
ever, that where the machinery of dominion was
concerned, the Romans, as in war, could also bor-
row from their enemies systems of administra-
tion ; such as regular post stations to convey public
officers and orders ; imitated by Augustus from the
Persian Astrandi, or Astandi ; where there are still
expresses called Chuppers, as in Turkey, Tartars,
always distinguished by their yellow caps. The
Romans had, for the same purpose, horses selected
for their swiftness, and thence called Pegasidae, sta-
tioned at the mutationes of their cursus publicus or

INTRODUCTION. 125

post roads ; and it was in imitation of the govern-
ment, that Pegasidae or fast going horses became
fashionable among the great. *

Copying, no doubt, from nations possessed of
great droves of horses, we may believe the legionary
cavalry marked theirs on the thigh ; for it was the
practice to fix similar brandmarks upon the horses
of the circus, not as the property of individuals, but
as attached to one of the four factions of the chariot
races. Several of these are distinctly marked in
bas-reliefs and other ancient monuments, and are
here represented :

=b $ <J> 1 ! -£ E X

But the Imperial government, without foreseeing
it, was nevertheless the first cause in Europe of the
improvements in domestic horses, by permitting as
much as possible the remounts of the foreign co-
horts, stationed often at opposite extremities of the
empire, to be drawn from the native region of each ;
and we may judge, as stallions were mostly used in
the cavalry service, how much, for example, in
Britain, Alge and cohorts of Dacians, Mauritanians,

* See the Notitia Imperil. Pancirolus. We may also men-
tion here the classification of horses in the old monastic insti-
tutions: they were divided into, — 1st, Manni, large geldings
for the superiors ; 2d, Runcini, runts, small nags for servants ;
3d, Sumernarii, or sumpter-horses to carry baggage ; and 4th,
Aveni, plough-horses on the church lands.

126 INTRODUCTION.

Dalmatians, Thracians, Asturians, Sarmatians, &c.
must have influenced the form, colours, and quali-
ties of horses in the island; and similarly, if the
order was equally adhered to, how the British sta-
tioned in Armenia and Egypt may have introduced
their own to Asia and Africa. It is to this practice
that the great intermixture of colours and characters
of the horses of Europe may be ascribed, although
the effect was greatly modified when the invasions
of barbarian conquerors subsequently broke into
both empires, each nation conveying along with the
whole moveable property its own native breed of
horses into the newly acquired territory, and leaving
a second amalgamation to future generations. With
the exception of the Huns, who withdrew again,
the Magyar or Hungarian, and some other nations
in the east of Europe, most were already known,
and their horses had been introduced by purchase
before they came as conquerors ; we may, however,
imagine the black race in Spain and in Morocco to
have originated in the Alan and Yandal conquests,
and the rufous or chesnut breeds of the north-east
of France to derive from the Burgundian invasion.

We intend to resume this subject when the his-
tory, of the present breeds of horses shall be con-
sidered, and therefore remark only, that in antiquity,
with the exception of the black race reared in Gaul
and Western Germany, the Asiatic and African
bays, /3aX/o£, and the white of Asia Minor, all the
breeds of horses were undersized ; and indeed it was
not desirable to have them fifteen hands high, as

INTRODUCTION. 127

long as the stirrup to mount them remained un-
known. In vain Xenophon instructs riders how to
reach the saddle without lying across the horse in
an unseemly attitude ; men loaded with armour al-
ways found it difficult to gain their seats, they
wanted a lift of the left leg to rise ; stepped upon
the right calf of an attendant ; had an inconvenient
cross-bar near the bottom of their spear to place the
foot on, or strained the horse in making it rise after
lying down to receive the rider ; or finally, Oriental
servitude induced the principal officers of state to
grovel on all-fours, while the sovereign mounted
upon their backs and thence across his saddle, as is
still, we believe, the practice with the grand vizir
when the sultan goes and returns in state to and
from the mosque.

The stapes, or stirrup, is asserted to be known
only since the eleventh century, Avicenna, who
died in 1030, being the first who mentions it * ; but
we have evidence, even in Saxon England, that the
instrument in question was known at a much
earlier period, for there is an outline drawing of a
horseman riding in stirrups in a MS. Aurelius Pru-
dentius, with Saxon annotations, in the Cotton
library of the British Museum, marked Cleopatra,
C. S., and engraved in Strutt's Horda Angelcynnan ;

* The Persian bas-reliefs represent riders without stirrups •
although all the barrows on the plains of Tahtary, where
horse-bones and saddlery are detected, produce them of metal ;
and we have not observed a single illuminated Oriental MS.,
Japanese. Chinese. Tahtar, Persian, Turkish, and Arabic, when
horsemen are rigured, where they do not ride in stirrups.

128 INTRODUCTION.

this MS., and a duplicate at Cambridge with simi-
lar designs, are both ascribed to the latter end of
the ninth century. We believe to have seen other
instances in French and German illuminated books,
and think that the Spanish Saracens introduced the
custom. It is true that there are Anglo-Saxon MSS.
of so late as the eleventh century, where designs re-
present horsemen without stirrups ; but this proves
only that, like in all other great innovations, time
alone confers universal consent ; for, in the figures of
horses published by Strada, and representing those
of different nations, there are still some in Europe
and in Africa without them, and, until lately, seve-
ral tribes of Mahrattas in India used none.

In the time of the Roman conquest of Syria
there were Bedoueen Arabs who, like the Numi-

Circassian.

Turkish.

Syrian.

European. Mule. Tahtar.

Ancient Horse-shoes.

dians, still rode without bridles. With regard to

o

horse-shoes, recent authors have concluded that they

INTRODUCTION. J29

are of comparative modern invention, but we refer
to the horse-shoe found at Tournay in the tomb of
the Frankish king, Childeric (who died about 480),
which Mr. Bracy Clark would ascribe to a mule be-
cause it is small, when he should have considered
the horses were of low stature ; * and if it were of
a mule, still would prove the practice of shoeing.
We know, moreover, that the Asiatics of the north
made a variety of horse-shoes for many ages ; and
in the high region of the Kirguise country, even
now, they shoe their horses with pieces of deers'
antlers, and in Iceland occasionally sheep's horn,—
in both cases effected by the peasants, and not by
regular farriers. In Southern Asia, where the far
greater proportion of the earth's surface consists of
sandy plains and dry deserts, the horses' hoofs are
hard, and therefore do not even now suffer the ope-
ration of shoeing, at best a questionable advantage ;
hence none of the Arab or Persian nations wanted
or invented them. The marches of Alexander may
have been impeded, and the operations of Mithri-
dates thwarted, by their horses being overworked in
rocky districts ; and it is sufficiently clear that in
Rome horse-shoeing was unknown to the end of
the republic, and began in the time of Caesar. Vir-
gil seems to have been guided by his feelings for

* A mule in the tomb of a northern king, a Frank, would
have been an insult to his memory. As Pagans and horse-
eacrificers, the object is sufficiently clear, and the size of the
animal corresponds to the era and the race of horses then used
in Germany.

I

130 INTRODUCTION.

the heroical in speaking of horses, for Catullus evi-
dently alludes to horse-shoes in the line where the
object is indeed a mule :

" Ferream ut soleam tenaci in Voragine mula
Derelinquit."

Nero had horses shod with silver, and his wife,
Poppaea, had her mules similarly protected with
gold ; and although Beckman, after Cardamus,
would insinuate that these were plates, it still is
evident that they were fastened with nails, since,
in the life of Caligula, Suetonius expressly notices
the iron shoe, with eight or more nails, as remarked
by Aldrovandus. * It is probable that the ancient
shoe was similar to the present thin plates used in
Persia, which may be perforated with nails any-
where, and are very like the Turkish, only the last
mentioned have a small opening in the middle, but
the heel and frog are quite covered. There are in-
deed ancient Tahtar horse-shoes of a circular form,
apparently with only three nails or fasteners to the
outside of the hoof, as may be seen in the brand-
marks of the first race of Circassian horses : t this
was perhaps the shoe the Tahtars used, and which
every horseman could fasten on without the aid of a
farrier. There is further evidence in favour of the
antiquity and form of the usual shoe, in the circum-
stance, that from Ireland to the extremity of Siberia,
from Lapland to Abyssinia, from the Frozen Ocean

* " U. Aldrovandus de Quadrupedibus," fol. p. 50.
*f* " Pallas's Travels." It is the brandmark of the Abassian
race of Shalokh.

INTRODUCTION. 131

to Canton and to the Malay islands, the horse-shoe
is found nailed against buildings, under the same
system of mysterious superstition, and evidently
from a remote age, — for how, otherwise, could the
practice have spread over the whole world. We
have seen it sculptured in has-relief with a Runic
inscription certainly as old as the ninth century, ac-
companying a figure of Ostar, upon a stone found
on the Hohenstein, near the Druden Altar in "West-
phalia, a place of Pagan worship that was destroyed
by the Franks in the wars of Charlemagne: had
the horse-shoe been invented in that age, it could
not already have become an object of mysterious
adaptation in the religion of barbarians which was
on the wane at least a century earlier.

It has been remarked that the Romans paid only
a tardy and imperfect attention to breeding horses,
and we have observed also that the stature of these
animals, with exception of the races before named,
was below the present ordinary size. The Norman
pirates carried in their ships the small hardy breed
of Scandinavia, still in perfection in Iceland : all
the riding nations from the east and north, — Huns,
Bulgarians, Goths, and Magyars, had small horses :
those of the Ardennes, of many parts of France, of
the Camargue, of Switzerland, the Pyrenees, and Bri-
tain, were still smaller : the Netherland Menaphian
alone appear to have reached a full stature. It was
therefore in the first centuries after the Moslem inva-
sion of Spain, France, and Calabria, when art and
science began to revive, and the great empire of the

132 INTRODUCTION.

Franks could and did provide wide-spreading pre-
cautions against invaders, among which the most
pressing were those that were calculated to resist
the conquests of Islam. With the newly introduced
stirrup, they could more properly adopt heavy de-
fensive armour, and in order to give the Christian
chivalry a fair chance of success, that which would
increase the stature of their war-horses became an
object of importance. Accordingly, about this pe-
riod, we begin to observe, in the West, places for
breeding and institutions of horse-fairs. * The
Moorish and Spanish Vandal (Andalusian) breeds
gradually passed the Pyrenees, captured in forays,
received as presents, or introduced by Jews, who
were then great horse-dealers. The race of the
Frankish Netherlands, carried to the south, and the
largest mares that could be procured in Lombardy,
were crossed by the southern varieties in breeding-
places called Haras, modified after a name which
was derived from some nation on the Danube,
where Gar as and Guida denoted both sexes of that
animal. The Anglo-Saxons denominated them horse-
steeds ; the Celtic nations, Arich;^ and the Bel-

* In this view the Welsh inarch is connected with the Teu-
tonic marcht, a market, — and Latin mercator and merces may
be of Gallic origin. The German jakr marckt, annual fair,
always denoted one where horses were sold, in its original
acceptation.

f Argyle, in Scotland, is presumed to be derived from Are-
Gael, the breeding or horse-stud of the Gael. Sted, or steed,
from the Teutonic stute, a mare. Broisel is said to be derived
from broeden, to breed ; broisel, a brood.

INTRODUCTION. 133

gians, Braise^ — for such is the interpretation of
Brussels, — the site where the city stands being an-
teriorly a breeding pasture, on the river Senne,
fonned by the counts of Louvain before Brabant
was raised into a duchy. The fair of Beaucaire
became the great mart for horses as early as 832,
when the count of Barcelona built the castle : others
existed from the Celtic or Roman times, at those
places called Venice, — as Yienne on the Rhone,
Vienna on the Danube, Vannes in Brittany, Venta
Belgarum, or Winchester, Venemaere near Ghent,
and new horse-fairs sprang up in many places.

It was then that the nobility and chivalry of
Europe, leading almost a nomad life, in quest of
war and adventures, began to pay large prices for
tall, fleet, and strong horses : the Christian kings of
Oviedo and Leon were often pressed to sell or pro-
cure war-horses. We find a pope, John, applying to
the king of Gallicia for " Aliquantos utiles et opti-
mos Mauriscos, quos Hispani caballos Alfaraces
vocant." These Alfaras, or Andalus, were a cross
breed of Arab blood upon the black Vandal and
other Gothic races, themselves crossed with Roman
and the ancient Spanish Calpe studs; which last
retained the name of Ginetas because they were
smaller and fit only for light armed cavalry. Afri-
can and Barbary blood, by crossing with the Gothic,
likewise rose in stature, and spread in Navarre to
the Garonne. These two formed the first well
bred horses in Christian Europe, and the grey being
most accessible, probably in consequence of a farther

134 INTRODUCTION.

cross with the Gallician mountain race, was soon
noticed in France by the names of Ferrant, Aufer-
rant, and Blancferrant, as they were of different
shades of their colour. We find in the older poets
and troubadours, repeated reference to them ; such
as,—

M Chacuns d'eux broche son auf errant Gascon.

La peust on voir maint auferrant d'Espagne.

D'Estriers, auferrant et Gascon,"

occur, showing that auferrant is occassionally in-
tended to express the native country of the destrier
or charger ; for dextrier, destrier ', or dextrarius, were
terms given to a war-horse because it was led by a
groom or squire until wanted for battle : the word,
besides, was synonymous with great-horse and war-
horse, and denoted his quality, without reference to
colour or race. *

In Britain, we have already pointed out the gra-
dual importations in the time of the Romans and
during the Saxon invasions, although the last men-

* These terms stood in contradistinction to the smaller
sized horses, called acliinece, in French hacquenes, with us hack-
neys, and in Italian ubinas ; there were, besides, arlanni, scoppce,
and palfreys, all under-sized horses, usually bred to ambling,
and the last mentioned almost exclusively reserved for the use
of ladies, was if possible white or marked with some peculiar
colours. I know of only one instance where a knight in full
armour is pourtrayed riding a mule dressed in armorial trap-
pings, and that is of Piero Farnese, 1363, a statue in the pro-
portions of life, and perhaps in real armour, over a door in the
cathedral of Florence ; for a drawing of which I am indebted
to my friend Seymour Kirkup, Esq.

INTRODUCTION. 135

tioned cannot have been considerable, if, according
to the venerable Bede, the insular Saxons did not
begin to ride much before the year 630. Athelstan
is the first on record who, in 930, received German
running-horses as a present from abroad, and there-
fore had more particular opportunity of improving
the English stock by the infusion of select foreign
blood : these presents came from Hugh the Great, *
when he solicited the Saxon king's sister in mar-
riage ; and he seems to have bestowed some attention
on the subject, since he issued a decree prohibiting
the exportation of horses without his licence ; and
the order proves that his steeds were already suffi-
ciently valuable to incur the risk and expense of ship-
ping them for the continental fairs. In a document of
the year 1 000, we find the relative value of horses
in this kingdom, directing, — if a horse was de-
stroyed or negligently lost, the compensation to be
demanded was thirty shillings; a mare or colt,
twenty shillings ; a mule or young ass, twelve shil-
lings ; an ox, thirty pence ; a cow, twenty-four
pence ; a pig, eight pence ; and a man, one pound !
In the laws of Hyweldda, sovereign of Wales,
dated a few years before this period, a foal not four-

* We derive the facts of this and the following paragraphs
from a treatise on " The Horse," published under the superin-
tendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge,
1 vol. 8vo. 1831. The text says Hugh Capet by mistake; it
was Hugh the Great, father of Capet, who married, in second
nuptials, Ethilda, daughter of Edward the elder, and sister of
Athelstan.

136 INTRODUCTION.

teen days old is valued four pence; at one year
and a day, forty-eight pence; and at three years,
sixty pence : this refers evidently to the native
horses, for there it is ordered to tame them with
the bridle and rear them as palfreys or serving-
horses, but the war-horse is not mentioned. When
completely broken in, the value rose to one hundred
and twenty pence, but if left wild or an unbroken
mare, was worth only sixty pence.

The trinal system of the ancient Celtic nations, it
is perceived, still continued in use at that time,
and may be traced in the laws regarding horses;
for to obviate the frauds of dealers, the following
singular regulations were in force : the purchaser
was entitled to time, in order to ascertain whether
the horse was free from three diseases. Three nights'
possession to determine whether he was not subject
to the staggers; three months to prove the soundness
of his lungs, and one year to remove all apprehen-
sion of glanders. For every blemish discovered after
purchase, the dealer was liable to a deduction of
erne-third of the money, excepting in obvious cases,
such as, where the ears or tail were defective. Com-
pensations were likewise granted in cases of injuries
done to hired horses ; all showing a humanity of
principle, emanating from the Celtic source, notwith-
standing that prince had repeatedly visited Rome
for the purpose of rendering his code more perfect.
We find, even among the enactments, that " who-
ever shall borrow a horse and rub off the hair, so as
to gall his back, shall pay four pence; if the skin

INTRODUCTION. 137

be forced into the flesh, eight pence ; if the flesh
be forced to the bone, sixteen pence." *

Until the latter part of the tenth century, neither
the Anglo-Saxons nor the "Welsh employed horses
in the plough ; but about that period, some innova-
tion of the kind must have occurred, since a Welsh
law prohibits the farmer to plough with horses,
mares, or cows, oxen alone being lawful. On a
part of the border of the so called Bayeux tapestry,
representing the landing of William the Conqueror
and the battle of Hastings, A. D. 1066, a piece of
needlework ascribed to the dexterity of Saxon em-
broiderers, there is a representation of a man driv-
ing a horse attached to a harrow; which is the
earliest instance we have of horses used in field
labour.

With the Norman conquest, effected by adven-
turers from every country in the west of Europe,
a marked improvement took place in the breed of
horses : the martial barons and their followers had
brought with them a great force of cavalry, and they
were sensible that it was owing to superiority in
horse the victory had been obtained. It was then
the effect of the Spanish breeds extended to Eng-

* According to the Anglo-Saxon computation, forty-eight
shillings made a pound, equal in silver to about three pounds
of our present money ; in value to fifteen or sixteen pounds :
five pence made one shilling. " The Horse," page 23. — There
were also the qualities required to constitute a good horse, in
triplets, — 3 of a woman, 3 of a lion, 3 of a bullock, 3 of a sheep,
3 of a mule, 3 of a deer, 3 of a wolf, 3 of a fox, 3 of a serpent,
and 3 of a hare or cat ! All whimsically applied.

138 INTRODUCTION.

land; William himself rode, in battle, a favourite
charger of that race ; and among the installed
nobles, Roger de Boulogne, * Earl of Shrewsbury,
established the race of Spain on his newly acquired
estates at Povisland. In the year 1121, during
the reign of Henry I., the first Arabian horse on re-
cord was introduced ; about the time Alexander I.,
King of Scotland, presented another to the church of
St. Andrews : both of these wrere most likely real
Barbs from Morocco, and were acquired by means
of the Jew dealers. Our Norman princes were,
however, not only attentive to improve their studs
in England, but perhaps still more so on the conti-
nent ; for, it is at this period that both the bay and
the grey races of Norman horses were formed, which
continue still to be the best in France. At the
battle of Hastings the horses were not yet barbed,
nor the knights completely covered in armour,
and their lances were still sufficiently light to be
cast like darts; but during the reign of Henry II.,
we think, from the increased number of " great
horses," both horse and man were protected by
mail or other defensive armour ; the helmets closed
with visors, and the lance became ponderous, and
could only be used couched. In this reign circa
1170, Fitz Stephen the monk, in his description of
London, mentions trotting horses, brest? horses,
and running horses, and relates with animation the

* I do not find whether it was Roger de Montgomerie or his
son Robert de Belcsme, or Boulogne j the names appear to be
confounded.

INTRODUCTION. 139

races that took place in Smithfield, whither mer-
chants and strangers resorted, and which was then,
it is evident, a great mart for foreign as well as
native horses. Then was the era of the crusades :
thousands of the best horses went with their riders
to perish in Palestine, and those champions of the
Cross that survived to return, were always in such
distress, that they could not, if they would, bring
oriental steeds back to their homes. Richard I., in
the various metrical poems concerning his expedi-
tion, is mentioned riding a Gascon bay, a Cypriot
roan, and several Arabians. Two other Cyprus
horses sung in romance, most likely never came to
England, though

" Yn this worlde they hadde no pere,
Dromedary and Destrere,
Stede, Rabyte, *, ne Cammele,
Goeth none so swifte, without fayle."

We perceive, in the sum of two pounds twelve
and sixpence, given by the king, in 1185, for fifteen
breeding mares, and distributed by him to his tenants
at four shillings each, the low value of the common
race, as compared with ten capital war-horses, which,
some years later, cost twenty pounds a piece, — the
demand and necessary consequence of the havoc
made among them during the frenzy of distant
marine expeditions; and in the case of a pair of
chargers, twelve years after (1217)? brought over
from Lombardy at the extravagant sum of thirty-
eight pounds thirteen and four-pence, we find the
* An Arabian.

140 INTRODUCTION.

eagerness evinced for possessing the largest and
heaviest war-horses then in Europe. For in the
rich pastures of the river Po, a race of ponderous
Destrieros had been formed, which, if they at all
resembled those figured by the early sculptors on
the monuments and statues of Condotieri, were
equal to our largest breed of dray-horses, the boast
of London brewers.

King John had a passion for horses ; he imported
one hundred chosen stallions from Flanders, and
thereby contributed materially to the improvement
of that class of horses which subsequently became
more exclusively employed for draught. In the
same reign, a gentleman named Amphitil Till, one
of the numerous persons who fell under the enmity
of the king, was imprisoned, and agreed to pay for
his ransom ten horses, each worth thirty marks,
which is nearly equal to £300 of our present
money : * but the circumstance only proves the
value of his stud, not that they were of English
race.

Whether the old grey breed of England was of
the same extraction as the Norman is uncertain ;
but while the crown was in possession both of that
country and Guienne, where the Ferrant breed
abounded, it is likely that from the time of Henry II.
it had been introduced ; for the names of grey
Lyard, and Sulyardt, occur in ancient heraldry

* See Rymer's Faedera, quoted by Henry.
•f Lyard, dappled grey ; Sulyard, mouldy grey. The ancient
family of Sulyard bore for arms a stumbling white horse, and

INTRODUCTION. 14]

and early English poetry. In a satire on Edward,
Earl of Cornwall, hinting at his escape from prison,
there is the following allusion to it :

" Be the leuf, be the lout, Sire Edward,
Thou shalt ride sporeless o' thy Lyard,
All the righte way to Doverward."

Edward II. purchased thirty Lomhardy war-
horses and twelve heavy draught-horses, between
which there could not be much difference, except-
ing in the training. His son, Edward III., expended
one thousand marks for fifty Spanish horses, and
obtained for their transmission a safe conduct from
the kings of Spain and France, who showed more
liberality in granting the boon than he did to a
German dealer, who, having imported some Flan-
ders stallions on speculation, was only permitted to
re-embark them, but not to take them to Scotland,
where no doubt they would have amply repaid
him, since, so late* as the reign of Queen Mary,
Perlin, a French traveller, remarks, that the Scots
chivalry were wretchedly mounted. *

Edward had many running horses, by which we
think are meant fleet hunters, of a lighter make

for motto, " Hoist Bayard." Byard, or Bayard, denoted a bay,
probably from the Arabic bayel, a horse. Aldrovandus thinks
that Valus, the name of Belisarius's charger, indicates a bay ;
we think it derived from vale, a pale or Isabella horse. Bayert,
nevertheless, is an old Teutonic word, to which, in the Nether-
lands at least, the idea of black was affixed.

* Description d'Angleterre et d'Ecosse, par Etienne Perlin,
1558.

142 INTRODUCTION.

than the " great horses," which it was believed re-
quired bone ; their price was about twenty marks,
or three pounds six and eight-pence. That prince
was fond of field sports, and felt that war-horses
would give him no superiority in continental battles,
where during several reigns all our kings won their
great victories fighting on foot.

Italian great horses, there is reason to believe,
were imported, if not for breeding, at least for
mounting the nobility and richest knights ; for al-
though we do not know whether they were sent to
England or only presented, Paul Jovius relates that
Galeazzo II., duke of Milan, gave seventy war-
horses to Lionel, duke of Clarence, all furnished
with saddles of velvet, embroidered with silver.

From this time English horses improved steadily,
and the amount demanded and given, and the mal-
practices of dealers, caused Richard II. to issue an
edict in 1386 to regulate their prices. In this do-
cument, ordered to be promulgated in the counties
of Lincoln and Cambridge, and the east and north
ridings of Yorkshire, we perceive the principal
breeding localities were then the same as now ; but
the civil wars began at this time to arm one part of
the nation against another, and the breed of horses
diminished and deteriorated greatly during the san-
guinary struggles of three-fourths of a century.
Philippe de Comines, who saw an English army
which Edward IV. disembarked in France, speaks
with little admiration of its equipment or armour;
and it is probable these deficiencies were not re-

INTRODUCTION. 143

paired while Henry VII. sat on the throne, for he
prohibited the exportation of stallions, and even of
mares, unless they were above two years old and
under the value of six shillings and eight-pence;
by which, it may be, was meant the unimproved
pony breed. We think this the only intelligible
way of explaining an order, which could otherwise
be easily evaded.

Henry VIII., with ostentatious propensities, was
anxious to possess a valuable breed of horses, and
his connexions with Charles V. evidently facilitated
the acquisition. In the tournaments and processions
of which drawings and engravings remain, the grey,
golden bay, and deep bay Andalusian and Asturian
breeds may be represented : he was not, however,
satisfied with his own stud; his arbitrary temper
devised a law, by which it was intended none but
good horses should be kept, fixing a standard of
value for that purpose, and regulating that the
lowest stallion should be fifteen hands high and the
inares thirteen hands ; and before they had arrived
at their full growth, no stallion at two years old,
under fourteen hands and a half, was permitted to
run on any forest, moor, or common where there
were mares. At Michaelmas tide, the neighbouring
magistrates were ordered to " drive " all forests and
commons, and not only destroy such stallions, but
" unlikely tits," whether mares, geldings, or foals,
which they might deem not calculated to produce a
valuable breed ; he moreover ordained, that in every
deer-park a certain number of mares, in proportion

144 INTRODUCTION.

to its size, and each at least thirteen hands high,
should he kept ; and that all his prelates and nohles,
and " all those whose wives wore velvet honnets,"
should keep stallions for the saddle, at least fifteen
hands high. These regulations, though they died
with the ohstinate and wrong-headed king, effected
little towards improvement, but greatly diminished
the numher of horses'; for when Elizabeth, forty-
one years after, called out the whole strength of her
chivalry to oppose the expected invasion of the
Spaniards, she could muster only three thousand
men-at-arms mounted ; and Blundeville, who wrote
on the art of riding, speaks with contempt of the
qualities of the horses. Yet there existed then a
valuable showy breed in England, eagerly bought
by foreign grandees for state occasions, particularly
when they were white or light grey, as is proved by
the notice of Aldrovandus, who died blind and aged
eighty, in the year 1605. The majority, neverthe-
less, were strong sturdy animals, fit for slow draught,
and the few of lighter structure were weak and
without powers of endurance. But now commenced
the practice of racing, chiefly at Chester and Stam-
ford ; and although these were as yet without sys-
tem, admitting hunters and hackneys and every
description of horse, the foundation was laid of that
rising improvement in English horses, to which we
shall revert when the particular breeds of the pre-
sent time are reviewed. *

* See " The Horse," page 27. Grooming, on the English
plan, was already an object of attention abroad ; for Maurice,

INTRODUCTION. J 45

Both the foregoing remarks, and the account of
the ancient breeds of horses, appeared to be neces-
sary in a preliminary statement, before the question
of wild horses could be considered ; because, while
they throw, we hope, some light on their primitive
distribution, considered merely as different races, as
varieties, or as distinct forms, more or less approach-
ing to actually separate species, they prepare the
reader more fully to enter upon the question of the
true wild horse, and the distinctions which, even
now, animals collectively so called present to the
observer. We have shown that varieties of colour,
at least, were in the earliest ages located in a line of
nearly the same latitude, but separated in longitude
from east to west upon geographical surfaces, where
there still remains evidence of their presence, not-
withstanding the lapse of ages, and the position
they occupied in the colonial route of nations ; and
that their gradual intermixture was effected by these
causes, and still more by the north-eastern progress
of Islamism. There are allusions to the different
stocks, beside those already noticed, in the sacred
and profane writers ; the former in the mysterious
visions of the prophets, and even in the Revela-
tions;* the latter in poets and historians to the

the learned landgrave of Hesse, in his secret visit to Henry IV.
of France, observed, in 1602, " English groom&with the king's
horses at the Louvre."

* Zachariah, chap. i. ver. 8, although in a mysterious alln
sion, yet marks the bay Syrian, the white A rmeno- Persian-
and piebald Macedonian race : and in the Revelations, chap, vi.,

146 INTRODUCTION.

thirteenth century of the Christian era; and we
shall point out, in the next chapter, that feral
horses return to particular colours or liveries, as a
further proof of the probability in favour of the
views offered in the present.

THE WILD

As among the Equidse the domestic horse is beyond
comparison the most important species to man, so
is it also the type of the others in systematic ar-
rangement, and the constant object of reference by
which their station and qualities are judged ; hence
the horse, properly so called, occupies singly the
far greater part of the history of the whole group.
Having already furnished some description of the
ancient history of the animal, we can now, before
we proceed to detail that of the races at present
diffused over the surface of the world, enter upon
the question of the wild horse, — one which natu-
ralists are not wholly agreed on : we shall make
some remarks on varieties nowT extant which appear
to have a claim to be distinct, being regarded as
such by the natives of the localities where they re-
side ; and examine whether they, like the differently

the same white and bay, the pale Median, and the black Ro-
man or Scythic ; they are not golden, nor silvery, nor green,
nor blue, but actually taken from existing types, depicting the
nations who owned them.

THE WILD HORSE. 147

coloured forms of horse already noticed are species
osculating with others in their original state of li-
berty, or mark one or more races that have returned
to their primitive condition and resumed manners
and habits conformable with their organization,
after they had been under the dominion of man, at
an anterior period more or less remote. On the one
hand, differences cannot be consistently drawn from
facts not immediately in the reach of physiology,
without a careful consideration of the data that
must justify them ; nor, on the other, can any ad-
vance be obtained in this direction of the natural
sciences, without the license and use of some daring

' O

in the solution of propositions depending in a certain
degree upon induction from testimonial authority.

Respecting the wild or rather feral horses, of
South and North America, Cuba, and St. Domingo,
whose origin is well known, no difference of opi-
nion can properly arise, notwithstanding that a late
acute observer detected, in alluvial deposits, the
bones of horses in company with those of Megathe-
rium, and apparently belonging to the same zoolo-
gical period ; and that several recent travellers, in
the northern portion of that continent, question the
race of horses, now so abundant, being imported sub-
sequent to the discovery by Columbus. * But doubts

* Notwithstanding that the period of the destruction of
Megatherium, or Megalonix of Jefferson, admits of little doubt,
there exists among the North American Indians a curious
legend of a large animal they name Tagesho, or Yayesko, much
superior to the largest bear, remarkably long-bodied, broad at

148 THE WILD HORSE.

may be entertained respecting the real source of the
wild horses roaming from the Ukraine, in Europe,
eastwards to the northern extremity of Chinese
Tahtary : those about the Don, it is asserted, are
spru-ng from domesticated animals sent to grass
during the siege of Azof in 1696,* which could
not again be entirely recaptured. Forster was dis-
posed to consider all the wild horses in Asia de-
scendants from strayed animals belonging to the
inhabitants ; and Pallas, who had likewise travelled
in Asiatic Russia, inclined to the same conclusions.
He thought the horses from the Volga to the Oural
the progeny of domestic animals; and again, that
all from the Jaik' and Don, and in Bokhara, were of
the Kalmuck and Kirguise breed, remarking, that
they are mostly fulvous, rufous, and Isabella ; while,
on the Volga, he noticed them as usually brown,
dark brown, and silver-grey, some having white
legs and other signs of intermixture. Undoubtedly
men of science, so well trained to observation as
both these learned naturalists, carry with their opi-
nions a weight of authority which is evinced by

the shoulders, more slender and weak behind, with a large
head, short thick paws, and very long claws, spreading wide ;
the skin almost bare, excepting on the hind legs, where the
hair was very long, and therefore called a kind of bear : it was
slow, but killed women and children, unless they escaped on
rocks, trees, or in the water, and then swam fast and far: the
last was killed in an attempt to climb a rock where the hunters
were posted. See " Legends of the North American Indians."
Many of these characters will apply to a giant armadillo.
* Or, as in other authorities, 1657.

THE WILD HORSE. 149

subsequent writers, who, not satisfied with acquies-
cence in these conjectures, have actually pronounced
them to be settled conclusions. Yet, knowing from
personal experience, how little a traveller can see
and determine by his immediate single observation,
even in favourable regions, and taking into consi-
deration the jealous character of the authorities, his
confined condition in a sleigh or Russian travelling

o o

carriage, where he must pass over great distances in
haste in order to reach a secure asylum, be constantly
in the hands of the post officers, among a scanty po-
pulation, strangers to the language of government,
and still more to his own (the German) ; where,
with rare exceptions, all are exceedingly ignorant
and indifferent, and the climate three-fourths of the
year prohibiting going abroad, we question whether
under snch circumstances, opinions expressed with
doubt should be adopted as conclusive. Now, if
we examine the extent of the travellers' own imme-
diate means of judgment, we find that they have
occasionally seen troops of wild Equidas at a dis-
tance, and been enabled to give one drawing of a
living colt recently captured, besides two or three
more species from living specimens or stuffed skins :
surely a sweeping conclusion upon such scanty data
may be convenient, but is scarcely deserving of ac-
quiescence ; particularly when we take into account,
that, including the collected opinions of those upon
the spot, in themselves of only conditional value, the
field of observation explored is scarcely a hundredth
part of the surface whereon this zoological problem

150 THE WILD HORSE.

must be decided. The Russian dominions extend
over the most level part only : four chains, at least,
of enormous mountains, whose direction is even in
a measure unknown, occur within the great basin of
the Thianchan, the Little Altai, the Himalaya moun-
tains, and Hindukoh ; and upon them there are table
lands of more than 1 6,000 feet in elevation, not as
yet traversed by a European foot, though known to
be stocked with wild horses and other animals. Be-
ginning from the chain, east of Budukshaun more
than forty degrees of longitude, by from five to
twenty of latitude, stretch north-eastward along the
nomad haunts of the Kalmuks, Eleuths, Mongols,
a;id Kalkas, consisting mostly of the sandy wastes
of Gobi or Shamor, and to the west of these are the
deserts of the Sea of Aral, the Karakoum, and
wildernesses of the Kirguise. * Over the whole
extent of this almost boundless surface, several
species of Equidee are noticed, and shall we as-
sume that these also are feral descendants of stray
animals at the siege of Azof, though neither Forster
nor Pallas advanced such an opinion ? Surely no :
nor can we deny that in the south-eastern mountain
frontier of Russia, upon the inclined plains resting

* From longitude 73° to 113° east, and in latitude from 30°
to 50° north.

See Danville's map of China in Du Halde, drawn up from
the Jesuit memoirs ; still the best and almost the only docu-
ments for the greater part of the region in question. By late
British travellers, who with almost super-human perseverance
have penetrated into parts of the western extremity of Cen-
tral Asia, our doubts are supported, as will be shown passim.

THE WILD HORSE. 151

against the central chain, the original wild Equus
calallus is still found ; and that in the other regions
of the empire stretching westward, they are likewise
of the wild stock, but more and more adulterated
with domestic races as they approach towards Eu-
rope, or have been long peopled by fixed residents.
Even in the south-western steppes to the Ukraine,
there have been wild horses, as is attested by the
earliest historians, poets, and geographers: across
these plains, ancient Teutonic or Indo-Germanic
nations ; subsequently Ouralian tribes, Sarmatians,
Huns, Bulgarians, Magyars, andTahtars, all mounted
hordes, have passed, and some repassed ; and if the
horses on the banks of the Don are of feral or of
mixed blood, their origin and contamination is
surely much older than the siege of Azof. Even
at that period, there were still wild horses kept in
the parks of Eastern Europe, like other game, for
the service of the tables of the great. To admit,
therefore, the conclusion, that all the wild horses of
the old continent are descended from animals at
some period under the dominion of man, appears a
gratuitous assumption resting upon no proof, and in
opposition to historical records from the time of
Herodotus to our own age: it would imply the
absorption into domesticity of the whole species, or
of several species, in regions where such unbounded
wildernesses exist, in several parts still maintaining
the parent stock of other domestic animals ; or in-
volve the total destruction of the original wild
horses upon this immeasurable surface, where mail

152 THE WILD HORSE.

subsequently could not prevent their again multi-
plying to uncountable numbers ; while in Europe,
the most peopled part of the old world, there were
still in existence wild individuals of a race never
reclaimed. *

As long as the sources of information were scanty,
and public curiosity had defined the objects of na-
tural history with less attention, writers were more
liable than at present to be misled by erroneous
and indistinct accounts, or by the absence of all
information, and were induced to report the extinc-
tion of species of mammalia in several places, long
before they were warranted by the fact. The wolf
existed in Britain for ages after historians had as-
serted his destruction : Buffon, before the year 1760,
declared the stag extinct in England, while it is
still found in Somerset and the north of Devon ;
although since his time agricultural extension and
population have increased enormously. It was long-
believed in France that no beavers could be found
in the kingdom, whereas they have recently been
taken in the Rhone : the ibex was admitted to be
extirpated in every part of Europe, excepting in the
Alps, where his presence was doubted; we have
ourselves seen several specimens in the country, and
pointed out, in the Berlin Museum, the spoils of a
female, shot in the Spanish Pyrenees by Count
Hoffmansegg, without being recognised by him,

* Ukraine wild horses, fit to be eaten, but not fit for tho
saddle, says Beauplan. Equiferi are the Kondziki of the Poles,
according to Rzonozynski.

THE WILD HJRSE. l53

because he had surrendered his opinion to the com-
monly received assertion that there were none in
Spain. * We might extend the list to the regions
of the elk, the bison, the lion, and others, but the
foregoing are sufficient to prove that the extinction
even of large wild animals is not so rapid as is
often believed,- — nor founded in fact, although it is
asserted.

Now, with regard to wild horses, in the relations
of the ancients and in the travels of modern writers,
though we have reason occasionally to suspect they
mistake the onager and the hemionus for real horses,
their still remains sufficient authority for their pre-
sence in a state of nature, under one -or other of
their primaeval forms, as far as the south and west.
of Europe, and in their characteristics assuming the
same preference for opposite habitations in plains or
in woody mountains, which we now perceive to be
a leading distinction of the zebra and the Dauw ;
traits of character the more important, as they indi-
cate a different mode of living, a choice of plants,
not alike in both, — a dissimilar temperament ; and
when coupled with different proportions and posi-
tion of the ears, an arched or plane forehead, a
straight or curved nose, a difference of colour in the
eyes, of the skin, of the hoofs, the constancy of their

* We were shown the specimen with the foregoing account
by Professor Lichten stein, and when we asserted that it was a
female ibex, he wondered at his own inattention, and remarked
that his judgment had been perverted by his credulity : ad-
mitting at once the truth of our declaration.

154 THE WILD HORSE.

liveries, of their marks, in a streak along the back
and bars on the limbs, of dappled croups and shoul-
ders, or of dark uniform colours, dense or thin
manes and tails, although traits now mixed, feeble,
and evanescent, they appear to be indications of
original difference of forms sufficient to be distinct
though osculating species, or at least of races sepa-
rated at so remote a period that they may claim to
have been divided from the earliest times of our
present zoology.

"Wild horses, by Oppian denominated Jiippagri
and by Pliny equiferi, are first mentioned by Hero-
dotus as being of a white colour and inhabiting
Scythia, about the river Hypanis or Bog; he no-
tices others in Thrace, beyond the Danube, distin-
guished by a long fur. Aristotle (de Mirab) indi-
cates them in Syria, but with manners that seem
to refer them to hemionus or onager. Oppian places
his hippagms in Ethiopia, and denies the presence of
wild horses in Syria ; an opinion entitled to credit
from his local knowledge and his description of the
onager, which shows that he was acquainted with
both. Leo Africanus, in support of Oppian, men-
tions the wild horse of Africa as rarely seen or
captured by hunters with their dogs, but to be
entrapped in snares laid for them about the fresh-
water springs. The Gordians produced in the shows
of Rome eighty wild horses, according to Julius
Capitolinus, and it is supposed they were obtained
from Africa, where the family had its principal
landed property : unfortunately no description is

THE WILD HORSE. 155

given of these animals. Leo and Marmol say the
colour of the African wild species is whitish ashy
grey, with mane and tail short and crisped : Oppian
makes the hippagri rufous. Struys saw wild horses
near the isle of May and Cape Yerde, where they
have not since been noticed ; and Mungo Park fell
in with a troop of them about Ludamar, that fled,
snorting, stopping, and looking back ; but, again,
gives no other particulars. None were ever pre-
tended to be seen to the south of the equator in
Africa ; and it may be asked whether these alleged
horses are specifically the same as the Equm cabal-
lus of the north ? In reply, we think that some of
the foregoing accounts refer to the wild ass, whose
silvery mouse colour may be more or less taken for
white ; that others have seen the koomrah, which
we shall describe as a distinct species , and, finally,
that there may be feral horses in Northern Africa,
although it is strange that none are noticed in
Morocco, in Arabia, Persia, or India, where there
should be great numbers, if the doctrine of African
or Arabian original parentage is consistently main-
tained.

In Varro, we find that there were wild horses in
Spain ; the ancients generally admit their existence
in Sardinia and Corsica; Dapper places others in
Cyprus; Strabo, in the Alps; and we know that
they existed in the British islands • all seem to
refer to a sturdy form of mountain-forest ponies,
still found in the province of Cordova, in the Pyre-
nees, the Vogesian range, the Camargue, the Ar-

156 THE WILD HORSE.

dennes, Great Britain, and in the Scandinavian
highlands : * all remarkable for an intelligent but
malicious character, broad foreheads, strong lower
jaws, heavy manes, great forelocks, long bushy tails,
robust bodies, and strong limbs ; with a livery in
general pale dun, yellowish brown, a streak along
the spine and cross bars on the limbs, or the limbs
entirely black, as well as all the long hair, and
mostly having a tendency to ashy and grey, often
dappled on the quarter and shoulders. They prefer
the cover, delight in rocky situations, are dainty in
picking their food, do mischief in plantations, and
their cunning, artifice, and endurance is far greater
than that of large horses. From many circum-
stances, this form of Equus may be deemed indi-
genous in North-western Europe, and aborigine
distinct from the large black race of Northern Gaul,
which once ranged wild in the marshy forests of
the Netherlands, and was so fierce that it was held
to be untameable. It was a gaunt, ugly animal,

* These we take to have been the peall, gwilwst, and keffil
of the British Celtoe, — tit and upping of the subsequent Saxons,
— for we find, in some notes taken from MS. documents col-
lected for the Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandists in Vita
St. Hubert! and Ste. Genovevse, " Runcini vulgo-ttpp««^;" and
in a fragment apparently of the patrimonial property of the
Carlovingian dynasty at Heristhal, some account of stabled
horses and uppings. It is the same as the Finnic hepo, Greek
tfirof , and Latin equus, but the first of these only indicates the
root to be connected with getting up, mounting ; hence our
epping-stoues or horse blocks, and Epping Forest, where they
may have run wild, &c.

THE WILD HORSE.

with a large head and bristly mouth, small, pale,
often blue eyes, a haggard and abundant mane and
fail, which, according to Cardanus, when rubbed in
the night, emitted sparks of fire; the hips were
high, the legs nodose, and the feet broad, flat, and
hidden in an immense quantity of long bristly hairs
about the fetlocks : this form of horse may have ex-
fended northward as far as the Hartz, for there, as
in the Netherlands, we hear of traditions and legen-
dary tales where the electrical phenomenon first
mentioned, and the pale eyes, are evident ingredients
of superstition to connect it witli apparitions, de-
mons, wizards, and Pagan divinities. It may,
indeed, have been a feral branch, only in part wild,
and introduced with the first Gallo-Belgic colony
that ascended the Danube ; for the black-coloured
horse occurs in Egyptian pictures, was evidently
known to the Romans and Greeks at an early period,
and was figured as Pluto's team : * if this suppo-
sition could be substantiated, it would in some
measure show the original location and route of the
Centomannic Celts and true Gauls ; it would also
indicate the black race of Transouralian origin, with
the more probability, because melanism in horses is
unknown among the bay breeds, and where it is
intermixed, shows a tendency to obliteration.

* The black demon-horse of the West appears to have been
called a Baiert: Theodoric, carried off by one, shows its anti-
quity. The wizard Scott's, and the horse Pardolo of Spanish
legends, is of Gothic origin. I think there are similar allusions
to black horses in Tahtar tales.

158 THE WILD HORSE

But the ancients all agree in their statements
concerning wild horses of the north-east of Europe,
residing, according to their narratives, from Pontus
northward into regions unknown to their geogra-
phy; some we have seen are described as white,
and having the hair five or six inches long, charac-
ters we find verified at present in Asiatic Russia
and in the wild horses of the Pamere tahle land.
In the woods and plains of Poland and Prussia
there were wild horses to a late period. Beauplan
asserts their existence in the Ukraine, and Erasmus
Stella, in his work " De Origine Borussorum,"
speaks of the wild horses of Prussia as unnoticed by
Greek and Latin authors. " They are," he writes,
" in form nearly like the domestic species, but with
soft backs, unfit to be ridden, shy and difficult to
capture, but very good venison." These horses are
evidently again referred to by Andr. Schneebergius,.
who states, that " there were wild horses in the
preserves of the prince of Prussia, resembling the
domestic, but mouse-coloured, with a dark streak
on the spine and the mane and tail dark ; they
were not greatly alarmed at the sight of human
beings, but inexpressibly violent if any person at-
tempted to mount them. They were reserved for
the table like other game." It may be that in both
the above extracts the hemionus or the onager is
presumed to be depicted, but the difference of mane
and tail is so obvious, that such an objection cannot
be entertained ; and should it be said that these
were merely feral horses, it might be asked ia

THE WILD HORSE. 159

return, what a true wild species must be like to
satisfy the dissentient. In our view, this form of
horse is the original eelback dun of the west, and
allied to the common Median horse of antiquity;
the parent, by gradual subjugation and intermix-
ture, of the mouse-coloured and sorrels still common
in Lithuania ; and particularly of those breeds that,
with the black streak along the back, have cross
bars on the joints, and black mane, tail, and fet-
locks. * These were the wild and feral horses of
Europe, as far as Bessarabia, from the earliest era
to the close of the seventeenth century ; and from
the facts recorded, we may with some confidence
conclude, that farther east, where Europe displays an
Asiatic character, becoming more and more, as we
advance in that direction, wild and uncultivable,
that the appearances of the wild animals, particu-
larly the horses, have retained their original nature
more and more purely as we recede from the haunts
of civilization, showing marks of degeneracy only
where the old human migrations have passed, but

* Rzonozynski compares the Polish wild horses (Kondziki),
in size, to the Samogitian (Zmudzincks), mostly with tan or
mouse-coloured liveries ; but there being other furs, attests
they were mixed in his time. He describes the manners of
the stallions, and admits that they can be trained, which, in-
deed, is equally true of the zebra and quagga. He relates their
extension over the Ukraine, and gradual decrease. See Hist.
Nat. Curiosa Regni Poloniae. Sendomir, 1721, p. 217. — For
several of these authorities we must express our thanks to the
Polish Literary Society (of Paris), and in particular to Colonel
Lach Szyrma.

160 THE WILD HORSE.

leaving the typical characters everywhere percep-
tible. This is the cause which induced authors to
derive all the wild horses of Asia from the stray
troop-horses at the siege of Azof, then, be it ob-
served, already geldings, yet made to replenish the
steppes with a species of animals constantly noticed
before and since as abundant in a wild state in the
same regions ! Within these few years, Moorcroft
and the brothers Gerrard, when they penetrated
into Independent Tahtary and within the borders of
China, met with numerous herds of wild horses,
scouring along the table lands, sixteen thousand
feet above the sea, and express not the least hint of
their having been domesticated at any period.

Whatever may be the lucubrations of naturalists
in their cabinets, it does not appear that the Tahtar
or even the Cossack nations have any doubt upon
the subject, for they assert that they can distinguish
a feral breed from the wild by many tokens ; and
naming the former Takja* and Muzin, denominate
the real wild horse Tarpan and Tarpani. We have
had some opportunity of making personal inquiries
on wild horses among a considerable number of
Cossacks of different parts of Russia, and among
Bashkirs, Kirguise, and Kalmucks, and with a suffi-
cient recollection of the statements of Pallas, and

* If I mis-read not my note, Takja, and this name, I find
also, in Nemnich, written Taga ; but I am not sure if it is there
meant to bear the same definition as above. I took the word,
on one or two occasions, to be applied to all unowned horses of
the steppes.

ill

THE WILD HORSE. 161

Buffon's information obtained from M. Sanchez, to
direct the questions to most of the points at issue.
From the answers of Russian officers of this irregu-
lar cavalry, who spoke French or German, we drew
the general conclusion of their decided belief in a
true wild and untameable species of horse, and in
herds that were of mixed origin. Those most ac-
quainted with a nomad life, and in particular an
orderly Cossack attached to a Tahtar chief as Rus-
sian interpreter, furnished us with the substance of
the following notice.

" The Tarpany form herds of several hundred,
subdivided into smaller troops, each headed by a
stallion; they are not found unmixed, excepting
towards the borders of China; they prefer wide,
open, elevated steppes, and always proceed in lines
or files, usually with the head to windward, moving
slowly forward while grazing, — the stallions leading
and occasionally going round their own troop ;
young stallions are often at some distance, and
single, because they are expelled by the older u>:til
they can form a troop of young mares of their own ;
their heads are seldom observed to be down for any
length of time ; they utter now and then a kind of
snort, with a low neigh, somewhat like a horse
expecting its oats, but yet distinguishable by the
voice from any domestic species, excepting the woolly
Kalmuck breed : they have a remarkably piercing-
sight; the point of a Cossack spear, at a great dis-
tance on the horizon, seen behind a bush, being
sufficient to make a whole troop halt ; but this is
L

J62 THE WILD HORSE.

not a token of alarm, it soon resumes its march, till
some young stallion on the skirts begins to blow
with his nostrils, moves his ears in all directions
with rapidity, and trots or scampers forward to
reconnoitre, bearing the head very high and the tail
out : if his curiosity is satisfied, he stops and begins
to graze ; but if he takes alarm, he flings up his
croup, turns round, and with a peculiarly shrill
neighing, warns the herd, which immediately turns
round and gallops off at an amazing rate, with the
stallions in the rear, stopping and looking back
repeatedly, while the mares and foals disappear as
if by enchantment, because with unerring tact they
select the first swell of ground or ravine to conceal
them until they reappear at a great distance, gene-
rally in a direction to preserve the lee side of the
apprehended danger. Although bears and wolves
occasionally prowl after a herd, they will not ven-
ture to attack it, for the sultan- stallion will instantly
meet the enemy, and, rising on his haunches, strike
him down with the fore feet; and should he be
worsted, which is seldom the case, another stallion
becomes the champion : and in the case of a troop
of wolves, the herd forms a close mass1, with the
foals within, and the stallions charge in a body,
which no troop of wolves will venture to encounter.
Carnivora, therefore, must be contented with aged
-or injured stragglers.

" The sultan -stallion* is not, however, suffered

* The sultan-stallion of a great herd was anciently an object
of research for the chiefs of armies, who endeavoured to catch

THE WILD HORSE. 163

to retain the chief authority for more than one sea-
son, without opposition from others, rising in the
confidence of youthful strength, to try hy battle whe-
ther the leadership should not be confided to them,
and the defeated party is driven from the herd in
exile.

u These animals are found in the greatest purity
on the Karakoum, south of the lake of Aral, and
the Syrdaria, near Kusneh, and on the hanks of the
river Tom, in the territory of the Kalkas, the Mon-
golian deserts, and the solitudes of the Gobi : within
the Russian frontier, there are, however, some adul-
terated herds in the vicinity of the fixed settlements,
distinguishable by the variety of their colours and a
selection of residence less remote from human habi-
tations.

" Real Tarpans are not larger than ordinary
mules, their colour invariably tan, Isabella, or mouse,
being all shades of the same livery, and only vary-
ing in depth by the growth or decrease of a whitish
surcoat, longer than the hair, increasing from mid-
summer and shedding in May: during the cold
season it is long, heavy, and soft, lying so close as
to feel like a bear's fur, and then is entirely griz-
zled; in summer much falls away, leaving only a
certain quantity on the back and loins : the head
is small, the forehead greatly arched, the ears far
back, either long or short, the eyes small and ma-

them with the comaund (the antique lazzo), and then made
them their chargers. The breed of Raksh, say the poets, was
long traced in the herds of Masenderan.

164 THE WILD HORS-E.

lignant, the chin and muzzle beset with bristles, the
neck rather thin, crested with a thick rugged mane,
which, like the tail, is black, as also the pasterns,
which are long : the hoofs are narrow, high, and
rather pointed; the tail, descending only to the
hocks, is furnished with coarse and rather curly
or wavy hairs close up to the crupper; the croup
as high as the withers : the voice of the Tarpan is
loud, and shriller than that of a domestic horse ; and
their action, standing, and general appearance, re-
sembles somewhat that of vicious mules/'' *

The feral horses, we were told, form likewise in
herds, but have no regular order of proceeding :
they take to flight more indiscriminately, and were
simply called Muzin. They may be known by
their disorderly mode of feeding, their desire to en-
tice domestic mares to join them, by their colours
being browner, sometimes having white legs, and
being often silvery grey : their heads are larger and
the neck shorter ; but their winter coat is nearly as
heavy as that of the wild, and there is always a
certain number of expelled Tarpan stallions among
them ; but they are more in search of cover and of

* Such is the general evidence, chiefly obtained from the
orderly before mentioned ; a man who was a perfect model of
an independent trooper of the desert ; who had spent ten or
twelve years on the frontier of China, and, I understand, was
often seen at Paris attending his Tahtar chief at the theatres,
in 1814. My interpreter was an officer in the Don Cossack
regiment of Colonel Bigaloff, whose French was not super-
abundant. From the Mongolic troopers I obtained little in-
formation ; they were stupid or unwilling.

THE WILD HORSE. 165

watery places, the wild herds being less in want of
drink and more unwilling to encounter water, being
even said not to be able to swim ; while the Muzin
will cross considerable rivers. During winter, both
resort to elevated ground where the winds have
swept away the snow, or dig with their fore feet
and break the ice to get at their food.

Their olfactory sense, though not delicate in dis-
tinguishing enemies at great distances, is remarkable
for judging the nature of swamps, which they often
traverse, particularly to the south of Lake Aral :
when thus entangled at fault, their scent indicates
the passable places, and the snorting of the first
that finds one is immediately observed and followed
by the others. *

The genuine wild species is migratory, proceed-
ing northward in summer to a considerable dis-
tance, and returning early in autumn. The mixed
races wander rather in the direction of the pas-
tures than to a point of the compass ; nearer Europe,
they haunt the vicinity of cultivation, and attack
the hay-stacks which the farmers make at a dis-
tance in the open country. Though in many respects
they have similar manners, they want the instinct
of the wild : upon being taken young, after severe
resistance, they submit to slavery. The Tarpans
always die of ennui in a short time, if they do not
break their own necks in resisting the will of man : t

* I have seen South American horses extricate themselves
in the same manner.

*}• This assertion, as in other cases, is not consistent with

166 THE WILD HORSE.

they are, moreover, said to attack and destroy do-
mestic horses : they rise on their haunches in fight-
ing, and bite furiously ; while the mixed races,
though ready to bite, are more willing to strike out
with their hind feet, and neither have ever been
remarked lying down. In these particulars, the
younger Gmelin, who likewise travelled in Eastern
Russia, corroborates our account, and he does not
appear to have come to the same conclusions as
Forster or Pallas; we may therefore infer, from
what is here state d; that the foal observed by the
last mentioned author, when he was on the Samara,
opposite Sorotschinska, caught at Toskair Krepost,
was of the mixed race, or not sufficiently grown to
furnish a satisfactory representation.

We made further inquiries respecting the resi-
dence of the piebald race of ancient history, in
High Asia, and found that a variety of this kind
was deemed distinct from the Russian horses, and
occasionally seen among the Tahtar and Ural do-
mestic breeds, but differing from the Chinese and
wild race " beyond the southern mountains/' * in
having their feet very generally dark, while the
others have invariably white limbs. Those within
the frontier were said to be a breed belonging to the

facts observed, if care be taken in the process of domestication ;
it must be understood to mean that the wild horse resists, till
death, the unceremonious forcible system of subjugation prac-
tised by the natives.

* I understood by that appellation, that the Cossack spoke
relatively to his own position being north of the central chains
of Asia.

THE WILD HOR'SE. 167

black Kalmucks, and we saw a few in the Russian
irregular troops that may have been of this Kal-
muck stock ; but the real piebald animal is known
by the names of Tangum and Tannian^ from the
Tangustan mountains of Bootan, although it is
spread further along the north side of the Hima-
laya range beyond Thibet. Father Georgi alludes
to Tangum s, when speaking of the wild horses, vari-
ously coloured, which he saw on the banks of the
Montza in his route to Lasha. D'Hobsonville was
informed they were found on the borders of Thibet,
and described not to be above ten or eleven hands
high, tolerably well proportioned, active, fiery, with
the hair between four and five inches long, coloured
in regular corresponding spots. The domesticated
are also in general piebald, thirteen hands high,
deep chested, short bodied, with strong full quarters,
robust limbs, and altogether remarkable for sym-
metry, strength, and compactness ; it is a true
mountain animal, very sure footed, very active, and
bold.

We have already noticed the earlier history of
this form of horse down to the eighth century : in
the seventh, the Arabian hero Zohara, a prisoner in
the Persian camp, escaped upon a piebald horse,
and was greatly instrumental in the Islam victory
of Kadesia. The clouded horses of Turan are
mentioned by Firdausi : other poets incidentally
name them, and Mickhoud the Persian historian
relates of the eighth Abasside Caliph, Motassem,
" that he raised a mound at the time he was build-

168 THE WILD HORSE.

ing Samarah by means of 130,000 pied horses of his
army, each conveying a sack of earth to the spot. It
was on this mound, called Tel-al-Mekhali, or the hill
of sacks, that his son and successor Wathek built
the famous tower." They are again mentioned in
the Tahtar army under Peta Khan, when in 1241
he broke through Russia and Poland and defeated
and slew Duke Henry II. of Silesia at Wahlstadt.
They continue at present to exist in small breeds
in Moldavia, Wallachia, Poland, and .Pomerania,
but are now only used to mount trumpeters and
the bands of Hussar regiments, excepting in Italy,
where the Borghese breed of pied horses is still in
repute. It is reared near Rome, in the sandy pine
district about ancient Ardea, the classical site of the
exploits of Turnus and jEneas, and proves the dura-
bility of the markings of this form of horse, since
Virgil clearly alludes to it in the same locality : —

" Turnus, :

Improvisus adest : maculis quern Thracius albis
Portat equus, " jEN. ix. 48.

and the same breed was in the poet's mind when he
describes the Trojan game as it was performed by
the Roman youth : —

-" quern Thracius albis

Portat equus bicolor maculis ; vestigia primi
Alba pedis, frontemque ostentans arduus albam.

jEN. v. 565.

The great Roman poet shows, in other writings, as
well as in the local legendary part of the ^Eneid, a

THE WILD HORSE. 169

profound knowledge of the Latin traditions ; and if
their race of horses had been of late introduction,
his judgment would have rejected making it the
distinguishing character of the Ardean and Yolscian
horse. Since it has continued unimpaired from the
beginning of the Roman empire to the present time,
there is no reason to reject the belief that it was of
sufficient antiquity to belong to the stock of centaur
origin, and a companion of the Thraco-Pelasgian
colonists, among whom Mares was the first eques-
trian in Iraly.

Raphael, we have seen, displays his extensive in-
formation when one of these horses is introduced in
his Vatican fresco of Attila, and both Titian and
Guido have immortalized them in their pictures of
Aurora. *

It is the most southern of all the original wild
forms, and probably also the most ancient that
invaded China ; for on the square and perforated
coins of a very ancient dynasty, the figure of a
horse bearing the Tangtim form is the distinguish-
ing token, either of the family or of the value. It
is less spirited and smaller in the southern pro-
vinces of the empire, and there used for an ambling
pony, as may be seen in Chinese paper-hangings,
where the cultivation of rice-grounds and the super-
intendence of tea-plantations is represented. On
our Indian frontier it is the parent stock of the

* They are noticed by the troubadour poets, and Guillaume
de la Ferte, 1221, is figured with a pied horse, in stained glass,
at Notre Dame de Chartre's.

170 THE WILD HORSE.

Ghoonts reared in the vicinity of Kalunga; and
further westward, where it is probably more mixed,
the mountain ponies of the Himalayas are more
grey and the spots often small ; but in courage,
activity, and sure-footedness they are admirable.
The common neglected class of Afghaunistan and
the Indian peninsula, usually called Yaloos, attest
by their not uncommon piebald livery that they are
in a great proportion descended from the Parthian
breed; and in the original battle-pictures of the
wars of Aurungzebe, engraved about a century ago
from Indian originals, we can trace the piebald
horse among the chargers of the principal figures.
We have been informed that, in the late wars,
whole russoolahs, or corps of Pindarees, have been
seen mounted upon this race.

There are still other wild horses of Asia, such as
the white woolly animal of the Kara Koom and
the high table land of Pamere, * whence the Kir-
guise and Kalmucks appear to have drawn one of
their principal races. It is about fourteen hands
high, with a large head, small eyes and ears, a thick

* Pamere, with the Surikol lake in the centre, twelve days'
journey across, gives birth to the Jaxartes, the Oxus, and to a
branch of the Indus : from the table land all the mountains in
sight appear as under the feet ; there are no trees, but rich
pasturage, never long covered by snow, because of the violent
drift winds. The wild and domestic horses, and nearly all the
mammiferse, are clothed in long shaggy white furs. Kara Koom,
comparatively low, is still higher than Hindo Koosh and the
plateau of Ladakh, 17,000 feet above the sea, where Dr. Gerrard
met great droves of wild horses.

THE WILD HORSE. 1J1

muzzle, a short thin neck, joining the head at a
considerable angle ; the mane is short and ragged,
the tail not very abundant, the shoulder low and
rather vertical, the limbs long, and the hoofs wide ;
all the proportions hidden and deformed by a heavy
bear-like fur, particularly under the jaws, where
there is a considerable beard, not long, but extend-
ing to the gullet : the colour is grisly white, some-
what darker in summer, and the hair on the outside
shining and hard, within soft and downy. The
Kiang, which Mr. Moorcroft saw in great numbers
in the elevated deserts of Khoten, and described as
different from the Ghoor Khur of Sinde, is in form
more like an antelope, having a brilliant eye and
great vivacity of movement, which the name Kiang
(rushing) sufficiently explains. This animal stands
about fourteen hands high, with a round muscular
form, is probably again the wild stock of the Tan-
gum ; but the Yo-to-tze, which we regard to be our
A sinus equuleuS) intermediate between the horse and
hemionus, like the former in shape and the latter
in colour, is allied but not identical with the onager.

These short notices show how defective our habits
of superficial examination are, since no less than
three species may be concealed under the name of
Ghoor Khur, and as many in the more general term
of wild horses.

Turning to Africa and excluding from the pre-
sent consideration the zebra group, we find the an-
cients were still more liable to confound the real
Equine animals, and depending upon reports of the

] 72 THE WILD HORSE.

natives to include in their description of horses, spe-
cies that can be only referred to ruminants. Con-
fusion, thus created, was increased by Albertus
Magnus, who finding in Oppian a true account of
the onager and another of the hippagrus or equi-
ferus of the Latin writers, coupled the two last
names with the description of the first, and was
followed by succeeding naturalists, excepting by
Johnston, who finding the poet's hippagrus a brown
bisulcate hornless animal of Ethiopia, caused a figure
to be engraved from the description, according to
which it is represented also with tusks and a mane
extending the whole length of the spine. It is not
easy to account for the refusal of Linnean compilers
to place this supposed species by the side of Molina's
Equus bisulcuts, the Huemel of Patagonia, for both
appear to be real species placed in a wrong order.

The hippagrus, when reported to be solidungu-
lated, may be our E. hippagrus ; and when stated to
be bisulcate, is not a horse but a ruminant, probably
the same which Mr. Riippel noticed by the name
of Boura of Koldagi, and perhaps the Boryes of
Herodotus, * as well as the Pegasus of Pliny, t

* Boura of Koldagi, Ruppel. " A ruminant the size of an
ass ; both sexes hornless, covered with dark brown bristly hair
and having a long black mane on the neck, the legs brown-
black ; the animal is fleet, and resides on the hills." Mr.
Ruppel saw the skin of one at Cairo, and conjectures that it is
an undescribed species of Ovis. It may be also the Feshtall,
but that fish, slightly modified, will admit of other explana-
tions. See Herodotus, lib. iv.

f See Griffith's Cuvier, Ruminantia.

FERAL HORSES. 173

"We shall see in the description of the koomrah how
much the love of the marvellous may mislead the
ignorant natives, and through them naturalists bet-
ter informed than Oppian. The wild horses seen
by Leo, Marmol, Struys, Bruce, and produced by
the Emperor Gordian, may indeed be partly of
feral origin, and the rest the species above noticed,
or the wild ass, which is fonnd along the White
Nile as far as it has been discovered ; but no other
wild Equus is described in Africa on this side of the
equator.

FERAL HORSES OF AMERICA.

Having endeavoured to show the real existence of
wild horses on the soil where the unsubdued species
must have roamed in freedom, and where at no
time the enterprise of man can have entirely extir-
pated them ; since it could not, even if the present
races were feral, prevent their again multiplying and
resuming the characters of aboriginal independence,
is in itself, we think, sufficient proof to establish
the argument : we may therefore, after admitting a
partial intermixture of the domestic species with
the wild in Asia, take a view of those of America,
where they were found in such prodigious numbers,
shortly after the first settlements of the Spaniards,
that it required the united testimony of the abori-
ginals, and the evidence of the terror they at first
excited, to establish the absolute credibility of their
having been imported. In their appearance, more-

174 FERAL HORSES.

over, they bore, and still bear, evident tokens of
Spanish origin ; and in their manners, proofs that
they were not wild, but only restored to freedom,
or what we have called feral. In genial climates,
with abundant herbage and few dangerous enemies
to encounter, it was natural that animals of such
power and intelligence should increase most rapidly ;
and hence no surprise was expressed at finding them
in abundance in St. Domingo and Cuba, within a
century after they had been first imported. Cortez
carried them to Mexico,* and Pizzaro to Peru; the
Portuguese to Brazil, and soon after the plains of
the Pampas began to swarm with their numbers, t
If it be true that at first only six were turned loose,
there can be no doubt that many others from both
sides of the southern part of the continent became
free, and collectively that they acquired habits of
self-preservation only in part like the real wild races
of Asia; the time is not perhaps far distant, when
they will be gradually again absorbed by domesti-
cation, excepting those which will retreat towards
the two poles ; and as the species is not restricted

* Bernal diaz del Castillo.

*h Dr. Rengger notes the first horses in Paraguay to have
been imported from Spain and the Canaries in 1537, and shows
the error of Funes (En Saya de la Historia civil del Paraguay),
who pretends that in the exploratory voyage of Irala, in 1550,
six hundred were conveyed to the country, since Azara found
in the archives of Asuntion a document proving that Irala, in
the year 1551, actually bought a Spanish horse for 15,000
florins. " Naturgeschichte der Sauegethiere von Paraguay •'
1 voL 8vo.

FERAL HORSES. 175

by the rigour of climate, but solely by the extent of
available food, the wilds of Patagonia and the lati-
tudes of the northern deserts will continue to main-
tain them in freedom, and render them migratory
like the deer and the bison of the same climate.

Of the South American feral horses, none that
we ourselves have possessed or seen, living, depicted,
or described, had assumed the aspect or original
colours of the wild species of Asia ; they all bore
the stamp of the domesticated races of Old Spain,
with more or less modification; and though the
herds roaming in freedom are mostly of a similar
livery, there are amongst them individuals of every
shade and mixture of colours that exist in Europe ;
black, as far as our personal observations went,
being rarest; modifications of grey perhaps the
most abundant in the mountainous regions towards
the Gulf of Mexico, and shades of bay in the Pam-
pas. * Azara, the best qualified naturalist to express
an opinion on this particular subject, estimates the
proportion of bays (bay-brown) to be about ninety
to ten zains, that is, entirely dark-coloured, without
any white ; black, there is not one in two thou-
sand; pied and greys occur sometimes, but they
are invariably individuals escaped or left from do-
mestic conditions. * Jet black, though very rare,

* On the colours of Spanish horses, see " Escuella de a
"Caballo," a translation from La Gueriniere, but with addi-
tions by Don Baltazar de Trursun. 2 vols. 8vo. Madrid,
178G.

•f There is a race of starred skewbalds in Patagonia, an evi-

176 FERAL HORSES.

is a true colour among the feral races ; and he re-
gards the bay, the dark, and the jet black as three
typical liveries of the original wild animal, and in-
fers that the first pair of horses was of one of these
colours; he then remarks that the black decreases
or is liable to be effaced, next, the dark zain, and
therefore that bay-brown is the primitive colour.
The statement of this able observer is nearly the
same as our own, but we explain the effects in a
different manner, in the conclusions already drawn ;
namely, that the Spanish horse in general is of the
bay stock imported by Phoenicians, Carthaginians,
and other African tribes, including the Arab Mus-
sulrnen ; the black, a residue of the Yandalic im-
portation, and thence most anciently the Andalus,
that is, Vandal breed of the Moors ; the zain pro-
bably an original race, or a residue of Roman intro-
duction, which with the greys belonged to the
mountains, and is now in the New World chiefly
confined to mountainous regions ; hence the black
being the fewest, must necessarily be absorbed un-
less other causes intervene.

We have seen the Tarpans of Asia forming herds
composed of minor families, but headed by a sul-
tan-stallion, who guides the march and fights the
battles of his subjects ; we know these instincts to
be weaker in the mixed and feral troops of. Asia,
and find it still less evolved in America. Having
in the West a greater abundance of food, they con--
dent approximation to white, just as real pied horses are chancx
occurrences in England.

FERAL HORSES. 177

gregate in thousands, where the influence of a leader
cannot act in a similar manner, or the stallions
effect more than keeping some of their immediate
family together, while of the larger felinae, the ja-
guar and the puma only are dangerous to horses ;
both being tree-climbing carnivora, they seldom
roam far from the woods or venture on the plains,
where the thunder of horses' hoofs is sufficiently
terrific to frighten bolder animals ; and with regard
to the red wolf, our Chrysocyon julatus, he is soli-
tary, and usually satisfied with much smaller prey ;
hence, being more disturbed by man, and less obliged
to watch predaceous animals, their instincts are less
matured, their eyesight less piercing, and though
by the qualities of their olfactory powers they can
make the nicest distinctions, their nostrils do not
detect the jaguar at a small distance. The im-
pulses of fear they receive are always caused by the
first stallion that happens to be impressed with dan-
ger : if a carnivorous animal is detected, they crowd
together, and then the stallions rush forward to
trample him to death; but the mares strike out
with the heels, and although they are more timid,
do not evince the same fear at the sight of man ;
the males alone being chosen by him for service,
and subject to the hardest usage ; they yet approach
travellers, call to their captive brethren toiling un-
der the weight of riders, then toss their heads, and,
looking askance, canter away with their heads and
tails raised ; while the mares, unconscious of dan-
ger, look on with surprise at the jaded look of the

1 78 FERAL HORSES.

passing strangers, and their foals run innocently up
and start back with sudden apprehension. * The
males having but little cause for exercising their
intellectual faculties, and being often captured, se-
verely ridden, and then again restored to liberty,
their wild instinct is more confused than fully de-
veloped, and a tendency to obedience and domesti-
cation remains impressed on their tempers. There
is, nevertheless, one trait in the character of the
South American horses not now observed in Asia,
though, probably, were the conditions similar, a
similar effect might be expected : t we allude to a
disposition of becoming frantic from thirst in the
heated plains where water is rare, and then with
the impetuosity of madness, when chance or instinct
has at length conducted them to a pool or a river,
rushing forward to the brink, trampling each other
under foot, others sticking in the clay, and many
forced into the water ; causing a destruction of their
numbers exceeding belief. Thousands of skeletons
are said to blanch the borders of some localities
where they resort. Where, by the absence of a
sufficient antagonist power in a due proportion of
great carnivora, it is perhaps justly remarked by
the author of the treatise on the Horse, that " this

* See Captain Head's graphical description in his Journey
across the Pampas.

+ In Mr. Buckingham's Travels there is a case of a caravan
of men, horses, mules, and asses, under the influence of severe
thirst, suddenly coming upon a river in the dark, and over-
throwing each other, as each pushed his predecessor before
him into the stream.

FERAL HORSES. 1J9

is one of the means by which the too rapid increase
of this quadruped is by the ordinance of Nature
there prevented."

North America likewise contains herds of feral
horses; they are in form stout cobs, mostly bay,
though there are herds where black predominates ;
they have considerable speed, and are very sure-
footed. The herds belong exclusively to the prairie,
avoiding mountains and woods. They were for-
merly abundant in the Floridas, and still range
through the open districts to California and the
plains of the Columbia, but are not described with
equal detail. In numbers they herd together per-
haps still more considerable.

In the description furnished by a recent traveller,
the Hon. C. A. Murray, * we are furnished with a
picture of what he denominates a Stampede, or pas-
sage of these animals, surpassing in graphic spirit
every account of wild horses upon record. " About
an hour," he writes, " after the usual time to secure
the horses for the night, an indistinct sound arose,
like the muttering of distant thunder; as it ap-
proached, it became mixed with the howling of all
the dogs in the encampment, and with the shouts
and yells of the Indians ; in coming nearer, it rose
high above all these accompaniments, and resembled
the lashing of a heavy surf upon a beach ; on and
on it rolled towards us, and partly from my own
hearing, partly from the hurried words and actions
of the tenants of our lodge, I gathered it must be
* Travels in North America, 2 vols.

180 FERAL HORSES.

the fierce and uncontrolable gallop of thousands of
panic-stricken horses : as this living torrent drew
nigh, I sprang to the front of the tent, seized my
favourite riding-mare, and in addition to the hobbles
which confined her, twisted the long larlett round
her fore legs, then led her immediately in front of
the fire, hoping that the excited and maddened flood
of horses would divide and pass on each side of it.
As the galloping mass drew nigh, our horses began
to snort, prick up their ears, then to tremble ; and
when it burst upon us, they became completely un-
governable from terror ; all broke loose and joined
their affrighted companions, except my mare, which
struggled with the fury of a wild beast, and I only
retained her by using all my strength, and at last
throwing her on her side. On went the maddened
troop, trampling, in their headlong speed, over skins,
dried meat, &c., and throwing down some of the
smaller tents. They were soon lost in the darkness
of the night and in the wilds of the prairie, and
nothing more was heard of them, save the distant
yelping of the curs, who continued their ineffectual
pursuit." These wild animals have produced the
same effect upon the native savages which their
similars have done in the south. In the latter por-
tion of America, the Gosquis, Araucas, and Pata-
gonian Indians have become riding tribes, as weft
as the Pawnees, Camanchees, and Ricarras in the
former; all are nomad hordes of riders, only re-
strained by the presence of European colonists from
becoming the conquerors of their fellow red men.

FERAL HORSES. 181

They have already acquired equestrian habits, as
dexterous lancers and throwers of the lazzo and
lolas. Numerous superstitions exist among them
which show a long familiarity with horses, and an
opinion of the Kicarras, that the souls of horses will
rise in judgment against unmerciful riders, does
them honour. This ready departure from their an-
tique habits, from the circumstance of horses being
casually introduced to their observation, shows what
must have occurred in the Old World among the
primitive barbarous nations who had wild horses
within their reach. As soon as one tribe could show
the example of a successful experiment in the sub-
jugation of the animal, others necessarily must have
undertaken the same task; and those tribes that
first accomplished it, immediately made the new
instrument of power applicable to invade the others
and commence the era of conquests. An indigenous
possession of horses exhibits the further similarity in
manners which result from it, for in both continents
the Tahtar and the Patagonian feed upon the flesh,
both do most of their common daily business on
horseback, and, after death, both are laid in a tomb
with the stuffed skins of their favourite animals set
up around it.

There remains one more form of feral or wild
horse to notice, namely, that wkich is of question-
able origin, and found independent on the island of
Celebes. East of the Bramapootra, and south of
the tropic, through all Indo- China, Malaya, and
the great islands, horses are dwindled to very small

182 FERAL HORSES.

ponies ; collectively they may be called Sarans, and
although by some travellers they are considered
indigenous, the antique navigation of the seas sur-
rounding the Australian islands, in ships of suffi-
cient burthen to convey horses, and the variety of
colours we observe in the different breeds, seem to
attest, that if Solipedes, along with the tiger and
rhinoceros, were located upon them by the hand of
Nature, domesticated races have mixed with them
from very early times. We prefer to conjecture
that they were imported from opposite directions
by the favour of each monsoon, and that the Chi-
nese stock spread by Formosa or Haynan, Li^on,
the Philippine group, to the north-east coast of
Borneo and Celebes, where the people, less civilized,
permitted them to run feral, while the others of
higher race came through Sumatra and Java, spread-
ing eastward as far as Timor.

Such is the result of a general review of the
question relating to wild horses, and we believe the
conclusions may be legitimately drawn : that of the
existing herds in a state of nature in High Asia,
some are not feral, but really wild ; that there was
a period when Equidas of distinct forms, or closely
approximating species, or races widely different,
wandered in a wild state in separate regions, the
residue of an anterior animal distribution, perhaps
upon the great mountain line of Central Asia, where
plateaux or table lands exceeding Armenian Ararat
in elevation are still occupied by wild horses ; that
of these some races still extant never have been en-

FERAL HORSES. 183

tirely subdued, such, for example, as the Tarpans
before noticed, the Kirguise and Pamere woolly
white race, and the wild horses of Poland and
Prussia before described ; that from their similarity
or antecedent unity, they were constituted so as to
1)6 fusible into a common, single, specific, but very
variable stock for the purposes of man, under whose
fostering care a more perfect animal was bred from
their mixture, than any of the preceding singly
taken. These inferences appear to be supported by
the ductility of all the secondary characters of wild
and domestic horses, which, if they are not ad-
mitted to constitute in some cases specific differences,
where are we to find those that are sufficient to dis-
tinguish a wild from a domestic species ? Since
most wild animals, and certainly all Equidse, are
placable in nonage ; else, why is the hemionus do-
mesticated at Lucknow not considered feral ? Why
is the onager or wild ass not claimed as a domestic
animal merely escaped from bondage? And with
regard to different though osculating species, why
should the conclusions be unsatisfactory in horses,
when in goats, sheep, wolves, dogs, and other spe-
cies, we are forced to accede to them ? How object
to fusion, when species more remote, as in the case
of the quagga and mare, leave such lasting impres-
sions; and on the other hand, when we find the
white and the black hide of horses bearing inde-
lible coloured fur, which crossing unceasingly only
masks but does not obliterate ? "When we see the
dun coloured form even now always middle-sized

184 FERAL HORSES.

and along with an asinine streak on the back, in
the purer breeds also marked with cross bars on
the joints, sometimes on the shoulder: the light
limbed races provided naturally with ewe necks,
and the heavy with the cervical vertebrae more
straight or arched: the raw-boned, large, broad-
footed variety located in its own damp and wooded
plains, and the small hardy cylindrical-footed ponies
invariably belonging to rocky mountains : all these
characters may be trivial, they may be called acci-
dental, or the results of the usual explanations,
food and climate, yet several evidently lie deeper
in the nature of animal organization. Their aggre-
gate importance is supported by the history of the
ancient races, and appears adequate to confirm
the presumption we contend for and have already
drawn, when we compared the aboriginal races of
the northern hemisphere with the striped group of
the southern, both having probably an aberrant spe-
cies on each side.

We mean not, however, to infer that all large
horses belong to low regions, or all the small to
rocky sites ; numerous circumstances no doubt have
disturbed the conditions of existence, and climate,
food, and the fostering care of man, have had their
legitimate influence. Albinism, though it affects
horses like other animals, must not be confounded
with natural greys, where round dappled marks
show a particular tendency unconnected with a defi-
ciency of colouring matter in the hair, and melanism
is not perceptibly accidental. The main facts are

FERAL HORSES. 185

not the less unimpaired, the bay, the dun, the
dappled, the pied, and the black, still continue to
form great races under the care of man ; and even
the asinine marks, in token of some ancient direct
adulteration, return when in the least excited, and
show their spinal ray, their bars on the joints, and
in some cases a cross on the shoulder ; all confirm-
ing the probability that high-bred and frequently
crossed races of the horse are the most artificial,
and in the form we now have them, were never
really wild.

THE

EQUIDJ3 IN GENERAL.

IN the structure of the whole family, we find,
among fossil remains, only slight differences in size
and relative proportions ; and the teeth, from those
of a large horse (which are exceedingly rare) vary,
to some, with the crown obviously narrower than
in the domestic races. Turning to the existing spe-
cies, all have similar viscera, the same form of
stomach, not adapted for rumination; they have,
with perhaps one exception, the same number and
structure of teeth; that is, six incisors both above
and below, one cuspidate on each side in both jaws,
six molars above and the same number below on
each side, making forty teeth in all. In the fe-
males the cuspidates are not commonly observed.
One species (the hemionus) is reported to have only
thirty-four teeth, and another (the female dauw)
may be furnished with a kind of udder and four
mammae. * The whole family is distinguished from
all other mammalia by the bones at the extremity
* Capt. Harris's Sporting Expedition in South Africa.

THE EQUID.E IN GENERAL. 187

of the feet being lodged in a single round hoof; they
have all more or less mane on the neck ; the whole of
their structure is remarkably strong and well ba-
lanced, being in height at the shoulder and croup
about equal to the length from the breast to the but-
tock, and the head and neck comparatively lighter
in proportion than in animals that bear horns; hence,
above all other quadrupeds, the horse is the most sym-
metrical for his stature ; the fleetest, the strongest,
and the most enduring; for, considering that his
speed is always reckoned with the additional weight
of a rider, that velocity which gives near a mile in
a minute, and four miles in about six minutes and
a half, * has been calculated to be at the rate of
eighty-two feet and a half per second ; exceeding
what a vigorous stag or the fleetest greyhound can
achieve unencumbered by any extraneous weight.
Such speed, with the powers of endurance, is surely
superior to every other quadruped; for while we
know what effect the difference of one or two pounds
weight produces on the velocity of the pace of racers,
horses will carry heavy riders and keep up with a
running ostrich, overtake a stag, and toil at a gal-
lop in the withering sun of the desert, over sixty
or eighty miles without drawing bit. It is to the
elasticity and form of structure, to the inclination
of the shoulder, the width of the trunk giving play
to the lungs, the breadth of the quarters, the vigour
of the fore-arm, the consolidation of the feet into
one hoof, and the lightness of the head and neck,
* Achieved by " Flying Childers."

188 THE EQUIDJE IN GENERAL.

that we must chiefly refer these powers. In the
wild ass, where we also find very great speed, a
vertical shoulder and low withers prevent additional
weight being carried in a similar manner and with
equal convenience.

Equidas are essentially grazing animals, all are
tempted by thistles, thorny shrubs, and brooms,
but none of them digest their food so completely as
not to leave the power of vegetation to many seeds,
especially of gramineous plants and tritica that
have passed through the stomach and are lodged in
their dung ; while their fondness for brambles, and
their active energy, tends to spread them over ban-en
plains, where they are thus made agents for intro-
ducing new plants, and gradually increasing the
vegetation, prepare whole regions to support both
vegetable and animal life in a multiplicity of forms
previously impossible. * They are gregarious : in
common with ruminants they see well in the dark,
have the pupil rather elongated, the eyes being
placed far apart so as to enable them when the
Iiead is down to view objects with facility before
and behind them, as well as sideways : the length
of head and neck is nearly equal to their height,
giving the power of cropping the herbage by means
of their flexible lips and well-set nipping teeth, to
accomplish which they are nevertheless obliged to
throw one of the fore-legs forward and the other

* In this manner the Pampas, towards the Straits of Magel-
lan, are altering for the better, according to the observation of
Mr. Bartlett.

THE EQUIDJB IN GENERAL. 189

to the rear, while at the same time they straighten
the line of the back : the ears are very moveable,
independent of each other, conveying sound with
facility from all directions : their sense of smell is
very delicate: they sleep little; in a wild state
seldom or never lie down, and consequently have an
individual security as well as the collective protec-
tion of their gregarious habits ; most, however, pre-
fer mountainous and rocky regions, and with trifling
exception all keep out of cover. True horses resist
the severest temperature, and can live in the coldest
climates that will allow them to find food; and
races or forms of them bear heat with nearly equal
facility ; but in the two extremes somewhat of op-
posite effects take place ; for while in the north
wild horses are not diminished in stature, the do-
mestic become very small ; and in the south, the
domestic rise above the common standard, while
the so called wild are not more than ten hands at
the shoulders. Notwithstanding the density of hide,
the asinine section finds heat and barren regions
genial, and cold insupportable beyond a certain lati-
tude. The striped group likewise bears heat best,
but is confined to a comparative small area. There
is a great disparity of intelligence between all the
wild species and the domestic horse, whose acts
often display faculties nearly as elevated as those of
a dog ; memory almost as tenacious, and a power of
abstraction and comparison, a degree of benevolence,
and a generosity of disposition, which, notwith-
standing our common ruthless mode of educating

190 THE EQUUXffi IN GENERAL.

them, often pierces through when least expected.
Qualities of so elevated an order appear to be neces-
sarily connected with greater irritability of nerve,
and this sensitiveness is manifested in horses more
than in other Equida?, their skins suffering so much
from the stings of flies, that Nature, in order to en-
able them to have leisure to feed and repose, has
furnished their neck with a long mane, and the tail
forms a sweeping brush which reaches every part
of the body where the head cannot attain : they
have moreover a quivering muscular action of the
skin which impedes the tormenting power of insects,
and both these means of defence are in proportion
to the irritability of the species and to their degree
of docility; for in the ass these are scarcely any,
and in the dauw we may expect from the presence
of them that placability is every way attainable.

The period of copulation, the time of gestation,
the number of offspring, the years of growth, the
conditions of dentition, and the duration of life, are
in all nearly alike, or differ only from local causes ;
ncftie appear to suffer convulsions from dentition;
all are in disposition gay, sociable, and emulous;
even the ass has the instinct of trying his speed
against competitors : the voice of all is sonorous,
loud, but, excepting in the horse, exceedingly dis-
agreeable.

In animals whose typical species is so well known,
extended generalities are not necessary ; and among
the more particular questions, considering the most
important to belong to the veterinary science, to

THE EQUIDJE IN GENERAL. 191

economical or to sporting pursuits, more than to
natural history, we shall, with a few exceptions,
noticed particularly in our remarks on the domestic
horse, refrain from details which already abound in
other publications avowedly written for the purpose,
and treating the questions at full length ; we can-
not, however, refrain from offering to the reader two
plates of the horse, one representing the skeleton of
the animal, and the other the appearance of the ex-
ternal muscles ; the former an example of the solid
elegance of the frame, upon which the tendons and
muscles act like levers ; the other a great surface of
the muscles themselves, in their beautiful disposi-
tion for effecting the manifold purposes they are
destined to perform. To have numbered and named
the many parts, would have led us into the veteri-
nary science, foreign to our more immediate purpose,
and to the extent we would here give details, readily
found in every Encyclopaedia and Hippiatric trea-
tises, explanations must have proved unsatisfactory
to !;he reader.

For reasons already offered in the introductory
pages of this volume, we divide the Linnaean genus
Equus into three sections, whereof the first contains
the Horses properly so called, the second the Asi-
nine group as it was separated by Mr. Gray, with
the exception of the South African striped species,
which have characters sufficiently distinct to form a
third.

192

THE HORSE.
Equus caballus^ Linn.

IN this section we -place the true horses, wild and
domesticated, whether or not they he sprung from
several varieties, forms, or species, or constituted
only one, ab initio. They are distinguished by the
mane being pendant and the tail furnished with long
hair up to the root; the head is long; the ears
short and pointed ; the withers somewhat elevated ;
the shoulder oblique; they have callosities on the
fore-arms and hind-canons ; the hoof round ; colours
of the hair uniform, or clouded, or with a tendency
to dappling ; the voice consists in neighing ; intel-
lectual instinct naturally more developed than in
the other species, though no doubt much perfected
by long domestication. The wild have been al-
ready described.
We now proceed to

THE DOMESTIC HORSE.

Equus caballus domesticus.

IN the domestic horse we behold an animal equally
strong and beautiful, endowed with great docility
and no less fire ; with size and endurance joined to
sobriety, speed, and patience ; clean, companionable,

THE DOMESTIC HORSE. 193

emulous, even generous; forbearing, yet impetu-
ous ; with faculties susceptible of very considerable
education, and perceptions which catch the spirit
of man's intentions, lending his powers with the
utmost readiness, and restraining them with as ready
a compliance : saddled or in harness, labouring will-
ingly; enjoying the sports of the field and exulting
in the tumult of battle; used by mankind in the
most laudable and necessary operations, and often
the unconscious instrument of the most sanguinary
passions : applauded, cherished, then neglected, and
ultimately abandoned to the authority of bipeds,
who often show little superiority of reason and much
less of temper. One, who, like ourselves, has re-
peatedly owed life to the exertions of his horse, in
meeting a hostile shock, in swimming across streams,
and in passing on the edge of elevated precipices,
will feel with us, when contemplating the qualities
of this most valuable animal, emotions of gratitude
and affection, which others may not so readily ap-
preciate.

Mohammed, in his pretended inspiration, speak-
ing of horses, makes the Almighty create them from
a condensation of the south-west wind, which is a
repetition of the Lusitanian fable ; but when he re-
presents the Deity saying, " Thou shalt be for man a
source of happiness and wealth ; thy back shall be a
seat of honour, and thy belly of riches : every grain
of barley given to thee shall purchase indulgence for
the sinner !" he knew what people he addressed. *

* This is clearly the language of a keen judge of tb* fooling*

194 THE DOMESTIC HORSE.

All domestic horses, as now constituted, we con-
sider as cross breeds from ancient forms, of which
we know at present only a few characteristics : all
to a certain extent are improved breeds, though
some have lost stature and others spirit; in most
countries, nevertheless, they are adapted to the
general wishes and wants of the communities.
Varying from race to race, from individual to in-
dividual, there is no absolute standard of beauty
in a practical view, although there may be a maxi-
mum of ideal beauty for the painter and sculptor,
physically unattainable, and probably undesirable ;
therefore, general qualities of health, age, sound-
ness, structure, and temper, being admitted, the
horse should be considered in relation to the par-
ticular purposes it is bred for, and the social condi-
tion and predominant desires of each nation. In
Spain, the animal differs in outward appearance
from an English race -horse ; it is more curvilinear
in outline, because this form is most graceful and
adapted to cadenced steps and elegant cur vet tings ;
in England, its frame is more rectangular, best adap-
ted for impelling the mass with velocity forward :
the beauty of the first is not that of the second ;
and while courtly notions of display were predo-
minant on the continent, the Spanish horse was, and
still is, considered the handsomer animal; though

of his nation, and a further proof, if proof were wanting, that
he had to deal with men in full possession of horses highly
valued ; — and true enough, horses have been the source of ho-
nours, and are a source of wealth to the Arabs.

THE DOMESTIC HORSE. 195

the endurance and speed of the English horse, after
generations of disparagement, is at length, though
unwillingly, admitted; and to obtain horses simi-
larly constituted is an evident desire of many,
who with amusing circumlocutions endeavour to
stave off the unpalatable truth of their undeniable
superiority. Comparing the blood-horse with the
magnificent cart-horses of England, we find even
greater difference in their respective beauties, and
yet neither the racer nor the last mentioned pos-
sess the characters best suited for a war-horse,
nor for the road and other mixed purposes ; hence
beauty in horses is a relative term, and must de-
pend upon modifications adapted for particular pur-
poses.

A horse of the usual standard is now considered
to attain the height of fifteen or fifteen hands and
a half. In the east of Europe they range usually
from below fourteen to fifteen hands. The gestation
of mares lasts about eleven months, though some-

7 O

times the time is less by thirty-five days, and at
others extended to forty-one or forty-two days be-
yond it ; and foals are born usually in April and
May. They see and have the use of their limbs
shortly after birth, they are then short-bodied and
short-necked animals, and very high on the legs ;
they are frolicsome and sport about the mother,
scratching their own ears with the hind- legs, and
astonishing the stallion, if perchance he can ap-
proach, for the gambols of the colt set him on his
mettle, his crest rises, his tail is flung up, he snorts

196 THE DOMESTIC HORSE.

and gallops about in exceeding wonderment, and
with marked signs of pleasure.

The foal at birth is usually already furnished
with the first and second molars cut through the
gum, and in little more than a week shows the
two middle nippers or incisor teeth in both jaws,
and after five weeks more the two next and also a
third grinder : about the eighth month the third

pair of incisors above and below are cut, and then
the front of the mouth is full. The enamel on
these teeth is hard and thick, forming forward a
swelling above the edge which remains sharp, and
within or behind the edge the surface is depressed
and becomes dark, which constitutes the mark or

THE DOMESTIC HORSE. 197

evidence whereby the age of a colt or horse is de-
termined. At the end of a year the fourth grinder
appears above and below, and the fifth at the end
of the second year, and then the first dentition is
Complete. When three years old, the central nip-
pers in both jaws make room for a larger pair in
each, and are the first of the permanent set; six
months after, a second pair extrude the former on
each side of the first permanent ; and at four and a

half the last set will be supplied, all distinctly
bearing the mark : at five this mark begins to be
effaced by the wearing of the two first pair, and
the tushes or cuspidate teeth are exposed, leaving a

198 THE DOMESTIC HORSE.

space between the nippers, and approaching nearer
to the grinders ; at six years old the central nippers
are without a mark, or nearly so : at seven, in the
next pair, it likewise disappears ; and at eight, all
the cutting teeth have lost their black stain and

o

hollow. *

A full grown horse, notwithstanding the different
purposes he may be intended for, is required to
possess some general qualifications in order to be
valuable : the head should be middle sized, well set
on, with the branches of the lower jaw sufficiently
separated to give the head liberty of action; the
eyes large and rather prominent; the ear small, erect,
lively ; the nostrils open, not fleshy ; the neck long,
with little curve along the gullet, but arched on
the crest ; full below, slender near the head ; the
withers somewhat high, and the shoulder slanting
backwards, but more vertical in proportion as the
animal is destined for draught; the chest should
be capacious, deeper in horses for speed, rounder for
others ; the arm muscular, the canon bones forward,
flat and short ; the loins broad and the quarters
long ; the thigh muscular, the calcis high, and the
whole hock well bent under the horse. It is in the

* These are the marks for estimating the age of the horse
till the animal is deemed old ; and it may be proper to add,
that there are further tokens taken from the tushes, &c. The
age of a horse is always calculated from the first of May, and
there is considerable difference in the marks between stabled
horses, crib-biters, and animals usually at grass. For an ad-
mirable account of these questions, we refer to the history of
" The Horse," before quoted.

THE DOMESTIC HORSE. 199

structure of the bones of the hind quarters that the
principal characteristics of high bred horses are de-
tected, and the straight horizontal line of the croup
gives those attached to the pelvis greater length,
and consequently greater angles ; whence the power
of throwing the weight forward is chiefly derived.
This explains the cause of the velocity of English
thorough bred horses being so superior to those
whose croups are round and the tail set on low.

From the different colours of the original stocks,
horses are clothed in a greater diversity of liveries
than any other animals, cattle and dogs not ex-
cepted; they are a natural consequence of inter-
minable crossings of the five great stirpes already
mentioned, producing combinations which have
caused French and Spanish writers to enumerate
above sixty: the piebald and dappled find only
their counterparts in the forms and shades of colour
in some species of seals, and it is there also we find
the light blue greys with brown spots, of which we
have examples in the New Forest and in Spain :
yet excepting the five primitive, all the rest have a
tendency to return to them, and sometimes it would
seem capriciously to resume the bay, dun, grey, or
black.

We have seen the Romans believing in the
superior advantages of certain coloured horses in
hunting each particular kind of game, over others
differing in that particular. The Arabs probably
had superstitious notions of the same kind, for
Mohammed has shown himself a dupe to these

200 THE DOMESTIC HORSE.

prejudices, and confirmed them among his be-
lievers, by asserting u that prosperity is with sorrel
horses," that certain white marks on the head are
advantageous, and others, on the legs, signs of ill
luck. Although in Europe we are by no means in
want of mysteries in the stable, the proverb, that
" Every good horse is of a good colour," is luckily
well established ; but there was a time, and that
even not long since, when similar absurdities were
believed and gravely set down by learned writers.

The life of horses extends naturally from twenty-
five to thirty years; cases have occurred of indivi-
duals attaining the age of more than forty ; and in
countries where they are not tasked by constant over
exertion, the period of existence is usually between
nineteen and twenty-one. But in England the
destruction of these noble animals is excessive : the
value of time with a commercial people, incessantly
urged into activity both mental and corporeal, has
demanded rapidity of communication, and spread an
universal taste for going fast ; the fine roads have
permitted horses to be subjected to more than they
can draw ; betting, racing, and hunting are pursued
by persons whose animals are not constructed for
such exertions, and violent usage in grooms, stable-
boys, and farm-servants is so common, that few
reach the age of fifteen years, and all are truly
old at ten. "Were statistics directed to the relative
length of life of horses between Germany, Belgium,
and England, the comparison would show an enor-
mous difference against us, and the mischief can be

THE DOMESTIC HORSE. 201

only partially remedied by an effective society for
preventing cruelty to animals ; such as we find em-
bodied in the skill of our civil engineers, who have
given a regulated velocity to iron surpassing the
powers of the whip, and railroads and steam-ships,
will effect more for the relief of horses than all
the remonstrances of humanity.

In the structure of the horse, mares are always
comparatively lower at the withers than geldings or
stallions ; these last have the neck much fuller than
either of the above, their spirit is also much more
noisy, and their disposition, when they meet at
liberty, exceedingly pugnacious : they are even dan-
gerous when ridden ; so that where they are com-
monly used for the saddle, as, for instance, in India,
two horsemen cannot venture to ride side by side
without constant attention, and always at some
distance asunder. A striking example of the fierce-
ness of stallions occurred, we are informed, during
the last war, when the Marquess de la Romana
made his celebrated march towards the Baltic,
where, by the celerity of the movement, he distanced
the pursuing enemies and embarked his corps in
transports ; the cavalry, mounted on stallions, as is
usual in Spain, was obliged to abandon their horses
on the beach, where they had just arrived after ex-
cessive forced marches, yet no sooner were the horses
sensible that they were out of human controul, than
rushing together in wild troops, they galloped head-
long up and down, and then attacked each other
with such fury, that it was believed a great number

202 THE DOMESTIC HORSE.

were killed, and nearly all were rendered useless.
The case was very different with the English troop-
horses (all geldings) when Sir John Moore's corps
embarked after the battle of Corunna : orders having
been issued to shoot them, they witnessing their
companions fall one after another, stood trembling
with fear, and by their piteous looks seemed to
implore mercy from men who had been their
riders ; till the duty imposed upon the dragoons
entrusted with the execution of the order be-
came unbearable, and the men turned away from
the task with scalding tears : hence the French
obtained a considerable number unhurt, and among
them several belonging to officers, who, rather than
destroy, had left their faithful chargers with billets
attached, recommending them to the kindness of
the enemy.*

It is asserted that horses with a broad after-head
and the ears far asunder are naturally bolder than
those whose head is narrow above the fore-lock;
some are certainly more daring by nature than
others, and judicious training in most cases makes
them sufficiently stanch. Some, habituated to war,
will drop their head, pick at grass in the midst of
fire, smoke, and the roar of cannon; others never
entirely cast off their natural timidity. We have
witnessed them groaning, or endeavouring to lie
down when they found escape impossible, at the

* The King's German Hussars alone brought off their horses,
in consequence of being ordered to march by Vigo, where they
had time to embark the whole unmolested.

THE DOMESTIC HORSE. 203

fearful sound of shot, shrapnel-shells, and rockets ;
and it is most painful to witness their look of ter-
ror in battle, and groans upon heing wounded. Yet
many of the terrified animals, when let loose at a
charge, dash forward in a kind of desperation that
makes it difficult to hold them in hand; and wre
recollect at a charge, in 1794, when the light dra-
goon troop-horse was larger than at present, and
the French were wretchedly mounted, a party of
British bursting through a hostile squadron as they
would have passed through a fence of rushes.

Horses have a very good memory ; in the darkest
nights they will find their way homeward, if they
have but once passed ov«er the same road. They
remember kind treatment, as was manifest in a
charger that had been two years our own; this
animal had been left with the army, and was brought
back and sold in London : about three years after,
we chanced to travel up to town, and at a relay,
getting out of the mail, the off- wheel horse attracted
our attention, and upon going near to examine it
with more care, we found the animal recognizing
its former master, and testifying satisfaction by
rubbing its head against our clothes, and making
every moment a little stamp with the fore-feet, till
the coachman asked if the horse was not an ac-
quaintance. We remember a beautiful and most
powerful charger belonging to a friend, then a cap-
tain in the 14th dragoons, bought by him in Ireland
at a comparative low price, on account of an im-
petuous viciousness, which had cost the life of one

204 THE DOMESTIC HORSE.

or two grooms : the captain * was a kind of Cen-
taur rider, not to be flung by the most violent ef-
forts, and of a temper for gentleness that would
effect a cure, if vice were curable : after some very
dangerous combats with his horse, the animal was
subdued, and it became so attached, that his master
could walk any where with him following like a
dog, and even ladies mount him with perfect safety.
He rode him during several campaigns in Spain, and
on one occasion where, in action, horse and rider
came headlong to the ground, the animal making
an effort to spring up, placed his fore-foot on the
captain's breast, but immediately withdrawing it,
rose without hurting him, or moving, until he was
remounted. "When we saw him he was already
old, but his gentleness remained perfectly unaltered ;
yet his powers were such, that we witnessed his
leaping across a hollow road from bank to bank,
a cartway being beneath, and leaping back without
apparent effort.

We all know to what extent horses may be edu-
cated to perform a variety of tricks, appear dead,
simulate fear or rage. There is an instance on re-
cord of a rider breaking his leg in a fall, with the
limb entangled in the stirrup, and his horse assisting
him in getting it out. We see them constantly
walk of themselves to their places in the relays of
coaches. Their love of a well known home is
equally established, there being cases where they

* Major Anderson. We know not if this gallant and amiable
man is still alive.

THE DOMESTIC HORSE. 205

have swam broad and rapid rivers to return to it.
The Arabs all insist upon the truth, that their horses
or mares, when sleeping abroad in the open desert,
will wake them on the approach of an enemy or of
a beast of prey : their gentleness may be witnessed
in the Bedoueen tent, where mare, foal, and children
all sleep and play together, without the least fear of
accident. The mutual attachment known to subsist
between the Northern Germans and their horses,
may be ascribed in a great measure to the structure
of the farm-houses, where the heads of cattle and
horses are turned towards the threshing-floor, at the
top of which the family usually resides, and has the
kitchen hearth; the animals being able to see all
that passes, are more familiarized, and comprehend
the doings of human beings better ; and these, by
being constantly in the presence of the domestic
animals, have their eyes upon them, and learn to
treat them more with a feeling of companions, than
that of brutes, fit only to cudgel and to command
with curses.

In submission to a master, the horse is affected
by kind treatment almost as much as the dog and
f lephant ; for although habitually his actions show
timidity, they are more an effect of good temper
than fear, for where severity is unreasonably exer-
cised, obedience readily granted to kind treatment
becomes doubtful, and sooner or later breaks out
in vicious resentment and opposition : a horse knows
his own strength, and Oppression has its limits. In
emulation to surpass a rival, no more convincing

206 THE DOMESTIC HORSE.

instance can be cited than in the case of a race-
horse finding his competitor begin to head him in
the course, seizing him by the fore-leg with such
firm teeth, that both jockeys were obliged to dis-
mount to part them.* .

But the confidence of a horse in a firm rider
and his own courage, is great, as was conspicuously
evinced in the case of an Arab possessed by the late
Gen. Sir Robert R. Gillespie, who being present on
the race-course of Calcutta, during one of the great
Hindu festivals, when several hundred thousand
people may be assembled to witness all kinds of
shows, was suddenly alarmed by the shrieks of the
crowd, and informed that a tiger had escaped from
his keepers ; the colonel immediately called for his
horse, and grasping a boar-spear, which was in the
hands of one among the crowd, rode to attack this
formidable enemy : the tiger probably was amazed
at finding himself in the middle of such a number
of shrieking beings, flying from him in all directions,
but the moment he perceived Sir Robert, he crouched
with the attitude of preparing to spring at him, and
that instant the gallant soldier passed his horse in
a leap over the tiger's back, and struck the spear
through his spine. The horse was a small grey,
afterwards sent home by him a present to the Prince
Regent. When Sir Robert fell at the storming of

* This was a horse of Mr. Quin's, in 1753. Forester, ano-
ther racer, caught his antagonist by the jaw to hold him back.
Surely such animals should not be gored or cut with the whip
to do their utmost.

THE DOMESTIC HORSE. 20?

Kalunga, his favourite black charger bred at the
Cape of Good Hope, and carried by him to India,
was at the sale of his effects competed for by several
officers of his division, and finally knocked down to
the privates of the 8th dragoons, who contributed
their prize-money to the amount of £ 500 sterling,
to retain this commemoration of their late com-
mander. Thus the charger was always led at the
head of the regiment on a march, and at the station
of Cawnpore was usually indulged with taking his
ancient post at the colour-stand, where the salute of
passing squadrons was given at drill and on reviews.
When the regiment was ordered home, the funds
of the privates running low, he was bought for the
same sum by a relative of ours, who provided funds
and a paddock for him, where he might end his
days in comfort ; but when the corps had marched,
and the sound of trumpet had departed, he refused
to eat, and on the first opportunity, being led out to
exercise, he broke from his groom, and galloping
to his ancient station on the parade, after neighing
aloud, dropped down and died.

All these intellectual and moral qualities vary
in horses as much as the physical ; for spirit and
daring is not more universal than timidity and
cowardice ; memory, prudence, aptitude in some,
heedlessness, stupidity, and obstinacy in others.
These distinctions are not always individual, but
commonly generical, and propagated with the other
character of races and breeds, enter in the composi-
tion of the original forms of each stock ; and it will

208 DOMESTIC HORSES.

be found in treating of them, that the most beauti-
ful and noble is also the most gentle and most
educated.

Anecdotes replete with interest might be com-
piled on the subject of the horse, sufficient to fill
volumes, but they are more the theme of sporting
works than fit for Natural History, where they are
only proper as examples to illustrate facts.

We shall now proceed to give a summary of the
principal breeds of horses, such as they are known
at present to be established in different parts of the
world, entering occasionally into details, where the
race under consideration demands more particular
notice.

RACES AND BREEDS OF DOMESTIC HORSES.

FROM the tenor of the foregoing pages, it is a natu-
ral consequence to treat of the races of horses in
accordance with the views therein expressed; con-
sequently, while we keep their original stock as a
guiding mark, we shall endeavour to class them
according as they are known, or appear to belong
to one or the other of their more primitive forms :
the bay, the grey, the dun, the sooty or black, and
the piebald. Although, through constant inter-
mixture and the lapse of ages, it might be expected
there would be no sufficient traces to mark them
out, we shall find, with due allowance for the effect
of such powerful agents, that they are still in gene-

THE BAY STOCK. 209

ral sufficiently distinct, even in countries where
great races of different origin exist, as is quite ob-
vious in Great Britain, where we have at least
three that still retain their pristine characteristics.
Some there will he found of unascertainable origin,
hut when they are likewise considered in the geo-
graphical spaces they occupy, and with relation to
the nations that have traversed them, or still reside
within their limits, we shall at least have approxi-
mating data for our purpose. Beginning with the
most ancient domesticated race of Western Asia
and Egypt, we find

THE BAY STOCK,

which, celebrated in early antiquity, and then unno-
ticed for some ages, recovered its pristine celebrity
from the date of the hegira, and with the Islam
conquests spread again towards the east till it
reached the Bramaputra; came westward through
Barbary to Spain ; is now established in England ;
in South and !North America ; and is fast rising into
importance in Australia. Like the Caucassian race
of man, it is the variety of horse which gradually
either obliterates all the others or assumes an indis-
putable pre-eminence, for from that source the most
beautiful and the best horses in existence are de-
rived. Although the stock is reared into its superior
characteristics by education and human interven-
tion, it seems more naturally confined in pre-emi-
nence within the twentieth and thirty-sixth degrees

210 THE ARABIAN RACE.

of northern latitude, and from tjie fifth to the sixtieth
of east longitude, where the thermometer is seldom
below 50 in the night, or 80 in the day, though
often as high as 120 of Fahrenheit. This stock has
a black or slate-coloured hide, darkest in the white
or grey varieties ; the ears are small, the forehead
broad and flat, the limbs always light, and the mane
and tail not superabundant. Its ancient history we
have already sufficiently noticed to the period of the
Arabian conquest^, and now have to enter more par-
ticularly on a few details on the present condition of

THE ARABIAN RACE.

PLATE VIII.
It is the most artificial, the first of hicrh-bred

7 o

horses, and the parent of the noblest breeds in every
part of the world : a race of great intermixture, but
for ages in the care of attentive and skilful breeders,
and under the influence of circumstances favourable
to the attainment of the greatest perfection. Al-
though the bay colour, of all others, seems the most
inclined to pass into albinism, yet there are traces
that the white or rather grey race was early and
largely mixed with it ; for it is in those two that
the dappled or pommeled marks peculiar to horses
are alone perceptible ; and admitting the high irri-
tability of their intellectual instincts, which clearly
affect the markings upon horses, it does not appear
that real changes of colour can be ascribed to a dif-
ferent cause than what results from inter-union with

THE ARABIAN RACE. 211

different and other forms or races. * In this view
the Arabian blood is much mixed, for we find reck-
oned in the colours of the race : ahmar, or clear
bay ; ad/iem, brown bay ; ashekwar^ sorrel ; aliad,
white; azrek, pure grey; raklha, mottle grey;
akdar, blue grey; udhem, black brown; ulmar
muruk, dark chestnut; and Mohammed himself
mentions aswad, or black, which, however, is not
recognised, nor ashebad, light chestnut, as real Ara-
bian colours. Green, indeed, occurs in the national
writers, which seems to denote what we call sallow,
but it does not appear that there is any breed of
the kind, or it is an occasional kadeschi. It is evi-
dent the whole of the true Arabian horses are refer-
rible to the bay and the grey, with perhaps a slight
addition of a Toorkee black race. The perfection of
the bay blood is no doubt due to the Arabs, and
particularly to the period when their princes, in
the career of conquest, became more enlightened,
sagacious, and wealthy than they could have been
while they were the mere tenants of their tents.
Even now, when for some centuries they have con-
tinued to breed, nearly without exception, from
their own perfected studs, they produce horses un-
equalled in form, with fine bone, firm horny legs,
limbs small yet hard, muscle sinewy and elastic,
and all the parts free from vascular superabundance
and unnecessary weight ; though the breast may be
deemed narrow, the barrel expands, the head, small

* Albinism would produce white, or flea-bitten, or sorrel
horses, but does not afford the round dapples and black legs.

212 THE ARABIAN RACE.

and square, is admirably placed, the eyes large and
brilliant, the ears small and pointed, and the tail
well set on ; even the prominence of the blood-ves-
sels beneath the skin attest high breeding; and
although the Arab is rather small and English
horses are decidedly fleeter, none are more graceful,
more enduring, or fitter for war and privation. It
may be doubted whether these noble races are not
now in a state of gradual decline in their native
country, but all have been and still are subjected to
the same vigilant system of care and to the condi-
tions of life inseparable from the climate and barren
soil of the regions where they flourish ; they have
been educated in the society of man, used to artifi-
cial food not intended for them by nature, such as
camels' milk and bruised dates ; inured to sobriety,
even in the quantity of water ; but watched, pro-
tected, and caressed by a people imperatively called
upon to consider them as the only source of riches,
the chief agent of national glory, the principal com-
panion in daily enjoyments, and the sole instrument
of independence. Hence the most hardy breeds are
precisely those of the wandering tribes, and also the
most docile, because, while the mares have young
foals, they partake of the comforts of the tent, and
horses are always treated with affection ; excepting
when the first great trial of their capabilities is
made ; then, indeed, the treatment the young ani-
mal suffers is more severe than any horse is liable
to in Europe : for, being led out, as yet totally un-
conscious of a rider, the owner springs on its back

THE ARABIAN RACE.

and starts off at a gallop, pushed to the highest
speed, across plains and rocks, for fifty or sixty
miles without drawing bit ; then, before dismount-
ing, he plunges into deep water with his horse,
and, on returning to land, offers it food ; judgment
of its qualities depending upon the animal immedi-
ately beginning to eat. This treatment is more
particularly inflicted upon fillies, because the Be-
douin rides for his own use only mares, who are in
truth more patient and durable than stallions, and
never betray the marauder by neighing ; whereas,
if stallions are present, this certainly occurs, and
therefore these are kept for breeding, sold at high
prices, or used by grandees and chiefs who reside in
fixed habitations and towns.

Habitually in company with mankind, all the
Arabian breeds become exceedingly gentle and in-
telligent ; a look or a gesture is sufficient to make
them stop, take up with their teeth the rider's
jereed or any other object he may have dropped,
stand by him if he has fallen off their backs, come
to his call, and fight resolutely in his defence ; even
if he be sleeping, they will rouse him in cases of
danger. Kindness and forbearance towards animals
is inculcated by the Koran and practised by all
Mussulmen, to the shame of Christians, who often
do not think this a part of human duty ; and as a
Moor well known in London sneeringly remarked
to ourselves, " It is not in your Book !"

As the Arabian blood is now extended, we must
take in some measure the whole of South-western

214 THE ARABIAN RACE.

Asia and the northern half of Africa, as within its
limits, and refer to the local reports of the com-
parative qualities of the principal breeds, as they
are estimated to depend upon native countries. In
this view, the Nejed claims the noblest ; Hedjas,
the handsomest ; Yemen, the most durable ; Syria,
the richest in colour; Mesopotamia, the gentlest;
Egypt, the swiftest; Barbary, the most prolific;
and Persia and Koordistan, the most warlike. We
have here at least the general claim of this ex-
tended geographical range for Arabian horses main-
tained as it was more anciently, when they were
called Persian or Egyptian.

There is apparently some confusion in the accounts
of travellers in the collective denomination of Ko-
hayl and Kochlani given to horses by the Arabs,
the last mentioned being only a slight mutation of
one of the many names of the Kulan, wild ass, or
rather the Ghurkhar, shows probably the origin of
the mistake about wild horses being found in Ara-
bia, and also the probability that the two animals
just mentioned are not considered to be identical by
the Arabs.

The term Kohayl, or Kohelga, embraces col-
lectively the races denominated Attechi, not much
valued, and said to be occasionally feral ; next the
Kadeschi, or horses of improved blood; and last,
the Kochlani, whose genealogy, is kept with rigor-
ous care ; their descent from high-bred studs being
capable of proof for many generations, and claiming,
in oriental grandiloquence, a lineal ancestry to the

THE ARABIAN RACE. 215

time of King Solomon, and even older. There are,
however, different opinions expressed by native
writers on this head : one asserts the highest hreed
proceeds from the stallion Zad-el-rakeb and the mare
Sherdat Shekban, both the property of Muthaym
ibn Oshaim, chief of the primitive Arabian tribe
of Yemen : others that Mashour, stallion of Okrar,
chief of the Beni Obeide, was sire of the noblest
breeds ; while the more pious Arabs claim the five
most renowned races for lineal descendants of Rhab-
da, Noorna, Waya, Sabha, and Hesma, the five
favourite mares of their prophet. There can be no
doubt that Mohammed, although no connoisseur,
was well mounted ; and it would not have been a
token of great fanaticism in his followers to value
descendants from his stud.* It is likely, therefore,
that some truth may be attached to the claim ; but
at present the five recognised great races are deno-
minated Tauweyce, Monakye, Kohayl, Saklawye,
and Gulfe or Julfa : the names of studs derived from
the two first mentioned we have not found detailed,
but the third or Kohayl reckon among others of
renown the Aguz, Kerda, Sheikha, Dubbah ibn
Kurysha, Kumeyseh, and Abu Moaraff: the Sak-
lawye have the Jedran, Abriyeh, and Nemh el
fcubh; and the Julfa has the Estemblath. There

* Had he been one of a riding tribe, the world would have
heard of a mystical mare ; but being a camel-driver, he only
dreamed of the Borak, that mysterious camel which carried
him up to the third heaven, and the object of profound discus-
sions amons: the Ulema, as to whether it was red or whtye.

216 THE ARABIAN RACE.

are, besides, breeds of inferior consideration, such
as the Henaydi, Abu Arkab, Abajan, Sheraki,
Shueyman, Hadaba, Wedna, Medhemeh, Khabitha,
Omeriah, and Sadathukan. Indeed, an old Arabic
MS. enumerates one hundred and thirty-six breeds
of Arabia, three Persian, nine Turkoman, and seven
Koordish ; and mentions the Safened race to have
been presented by the Queen of Sheba to Solomon,
which is at least a proof that it is of very ancient
estimation. * But it is evident, from the somewhat
conflicting claims of superiority concerning the seve-
ral breeds, that European statements depend upon
authorities varying according to the tribe or the
part of the country where they have been obtained,
or purchased horses; we have, as such, the first
Arabian of the Monaki breed sent to England by
Mr. Usgate, British cousul at Acre, who in 1722
produced with the animal an affidavit of pedigree
regularly attested before the Kadi. M. Rosetti
claims the very first rank for the Saklawye race,
distinguished for very long necks and brilliant eyes.
Count Rzewusky vaunts the Kohlan as the first
breed, which seems merely to assert that thorough
bred horses are the best; for by Kochlani others

* D'Herbelot notices Kamel el Sanateym, a treatise on far-
riery, wherein are found mentioned several of the above remarks.
For most of the details concerning Eastern horses, it will be
observed that we are indebted to Malcolm, Elphinstone, Frazer,
Burns, Connolly, Moorcroft, and the two Gerrards ; for other
particulars, to relatives and friends who have long resided in
India.

THE ARABIAN RACE. 217

understand the first class of horses collectively, in-
cluding many breeds: the Count, however, pur-
chased three animals of this class, and vouches for
the wonderful properties ascribed to them : temper,
faithfulness, sagacity, courage, fierceness, &c. ; he
affects even to believe that they know when they
are sold, not granting implicit obedience until they
have been duly transferred with the presentation of
bread and salt to a new master. There are among
those studs many whose pedigrees ascend through
numerous generations of the noblest blood, perfectly
well attested ; and some even, it is asserted, to a
period of four hundred years. In the market there
are, however, only stallions; mares they justly re-
gard as of greater importance in breeding than is
thought in Europe, and therefore it is held so un-
lawful to part with any, that very rarely they can
be obtained by purchase. It is even considered a
crime to sell one under any circumstances ; and in
proof of the resolute opposition to the practice, we
were assured of a case that lately occurred in Cal-
cutta, where some Arabian dealers had sold their
horses, and in consequence of a heavy bribe one was
induced to part with his mare. Some weeks after,
when the dealers had already gone homeward, the
senior of the party was observed to have returned
to the city, a distance of several hundred miles ; he
lurked about for some days; subsequently it was
discovered that he had inquired for the stables where
the mare was kept : — she was found poisoned, and
lie had disappeared 1

218 THE ARABIAN RACE.

Towards the end of the last century, full-grown
unblemished stallions of the several breeds stood
somewhat in the following ratio of value : — The
Oel-Nagdi, reared in the vicinity of Bussora, beau-
tiful, docile, and swift, either dark bay or dapple
grey, and remarkable for attachment to their owners,
stood foremost in estimation, and were valued at
eight thousand piastres : a mare sold at Acre for
the enormous sum of fifteen thousand piastres.

The Guelfe, originally from Yemen, patient, in-
defatigable, and gentle, were held to be most valu-
able, selling at four thousand piastres.

The Saklawye, bred in the Eastern desert, with
more speed and hardier constitutions, were of the
same price. *

The Oel-Mefkl of the Damascus district, stately
and superb in aspect, but less durable, were esti-
mated at three thousand piastres, and chiefly used
by the Turkish grandees.

The Oel-Sabl resemble the last mentioned, but
are not so highly valued, their price ranging be-
tween twelve hundred and two thousand piastres.

The Oel-Tredi are very handsome, but with less
courage, more inclined to restiveness, and hence
might be obtained for nine hundred or a thousand
piastres.

The Monaki and Shaduhi of Yemen, belonging
to the Mohammedad tribe, are still in very high

* I believe the renowned Darley Arab was a Saklawye : he
was purchased at Aleppo by Mr. Darley's brother, from an
Arab tribe near Palmyra.

THE ARABIAN RACE. 219

estimation. The Roswallas likewise possess most
numerous herds of beautiful horses, and the powerful
tribe of Benilam are now in possession of the Ghi-
lan pastures, as well as of those in Shuster, where
the ancient studs of Nisa and Susa were reared for
the Persian kings. Mr. Bruce adds the Moualis,
south of Palmyra and Damascus, where the studs
are of similar ancient renown.

The Kochlani, or superior breed, appear to be
reared more generally in the deserts than in the
more fixed abodes of the Arabian nation ; it being-
evident elsewhere also, that horses acquire the most
valued qualities by living in dry wildernesses and
on scanty vegetation : every where the present Asi-
atic races are traceable to these nurseries, and the
Arabs have extended their selection of this kind of
residence far beyond their own frontiers. At this
moment, their Negeddy breed of Sannaa, which we
take to be a part of the Najd of Arabia Felix, is in
part stationed to the east of the Indus, in the well
known desert of that region.

Prince P. Muskau differs in many particulars
with the foregoing statement, and it may be ob-
served every writer on the subject of Arabian horses
seems to generalize the information he has obtained
in a particular quarter as applicable to the whole ;
the Prince believes that to the first rank belongs
two races :

The real Nedschdis; that is to say, those bred
in the province of that name, from whence all
the noblest blood has been derived; it forms five

220 THE ARABIAN RACE.

breeds : — 1st, Sada-Tokan ; 2d, Touesse-al-Hamie ;
3d, Shouahi-em-Anhoub ; 4th, Hamdanye-Symra ;
5th, Souat-hije-sedem-Sachra ; the first of these
names records that of the mare, the second gives
the proprietors.

The second is the race of Kaehel (we take to be
the same as the Koheyl and Kaylan already men-
tioned) ; of this the Prince knows only four studs :
— 1st, Kaehel-el-Adschroass ; 2d, Kaehel-Moussou-
me ; 3d, Kaehel-Moussalsal ; 4th, Kaehel-WednaE. ;
all chiefly found on the desert between Bassora and
Bagdad. He states that a Nedschi presented to
Abbas Pacha was above eighteen years old, and yet
valued at £ 400 sterling ; and moreover, that he
could find no traces of the genealogies of blood-
horses pretended to be preserved by the Arabs, but
that they are fabricated in towns, if the purchaser
demands them. " The Arab of the desert is content
to know the dam and sire of the colt, and to rely
on the care that every one takes of the purity of
race." Of the Emir Bechir's stud he speaks with
contempt, though we can hardly believe the old
man of the mountain could have given cause for it
to one so profoundly read in men and horses.

Although the Arabian steed may not be acknow-
ledged by amateurs of exceeding fast going, as per-
fect in form, no race is possessed of a more beautiful
head, for above the eyes it is squarer and below the
nose is plane and more tapering than any other ,
the muzzle being fine, short, and adorned with wide
and delicate nostrils; the eyes are very prominent,

THE ARABIAN RACE. 221

large, and brilliant ; the ears small, pointed, move-
able; the jaws and cheeks adorned with minute
swelling veins; the head is well set on the neck,
which arches gracefully and is bedecked with a fine
but rather deficient mane ; the withers are high ;
the shoulders inclining and beautifully adjusted ;
the chest and body perhaps not sufficiently ample,
but yet spreading out behind the arms to give room
for action to the lungs and heart, which are in pro-
portion larger than in any other kind of horse;
the limbs are remarkably fine, sinewy, and firmly
jointed ; the legs flat and clean, with pasterns rather
long and flexible, so that with an oblique position
they appear to the heavier European not quite so
strong as is desirable ; but considering that in sta-
ture these horses do not often exceed fourteen hand*
and three-quarters, it is evident from the length of
time they will carry a rider at great speed, and
under great restriction of food, and the number of
years they endure, that for their climate at least
they are fully competent to accomplish all that is
desirable, and even execute tasks which are not al-
ways believed of them. The quarters of an Arab
are deep, the muscles of the fore- arm and thigh pro-
minent ; the tail set on high, with a middling pro-
portion of sweeping hair ; the skin on all parts of
the body thin, presenting veins above the surface ;
and the hoofs, rather high, are hard and tough.

From the broad forehead and space between the
ears, judges assert their greater courage and intelli-
gence, which, aided by education and kind treat-

222 THE ARABIAN RACE.

ment, they certainly possess beyond all other horses :
and in temper and docility, none can be compared
tp them.

For sobriety, these horses are equally notorious ;
the Arab of the desert allowing his mare only two
meals in twenty -four hours : she is kept fastened
near the entrance of the tent, ready saddled for
mounting in a moment, or turned out to ramble
around it, confident in her training, that on the
first call she will gallop up to be bridled. She re-
ceives only a scanty supply of water at night, and
five or six pounds of barley or beans with a little
chopped straw, and then she lies down contented
in the midst of her master's family; often with
children sleeping on her neck, or lying between
her feet; no danger to any being apprehended or
experienced : in the morning, if not immediately
wanted, another feed, and on some occasions a few
dates and camels' milk are given, particularly where
water is very scarce and there is no green herbage
whatever, or during an expedition which admits of
little or no respite. Camels' milk is almost the only
nutriment of foals, who for that purpose are seen
trotting free by the side of the camels, and every
now and then thrusting their noses to get hold of
the nurse's udder ; being treated by them with the
same fondness as if they were their own young.
Hence there is friendship instead of enmity be-
tween the two species of animals, and the facts al-
luded to by Herodotus and Xenophon, Aristotle
and Pliny, respecting the repugnance of one for the

THE ARABIAN RACE. 223

other, show that in the age of Cyrus and the Per-
sian invasions of Greece, the Arabs had not yet
established their own breeds according to the system
which the nature of the soil rendered unavoidable.
The Bedoueen mares, under this mode of training,
will travel fifty miles without stopping ;*and they
have been known to go one hundred and twenty
miles on emergencies, w^ith hardly a respite, and no
food. In the newspapers, there was lately an ac-
count of a bet against time, won by an Arab horse,
at Bangalore, in the presidency of Madras, running
four hundred miles in the space of four consecutive
days. This exploit occurred on the 27th July,
J840.

This power is further evinced in the relation of
Mr. Frazer, * who states that Aga Bahram's Arab
horse went from Shirauz to Teheraun, 522 miles, in
six days, remained three to rest, went back in five
days, remained nine at Shirauz, and returned again
to Teheraun in seven days. The same officer related
that he once rode another horse of his from Tehe-
raun to Koom, twenty-four fursuks, or about eighty-
four miles, starting at dawn in the morning, near
the vernal equinox, and arriving two hours before
sunset ; that is, in about ten hours : " but Aga
Bahram," observes the author, " had always the
best horses in Persia." When, therefore, we take
together all the qualities of the Arabian horse, and
compare them with other races, we may find some
of greater single powers, but none endowed with so
* Frazer 's Tartar Journeys.

224 THE BARB OF MOROCCO.

many to endear, to admire, or to use ; and this
opinion we are warranted in passing, since neither
Asia nor Europe can boast of a breed in all or in
some respects superior or equal, that is not mainly
indebted to the Arabian blood for the estimation it
has obtained. But it is doubtful whether the great
qualities of these animals are not now rapidly on
the decline, the wants and expectations of the people
evidently taking a new direction.

Numerous anecdotes might be here inserted re-
lating to these horses, but as they occur mostly in
books deservedly popular, we would repeat only
what is familiar to most readers.

Of the bay stock, but already distinguished before
the Arab was extolled, is

THE BARB OF MOROCCO.

Ancient and renowned, but nevertheless greatly
improved since the conquests of the Moslem, and
therefore in every respect the nearest ally in blood,
and superior in some qualities. The climate and
soil of that empire might indeed sustain an enor-
mous number of horses such as the best among
them are ; but that under a government, where pro-
perty is insecure, there is not sufficient inducement
for breeders to bestow the same unremitting atten-
tion upon them for a succession of generations, as
among the free Arabs, and hence the Moors do not
produce pedigrees of horses equally valued with
tnose from the East. In the Barbary states, the

THE BARB OF MOROCCO. J25

bay stock race, with its accompanying greys, once
the only colours of horses, is now found to contain a
proportion of black, with full manes and tails ; at-
testing a northern infusion of more recent date than
the Roman empire, and, it may be surmised, intro-
duced by the Yandal conquerors of Africa. There
are golden or light chestnuts, which likewise consti-
tute a proportion of the ancient northern breeds,
and were much used by the Alans.

Barbary horses, particularly from Morocco, Fez,
and the interior of Tripoli, are reported to be re-
markably fine and graceful in their action, but
somewhat lower than Arab, seldom being more
than fourteen hands and one inch high, with flat
shoulders, round chest, joints inclined to be long,
and the head particularly beautiful. They are
claimed by some as superior to the Arab in form,
but inferior in spirit, speed, and countenance. A
French traveller describes them to be in wretched
condition, neglected, and not to be compared with
them. Recent authors state the Godolphin Arabian
to have been a Barb ; but in a manuscript note, we
find this celebrated horse claimed as one of the
Guelfe blood of Yemen, which his form of head,
neck, and mane seemed to confirm : thus, although
in England several thorough-bred mares and stal-
lions have been imported from the Barbary coast,
there was no account containing much personal ob-
servation respecting them in their own country,
until Mr. Washington, a lieutenant in the royal
navy, communicated a paper to the Geographical

226 THE BARB OF MOROCCO.

Society, relative to a tour through Morocco, and the
unfortunate Mr. Davidson's papers gave more satis-
factory intelligence on the subject. The first men-
tioned gentleman often observed in Barbary, horses
that were of great beauty, with more power than
the Andalusian, having a long striding walk, not
slipping in the quarters, and galloping with great
surety of foot over rough ground, while hunting
wild boar and gazelle. According to him, they
stand from fourteen to fifteen hands in height, are
of every colour, but the black and chestnut are con-
sidered the best bred : their full flowing manes are
never docked, though in youth it is a practice to
shave the tail, probably to obtain a more abundant
growth of hair ; hence two feet and a half of mane,
and a tail sweeping the ground, is not rare. The
Moors do not ride mares, nor mount horses under
four years old.

On a journey, the Barb starts unfed and without
water ; at the end of his day's work, he is picqueted,
unbridled, never unsaddled ; he then receives as
much water as he will drink, then barley and broken
straw is thrown before him as far as he can stretch
his neck ; hence he rarely or never lies down, nor
gets sleep, and yet he is high spirited. Broken
wind is rare, but tender feet and shaken in the
shoulder from the abuse of the bit and sudden stop-
ping in a gallop, are not unfrequent. In the interior
of Morocco, a good horse may be obtained for a
hundred Spanish dollars, or about £20 sterling,
but not readily, and to export one requires an ordei

THE SHRUBAT-UR-REECH. 227

from government. In the province of Ducaila, the
breed is of high reputation.

Some years ago we were informed by a Moorish
gentleman that the Emperor had made a cross breed
with his finest mares and a giant black stallion sent
from England, we think the horse above eighteen
hands high which was exhibited in London, and
that he had succeeded in rearing several splendid
black horses from it, which were the wonder of his
countrymen. Here we have an actual instance of
introducing a cross of the black race with the Arab
stock, already partially mixed at a former period
with the same blood, and the black so called Ara-
bian horses in England are very likely real Barbs.

On the sandy plains, south of Atlas, are

THE SHRUBAT-UR-REECH,
PLATE XI.

or drinkers of the wind, reared by the Mograbins
of the West ; they are brown or grey, rather low,
shaped like greyhounds, destitute of flesh, or, as
Mr. Davidson terms it, like a bag of bones; but
their spirit is high and endurance of fatigue prodi-
gious. On an occasion where the chief of a tribe,
where he sojourned, was robbed of a favourite and
fleet animal of this race, the camp went out in pur-
suit eight hours after the theft ; at night, though
the animal was not yet recovered, it was already
ascertained that the Daman pursuers had headed
his track and would secure him before morning.
The messenger who returned with the intelligence

228 THE BORNOU RACE.

had ridden sixty miles in the withering heat of the
desert, without drawing bit. These horses, accord-
ing to Marmol, are not mounted till they are seven
years old, and until then are allowed to follow the
she-camels, whose udders they suck for a long time.
From the information which Mr. Davidson received
when he viewed one at the imperial stables of Mo-
rocco, and afterwards while he had daily opportunity
of seeing them in their own region, it appears they
are fed only once in three days., when they receive
a large jar of camels' milk as their only food ; but
it is known that they have sometimes a handful of
crushed dates : yet with such scanty sustenance, by
nature not intended for horses, they retain a vigour
which their real food would not bestow upon them,
and hunt the ostrich with unceasing speed.

THE BORNOU RACE,
PLATE X.

found more towards the centre of Northern Africa,
is extolled by Mr. Tally as possessed of the quali-
ties of the Arabian and the beauty of the Barb. An
individual of this, or perhaps of the Dongola race,
which we have seen and sketched, was full fifteen
hands high, and in proportion short of body ; the
head was not set on gracefully, nor the eyes suffi-
ciently large ; his back was carped, with flat quar-
ters and flanks ; the tail set on rather low, but the
shoulder fine, the upper arm the most robust possi-
ble, and the limbs and feet beautiful. He came to
England from the Gambia* was greyish white in

*

THE DONGOLA RACE. 229

colour, with black limbs, and so vicious that the
owner at length broke his neck, at the risk of losing
his own life.

THE DONGOLA RACE.
PLATE X.*

Nubia possesses horses, considered by Mr. Bruce
as far superior to the Arab, though not of African
origin, but introduced at the time of the Moham-
medan conquest, and pretended to be descended
from the five horses ridden by the prophet, his
companions Abubekr, Omar, Atman, and Ali, on
the night of the hegira, when they fled together
from Mecca! But among them, perhaps Atman
must have been some believer of Turkoman or of
Genseric's blood, since the cast of horses in Dongola
is often black, of a stature rising above sixteen
hands, with ample manes and tails. They are found
at Alfaia, Gerri, and Dongola, where the sandy
desert produces scarcely any pasturage, and that
only consisting in roots more than leaf. With forms
already noticed in the Bornou breed, and differing
in proportion from the Arab, they are nevertheless
remarkably handsome, tall, powerful, and active;
very supple, capable of great fatigue, docile, and
attached to their masters. Mr. Bruce estimated
the weight carried by the charger of the Prince,
when he and his horse were accoutred in full ar-
mour, at no less than three hundred pounds. Those
of Alfaia and Gerri are not so large as the Dongo-
lese ; their usual colours are bay, black, and white*

230 THE DONGOLA RACE.

not grey, and never dappled. Stallions only are
ridden, and they are fed with dourra (Holcus durra,
Lin.), which is very nutritious, and with roots well
washed and dried before they are offered as fodder.
They feed and drink saddled and bridled, with a
kind of snaffle, and they are secured by means of a
cotton rope attached to the fore-foot.

Mr. Hoskins the most recent traveller who de-
scribes this race, says that the black are the finest :
they have all white legs, sometimes the white ex-
tends over the thighs, and occasionally over the
belly ; they are not light, slender horses, but more
remarkable for their strength ; but they have all
rather upright pasterns. They are now rare even in
Ethiopia, where they fetch from ,£50 to £ 150 ster-
ling. From these details it might be surmised that
they descend from the Tahtar Katschentzi race we
shall notice in the sequel. From their speed, size,
and durability, they constitute excellent war horses :
one of them was sold at Cairo, in 1816, for a sum
equivalent to £1000 sterling; several have since
been imported into Europe, where they do not ap-
pear to have obtained great consideration, because
they are not so fleet as Arabs, and consequently
unable to compete with English racers, but they
might be used to great advantage in forming a
superior breed of cavalry horses by crossing with
three-part bred mares. *

In Abyssinia the horses are of the Arabian stock,

* The specimen figured, Plate X.*, represents one that car-
ried Osman, a Mameluke, from the Nile across the desert to
Tunis ; a feat perhaps never before accomplished.

THE TURKISH RACE. 231

but seldom of any real value, a fact the more re-
markable, as pasturage is abundant and very fine,
and the pure air of mountain regions breeds, in all
parts of the northern hemisphere, small horses at
least of great vigour ; but the bay stock is no where
a mountain race.

The Bedoueens, as far as the deserts of Ludamar,
on the borders of Kaarta, are remarkably well
mounted ; and good horses of the bay race are found
among the Soolimas and Begharmis. Even further
on towards the equator, those of the Moors fre-
quenting the gum-forests towards the Gambia, and
of the Foulahs, and in Cashna on the north of the
Niger, they are obtained from Fez and Bornou ; but
from the Guinea coast they become more and more
weak, unsafe, and untractable ; nor does it appear
that the Portuguese colony of Angola, to the south
of the line, is possessed of any worth recording.

At the Cape of Good Hope, the horses are of a
mixed breed of the black Dutch and Arabian Ka-
deschi ; they are not larger than the Arab, but show
also that the northern black offer an improving
mixture, for the best Cape horses are generally of
that colour. Sir Robert R. Gillespie's favourite
charger, already mentioned, was of this race.

Turning to the north and east of Arabia, we first
meet with

THE TURKISH RACE

of horses, proceeding from the old Armenian and
Western Asiatic brown, but now principally com-

232 THE TURKISH RACE.

posed of Arab blood, belongs chiefly to Natolia, and
only in part to Roumelia in Europe. The Turks
cannot be said strictly to possess permanent breeds
of horses, with distinct names of established cele-
brity ; they are purchased, or more generally the
result of individual amateurship and caprice in
wealthy persons. They derive their blood almost
wholly from some imported Arabian, and are much
in the care of Arab grooms ; hence they possess all
the gentleness and acquirements of the parent race,
all and even more beauty, but want their vigour
and durability. They have, from the ancient Tur-
koman blood, a tendency to Roman-nosed chaffrons
and ewe necks, but the head is finely set on ; they
are delicate, have very tender and irritable skins,
making it necessary to use the brush and sponge
alone in cleaning them ; but also they are docile and
graceful like gazelles. We made a sketch of one
that had been sent a present by the Sultan, which
walked and moved with inimitable elegance, had a
head and swan-like neck, slender limbs, springing
pasterns, and high hoofs, fit only to carry a lady,
but, notwithstanding, possessed of fire and speed
whenever the rider pleased.

Turkish horses have contributed materially in the
improvement of the older English breed. Queen
Elizabeth had one purchased for her by Sir Thomas
Gresham, and the Byerly and Lister Turks are well
known to all who interest themselves in the pedi-
grees of our best blood-horses.

The rest of Turkish horses are neglected remains

THE PERSIAN. 233

of the more ancient breeds, — Tahtar, Hungarian,
"Wallachian, and lowest class of Arabians. They
are fed at sunrise and sunset, and watered at the
same time, contrary to the Persian mode, who do
not let them drink till an hour after.

THE PERSIAN.

If we were to judge from ancient sculptures, the
Persian horses of antiquity were as heavy as the
present Flemish cart-horses ; for mail-clad riders and
horse armour rendered bone necessary. In the great
wars of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the
superiority of the Persian horse over the Turkish
was still chiefly owing to their greater bone enabling
them to bear armour on man and beast, while the
Turks had no other defence than a shield ; but at
present the form of the animal is much altered.
Like the Turkish, it consists, in their mutually bor-
dering provinces, of pure Arabians, already men-
tioned ; but, further east, is more intermixed with
the residue of the ancient breeds and later Turko-
man importations. Persian horses seldom exceed
fourteen hands and a half, have the neck slender,
often a little ewe-like, the ears handsome, the chest
narrow, the legs fine, the hoofs hard, and the croup
well turned. The nobler studs have the head some-
what larger, but nearly as beautiful as the Arabian ;
the frame is more developed, and their spirit is war-
like. From the speed of chuppers, or express mes-
sengers, we know their endurance of fatigue. Major

234 THE PERSIAN.

Keppel mentions one of these riding expresses, who
passed him between Kermanshaw and Hamadan,
one hundred and twenty miles distant from each
other, in a stony mountainous country, who per-
formed that route on one horse (and of course a
common horse) in little more than twenty- four
hours, and next morning went on upon the same
for Teheran, two hundred miles further, expecting
to reach it on the second day. Indeed chuppers,
unlike Turkish Tahtars, seldom change horses ; they
go on at a steady ambling pace of four or five miles
an hour, and some have gone from Teheran to
Bushire, seven hundred miles, in ten days.

These instances are sufficient to prove the en-
during power of the Persian horses, even of inferior
studs, and the adventurous riding of the native
sportsmen, as acknowledged by British gentle-
men well acquainted with fox-hunting, evidently
proves their sure-footedness, in the daring way
the riders gallop down the steepest and most rug-
ged hills. They are usually fed and watered an
hour after sunrise, and again at sunset, when they
are rubbed down and brushed ; their barley or rice,
and chopped straw or chaff, is put in a nose-bag
hung from their heads, if they are at the picquet ;
but in the stable it is placed into a lozenge-shaped
hole made in the mud- wall for that purpose, but
higher than European mangers, and thence the ani-
mal draws it at his leisure. Hay is unknown in the
East : horse-litter, in Persia, consists of the dung
reduced to powder and daily dried in the sun.

THE PERSIAN. 235

They wear nummuds, or clothes, for winter and
summer, which reach from head to tail, and are
secured by surcingles.

In the day-time they are kept under the shade of
trees or awnings, and at night placed in court-yards,
with their heads secured to double ropes from the
halters, and the heels of the hind feet strapped to
cords of twisted hair, which are fastened to rings
and pegs driven in the ground behind them ; a cus-
tom likewise in vogue in India, and known in the
time of Xenophon. These precautions are necessary
to prevent their fighting ; for this purpose stable-
boys and grooms constantly sleep near them, and
notwithstanding all the care they can take, some
occasionally get loose, and then an uproar and
battle ensues before they can be separated, such as
is not to be remedied without damage to the horses
and danger to the men, The pugnacity of stallions,
indeed, extends to all occasions where opportunity
is given them, and in feuds of different tribes, no
skirmish takes place between the riders without
their horses taking part and endeavouring to paw
and bite each other with consummate fury.

The Persian nobility have horse races, consti-
tuting more properly trials of bottom than speed ;
for the distance they are made to run is not less
than about twenty-four miles, and to effect this
with tolerable speed the animals are put in training,
particularly by sweating them down to mere skele-
tons, and making them go over the ground repeat-
edly before the day of trial. In breaking horses for

236 THE PERSIAN.

the saddle, their walk is first taught to be made
into long strides, and the next qualification consists
in darting off at full gallop, and the best in the
practice who possess likewise speed are emphatically
called laad-pee^ or wind-heeled.

Among the more noted are

The Kauserooni breed, obtained by crossing the
Arab and Turkoman races, and may be the same as
the Koordy. It is from this the best roadsters are
derived, combining the speed of the one with the
strength of the other, but not in an equal degree.

The Erscheck breed, from the vicinity of Ardebil,
is in repute for beauty ; and those of Shirvan, Ka-
rabag, and Mokan, where there are good pastures,
are extolled. The sovereigns of the Sefi dynasty
likewise maintained brood mares on the Tzikziki
hills, between Sultanieh and Casvin.

The Ishepatan breed is now principally within
the Russian frontier, and numbered in the table of
brandmarks furnished by Pallas, where he notices
no less than fifty-six Circassian and Abassian breeds
of great Kabarda, among which that of Shalokh, in
possession of the Tau Sultan family, is of the highest
reputation. All of these are of breeding studs be-
longing to the nobles, each having a peculiar mark
branded on the buttock or shoulder, with scrupulous
attention to authenticity ; a misapplication thereof
being considered the same as a forgery.

We have seen, among the Cossack officers, very
handsome chestnuts of Circassian race, in size equal
to English horses, but they appeared to be less

THE PERSIAN. 237

firmly jointed ; and this deficiency seems to be
general, since, in a noted trial of speed and endur-
ance between Sharper and Mina, two first-rate
English blood-horses, and the best bred animals
picked for the purpose among the Don, the Black
Sea, and the Ural Cossacks, which occurred in 1825 ;
they were to run to the cruel distance of forty-seven
miles, and although both the English had gone out of
the course uphill for above two miles, yet Sharper
was winner by eight minutes, running the whole dis-
tance in two hours and forty-eight minutes, carry-
ing three stone more than his best opponent, leaving
him to be warped in without a saddle, and having
only a child on the back, with two horsemen hold-
ing him up on both sides, and other men dragging
at his head with a rope !

The horses of the vicinity of Caucasus, both to
the north and south, are, however, more particularly
of the ancient dappled and grey stock, now gradu-
ally merging into the bay, but still numerous ; in
some pastures predominant, and both in Persia and
India, on gala days, often beautified by having
their manes, tails, and sometimes parts of the body,
stained with a crimson or an orange dye. There is
also, on the coast of the Persian Gulf, the Musjeed
breed of white horses, naturally speckled with deep
brown or black, known early in the middle ages,
and then considered as the most eligible of all
parade horses. * White horses are likewise arti-

* We think the name of Tazi is given to them by ancient
Indian writers, but do not know where it is so defined. The

23o THE TOORKEE RACES.

ficially stained with small spots of black, orange, cr
even crimson ; their name may have some connexion
with the use they are principally put to, namely, to
be ridden in parade to the mosque, &c.

THE TOORKEE RACES,

also named Turkoman and Toorkoman, so far as
they are mainly indebted for beauty and speed to
the Arabian stock, should be separated from the
original unimproved breeds of the nation which
extends to the north of the Syr-deriah or Jaxartes
and the Sea of Aral ; these waters forming a line of
separation from west to east to the Kiptchak moun-
tains. On the south of this line we find horses
strong and bony, larger than the Persian, standing
fifteen or sixteen hands high, capable of immense
fatigue and privation. Some are said to have tra-
velled nine hundred miles in eleven consecutive
clays. They cannot, however, be compared in
beauty with the southern breeds; their heads are
always much larger, they have ewe-necks, a small
barrel, and long legs, yet even on the spot a thorough
bred specimen will sell for <£ 300 sterling, which
is an enormous price, considering the country.* The

ancients spoke of these horses as inhabitants of the isles in
the Red Sea, — probably Bahrein, &c. on the east coast of
Arabia, and near the Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Ery-
thraean Sea.

* Captain Frazer (Journey to Khorasan) says " they are
deficient in compactness ; their bodies are long in proportion

THE TOORKEE RACES. 239

natives of course pretend that they are descended
from Rustum's wonderful charger Ruksh, though
there is better evidence of the introduction in the
country of the first class of Arabian stallions by
Timur and Nadir Shah ; and the constant inter-
course with Arabia is still kept up by pilgrimage
and caravans. These horses bear the marks of de-
scent from the ancient grey stock, crossed with the
bay, in their grey and chestnut coats and general
make, and the presence of a third in the Karabulo
race of black horses, of ancient reputation for speed,
and not uncommonly found in oriental illuminated
books. *

The Ashoo breed is mentioned in the legends of
India, but the most renowned we believe to be, at
present,

The Tekeh, being the tallest, most hardy, and
warlike, and therefore preferred to the Arab, the
best being worth four hundred tomauns each.

The Gorgum breed is reared in the desert east of
Asterabad, having the defective appearance of the
blood, but standing sixteen hands high, and remark-
to their bulk ; they are not well ribbed up, are long on the
legs, deficient in muscle, falling off below the knee, narrow-
chested, long-necked ; head large, uncouth, and seldom well
put on. Such was the impression," &c. But if these defects
were real, the horses could have neither durability nor speed.

* See the Gottingen MSS. of the Shah-Nameh, and a book
of fables in Turkish, Brit. Mus. They always carry heroes and
chiefs. It was on one of these Selim, flying from his father
Bajazet, escaped to Varna. They have usually white feet and
a white star on the forehead.

240 THE TOORZEE RACES

ably sinewy ; but both Arab mares and stall 'ons lire
now introduced among them, particularly on me
fixed studs and permanent residences, where their
figure improves ; still those of the desert retain pre-
eminence for use. Their long journeys are always
performed in a lengthened stride or a jog-trot.

The Toorkmunee of the Lower Oxus are large
and spirited, much valued in Bokhara, where they
are put into condition about Nirk Merdaun, west of
Caubul, and then sold ; fetching from £20 to £100
sterling.

The Ohuprastee (swift) and Karooghle (war)
horses are two Turkoman breeds of the vicinity of
Shurukhs, to the northward between Mushed and
Herat.

The Aghubolah, on the Oxus, seems to be a fancy
breed, being most remarkable for a dimple or a
whorl on some part of the neck or body, which
among Asiatics is always an object of wonder, and
still more of good or evil omen. This fancy was
known to the ancients, and is still in some repute
among Spaniards, who call a line of feathering in
the hair of the neck, below the root of the mane,
Espada Romana ; that in the flank is called Daga,
and when double, it is Espada Condago. But what
is here principally in view is a depression or suture,
wifnout scar, in the neck or shoulder, not uncom-
mon among Turkish and Barbary horses ; the for-
mer in particular, considering this mark as of good
omen, pretending that it is a spear- wound received in
by a war-horse and perpetuated in his breed.

EAST INDIAN RACES. 241

The Karabeer Usbec breed, from the neighbour-
hood of Samarkand and Shur-Subhs, is in the highest
estimation, and

The Kataghan breed of Bunduz is hardy though
under- sized, but considered far superior to the Kir-
guise, by which we apprehend the white and black
woolly-haired races are to be understood.

The Meros, small sized horses, we take to be the
same as the Toorkee or Usbekee, bred about Balkh
in Bokhara; they are strong, hardy, and subdi-
vided into three breeds, and are sold for prices vary-
ing from ,£5 to £20 sterling. But these pony
forms, commonly called Yaloos^ do not strictly
belong to the bay stock, but to the small mountair
races we shall revert to in the sequel. We now pas>
on to the east side of the Indus, where, until the
Mahommedan conquest, the Persian, Arabian, or
bay type was rarely or never seen, where it has
never thriven, even under Moslem masters, and is
now only risen to a proper standard of height, and
improved to an equality with the better class of
horses of Western Asia, since the Hon. East India
Company has established breeding studs for mount-
ing its numerous and formidable native cavalry.

EAST INDIAN RACES.

Beyond the Indus we still find the bay stock of
Western Asia, but not the horse of the people, and
only perceptible because it was introduced by con-
mirrors is still perpetually imported, and for several

242 EAST INDIAN RACES.

ages attempts have been made to nationalize breeds
of it. One of these is

The Dunnee breed of the Pun jaub, reared between
the Indus and Hydaspes or Jelum, not sufficiently
superintended in the choice of stallions, yet much
superior to the common horses of the country.

The ToorJcee^ bred from Turkoman and Persian
races, is beautiful in form, graceful, and even good-
tempered. The animal has great spirit, and exerts
himself so vigorously, that to a beholder it appears
he is much excited, while the rider feels by his bridle
his perfect coolness and obedience. * Toorkee and
Kaqthi horses, when they have been taught an easy
lengthened amble, are called Tamekdar or Kadom-
las, and from their durability are much valued.

The Iranee, of Persian origin, is a strong, well-
jointed, and quartered animal, but with loose ears
and deficient in spirit.

The present Tazzee of Bengal are not of the an-
cient race ; they grow to sixteen hands high, but
are in general a hand or more below that standard,
having Roman noses, narrow foreheads, much white
of the eyes visible, ill-shaped ears, thin necks, lank
bodies, cat hams, and mostly very vicious.

The Jungle Tazzee is a mixed breed, of a fine
stature, bold and commanding appearance, and ex-
cellent racers. Their spirit requires good riders to
mount them. The form of the head is longer than
the Arab, but not so delicate ; the neck is rather

* Captain Williamson describes them as broad, sliort, lieavj^
and phlegmatic.

EAST INDIAN RACES. 243

stiff, and their eyes betray the viciousness of dispo-
sition, which not uncommonly requires the rider,
while mounting, to have his horse blindfolded. They
are of all colours, but mostly bays, some roans an&
white, and a few betray their Tangum intermixture
by being piebald : the tail and mane are long, not
abundant ; the ears generally laid back ; but they
bear vast fatigue, as was proved in our wars with
the Mahrattas and Pindarrees chiefly mounted upon
them.

The Serlssahs of North Bahar, though of the
Tazzee breed, are valued, and so abundant, that up-
wards of twenty thousand are sold at the annual
fairs.

The Maginnee, bred by Tazzee horse and Persian
mares, have beauty, speed, spirit, and endurance.

The Takan of India, remarkable for strong backs
and well made, are natural amblers.

The Kolaree breed, of a good height, with a long
curved chaffron, is devoid of vigour ; but the Mah-
rattas possess a middle-sized horse, of Arab or
Persian origin, in considerable abundance, and very
fit for service.

The Cutch breed, remarkable for the structure of
the withers, which drop three or four inches so
suddenly, that there appears to be a part of the
vertical ridge of the spine taken away. Saddles
must be made on purpose for them ; and although
this defect is unsightly and must weaken the %ni-
mals, they are nevertheless much valued by the
natives and in the Mekran.

244 EAST INDIAN RACES.

The Cattywarr breed is of superior blood and at
least equal beauty with the Cutch, having gentle
dispositions ; and the rare dun-coloured breed, with
black stripes like a tiger, is particularly valued, and
competes with true Arabians.

But the mode of feeding horses, among the na-
tives, shows a system of quacking which does not
trust to what nature has prescribed; they are, it
seems, often fed at night on boiled peas, no doubt
gram, which is a kind of vetch, with sugar and
butter ; others employ lentiles, or small beans, boiled
with a sheep's head, or wheaten flour with molasses,
adding from time to time messals, or balls composed
of pepper, curcumi, garlick, coriander ; even arrack,
opium, bang, or hemp-seed, mixed with molasses !
— Such a system, with the exception of gram, we
understand, is totally rejected in the Hon. Com-
pany's studs in Bahar, where at first the horses
reared were rather under-sized and afterwards wanted
bone ; but by attention and perseverance in the selec-
tion of brood-mares and stallions, a splendid race of
Indian horses is at last obtained, and fast increasing.
Formerly, our cavalry in India was chiefly mounted
on the Jungle Tazzee race, and on purchases ob-
tained from the fairs in Thibet, at Hurdwar, and
other places, but the practice is fast decreasing, and
the stud at Hissar is now, we are told, unrivalled.*

* The Coza/kee is regularly imported, and therefore not an
Indian breed; and the Kaqthi comes from Thibet. The Ghoonts,
Pickarrows, and Bhooteah mountain ponies do not belong to
the bay stock.

DOMESTIC HORSES. 245

Of the bay stock there is also now forming the
New Holland breed, entirely of Arab blood; one
gentleman being in possession of a stud of three
hundred thorough bred horses, each on an average
valued at £ 100 sterling.

On the west of Turkey we have the noble breeds
of Transylvania, in stature rising to fifteen hands
and more ; with slender bodies, fine heads, high
withers, the tail set on level with the back, and the
limbs fine, — evidently a race of Turkish origin, and
very like the Spanish. Colours bay or grey ; mane
and tail long and silky.

The Moldavian, nearly of the same stature, but
less elegantly made, the head being larger, the tail
set on lower, but still a noble race, with more of
the ancient blood, and in colour bay or chestnut.
These characters prove an affinity with

The Greek horse, of similar stature, but still
coarser head and jowl, scraggy neck, and rather
knotty joints, but possessed of enduring qualities
and temper. This breed belongs more particularly
to Eastern Greece, and is in general chestnut ; there
are bays and greys, but very few black.

More westward in Europe, the bay stock, as we
have already mentioned, was early carried to seve-
ral places on the coast of the Mediterranean, to
Sicily, and in particular to Spain, where, if it was
deteriorated by the Goths during their dominion,
more than pristine nobility was restored to it by
the Saracen invasion, which brought directly both
Arabian and Barbary blood in great abundance to

246 DOMESTIC HORSES.

the peninsula. We have noticed the earlier history
of the Alfaeres, Andalus, and Ginetas, and may
add, that the period of their decay commenced with
the expulsion of the Moors, increased during the
Bourbon dynasty, and what was left of good horses
after the barbarous order of Bonaparte's marshal to
disable and blind the right eye of every serviceable
horse in Andalusia, has perished, it seems, in the
present civil war. Yet Spain may still restore, or,
as soon as public tranquillity will permit, no doubt,
will revive her pristine race of noble horses ; some,
we trust, have escaped the general ruin, enough to
justify an account of them in this place, and serve
for comparison with the South American, entirely
derived from the Andalusian blood.

The Spanish race is subject to have the lower
jaw heavy, the head rather large, and the noso
Roman; the ears, often fixed low, are somewhat
long ; the neck fleshy, with superabundant mane ;
the shoulders and breast broad and full ; the croup
mule-like; the body round, and the joints long;
but notwithstanding small defects, the Andalusiaa
horses are flexible, graceful, and active, forming ex-
cellent manege or riding-school steeds, and very
good chargers. They vary in colour, but bays pre-
dominate, and next, black and greys. Of colours,
the Morcillo, or black without a white mark, or
with only a star on the forehead, are esteemed of the
highest breed and strongest bone, even to a proverb.*

* " A mulberry black horse is what every one should wish
for, though few can possess."

DOMESTIC HORSES. 247

The Isabella variety is, we believe, always albino,
or with a roseate skin.

The Andalusian owe their latest reputation chiefly
to the Xeres breed of the Chartreuse, somewhat
smaller, more delicate, with rather long pasterns, but
exceedingly graceful, and not fully prepared for the
saddle till six or seven years old. The other Anda-
lusian, Grenada, and Estremadura races, are larger,
more robust, sooner reared, and therefore more pro-
fitable and more abundant. There is also a breed of
Murcia, which, like those of the Pyrenees, is small,
and belongs to a different stock.

Sardinia possesses three races of horses, of which
one is noble and now almost entirely composed of
descendants of Spanish blood, introduced by Don
Alvarez de Madrigal about 1565: the principal
breed belongs to the crown at Paulo-latino ; there is
a second the property of the house of Benevente,
and a third to that of Mauca. They are handsome,
fourteen hands and a half high, naturally disposed
to amble, sure-footed, and capable of going a hun-
dred and twenty Italian miles in thirty hours.
There are horse-races at Sassari ; the aim, however,
seems to be not speed, but secure flexibility, in
going fast through a winding course, and passing
into a narrow gate at an acute angle.

The South American horses are marked with
most if not all the characters of their Andalusian
progenitors ; they have their grace and good temper,
and surpass them in speed, surety of foot, and bot-
tom. Individuals taken on the Pampas have been

248 DOMESTIC HORSES.

known to carry a heavy man one hundred miles
without drawing hit ; but some account having al-
ready heen given of them, and recent travellers
having repeatedly described the mode of subduing
and management of horses by the Gauchos, we shall
point out only two or three breeds. Well known
in Peru is

The Parameros (see Plate XII.), so called from
(he word paramos (mountains), because they gallop
down steep precipices and leap across ravines with
equal rapidity and safety. A second, named

AiguilillaS) are not less vigorous and active, and
prized for a most rapid mode of moving, resembling
an amble, but so fast that, according to Don Juan
de Ulloa, the best gallop cannot keep up with it.

In the hills and mountain regions of the northern
states of South America, we have found the grey of
the Asturian stock very prevalent, and among them
rufous greys with soft somewhat curled hair; those
we have seen were powerful, square-built, and sure-
footed cobs, remarkably serviceable in precipitous
mountain regions.

In Paraguay, however, the Spanish horse blood
is sadly degenerated, and there are no feral herds, in
consequence of an Jdppobosca or an oestrus attacking
the umbilical region of young foals, producing ulcers
which invariably destroy the animal, unless huma
care interposes. To this care the natives solely coi
fine the protection they give horses, and neglecte
in this manner, they are become heavy inelegar
animals, with a deformity among them we do nc

DOMESTIC HOESES. 249

find noticed in any other country, namely, the fre-
quent occurrence of full-grown carcases with very
short distorted legs.

o

The Mexican are known to be derived chiefly
from Andalusian progenitors, and so are the race of
Seminole horses, in the Creek or Muscogulge tongue
named Echoclucco, or big deer, according to Bartram.
They are a beautiful and sprightly race, of small
stature, and delicately formed, like roebucks, with
handsome heads, the nose being slightly aquiline :
this peculiarity is likewise observed in the race of
the Chactaics, wThich is larger and less lively, the
former having been introduced by the first Spanish
settlers in East Florida, the latter coming from New
Spain.

In the Floridas there are breeding quarters called
stamps^ where the animals, reared almost wholly in
a state of independence, acquire nevertheless an
affection for mankind by being occasionally enticed
into his presence by means of handfuls of salt being
offered, a dainty so much relished, that the older
mares gallop up to the giver at the first sight of
him, and the fillies and colts, after a little coyness,
are easily reconciled to his presence.

In Jamaica we find a breed of blood-horses of the
Arab stock, derived from the English. There are
several studs reared in what are there called breeding
pens, in the western parishes of the island. They
appeared to us in general lighter and smaller than
thorough-bred English horses, but certainly the pro-
duce of a noble race, elegant in form, fleet ou the

250 THE ENGLISH BREEDS.

race-course, and equally serviceable for the saddle
and light carriages.

From the same sources are derived the blood-
horses of the United States, reared more particularly
in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky.
Some of the best horses ever bred in England, such
as Shark and Tallyho, have contributed to give a
high character to the breeds of Virginia and the
Jerseys. The Conestoga breed of Pennsylvania, and
those of the middle states, long in the leg and light
in carcase, often rise to seventeen hands at the
shoulder, and make splendid gig-horses, while those
of less stature are most sought for riding. Towards
the north the English race is mixed with the Ca-
nadian, originally from Normandy, and judicious
breeding between them has produced remarkable
fast trotters.

THE ENGLISH BREEDS OF HORSES.

We are now come to the unrivalled breeds of Great
Britain, — the first in form, in strength, in speed, and
in stature, and the highest in value, of any period in
the history of the world. As our immedate object
is, however, to complete the view of the bay stock,
we shall confine ourselves, for the moment, more
immediately to what is termed the blood-horse, and
resume what remains to be said of its history from
the time of James I., who patronized horse-racing
and first reduced the pursuit to a regular system.
In his time, Turkish and Barbary horses had been

THE ENGLISH BREEDS. 251

repeatedly introduced to form a breed with English
mares, without as yet any acknowledged advantage ;
he carried his views farther, and ventured to buy,
at the enormous price of five hundred pounds, an
Arab horse, from a merchant of the name of Mark-
ham. But the minds of the nobility and gentry were
still so strongly imbued with the old predilection
for what were then termed great horses, that is,
large and bony chargers for heavy-armed knights,
that his intentions were thwarted, chiefly by the
celebrated duke of Newcastle, who was thoroughly
enamoured of the Pignatelli * school of horseman-
ship, and wrote two works, which have remained
text-books on the continent, even down to the late
French revolution. He judged the Arab horse to be
a little bony animal of ordinary shape, and it hav-
ing been trained and found not to be fleet, he set it
down as good for nothing, and by his rank and
deserved reputation for knowledge, checked the pro-
gress of improvement for a great number of years, t
King James, however, was not discouraged ; he
bought a second horse that came from some part of
the north coast of Africa, of Mr. Place, who was
afterwards stud-master of Oliver Cromwell. This
horse was the celebrated, so called. White Turk,

* Pignatelli was the person who, in the reign of Henry VIII.,
first introduced at Naples the modern system of riding, or
manege.

•f* Buffon and Sonnini, with equal self-satisfaction and perti-
nacity, have inflicted a similar consequence upon their own
country.

252 THE ENGLISH BREEDS.

whose name is still constantly found at the head of
many of the best pedigrees. Soon after, Yilliers
first duke of Buckingham introduced the Helmsley
Turk, and Lord Fairfax added the Morocco Barb.
From this time great horses, notwithstanding they
were still cried up, began visibly to diminish.

Races were now established by Charles I. at
Newmarket and Hyde Park ; and during the civil
war, Cromwell, who had trained himself the best
regiment of horse then perhaps in existence, had
no doubt discovered that mere bone and stature was
no match against speed and bottom. From the time
of the Protectorate, the question was decided ; for,
at the Restoration, Charles II. sent his master of the
horse to the Levant to purchase mares and etallions :
Barbs and Turkish horses were more repeatedly
imported, and, in time, stallions of every breed of
the East were implanted on the British stock. This
was the case more particularly from the period when
Mr. Darley, in the reign of Queen Anne, produced
his celebrated Arabian, and after much opposition,
succeeded in engrafting that race upon the English ;
and then finished the organization of a system,
which, under judicious management, has given
speed, strength, and beauty, not only to the nobler
class of horses, but gradually extended these advan-
tages through every breed of importance in the
kingdom. At present, thorough-bred horses are
more numerous than ever, and Arabians may be
found in every county.

253

.>*E ENGLISH RACE-HORSE.
PLATE IX.

To what blood the British race-horse is chiefly
indebted for his supremacy, is a question that has
been repeatedly agitated. Turk, Barb, Arab, and
Persian, the Spanish jennet, and the best formed
animals of the domestic, originally Flemish black
breed, German and Norman horses, are all directly
or remotely connected with it ; but the meaner and
less generous families are allied only at a more
ancient date, and even the Spanish for many gene-
rations has been discarded, although some horses of
great speed are mentioned to have been of thlc
blood so late as the latter half of the last century, *
and others with a pedigree stained with vulgar;
blood have occasionally acquired considerable repu-
tation ; t yet both the race-horse and the hunter,
when stud-books are consulted, where the pedigrees
are recorded, clearly descend from Turkish and Barb
parentage more exclusively in the beginning, and
from the Arab at a subsequent period. Thus, to
the Byerly Turk we owe the Herod blood, whence
Highflyer descended ; to the Godolphin Barb the
Matchem, considered as the stoutest, or what is
termed as the most honest filiation ; to the Darley
Arabian, the sire of Flying Childers, is due the

* Shotten-herring, Conqueror, Butter, and Peacock, accord-
ing to Sonnini, were of Spanish blood,
f Such as Sampson and Bay Malton.

254 THE ENGLISH RACE-HORSE.

Eclipse progeny ; and to the Wellesley, pronounced
to be of Persian origin, the only real advantage
obtained by a foreign cross of late years. * The
names of these progenitors, mixed with those of
many others, sufficiently prove this general truth ;
for among them we may reckon, besides the above,
the Helmsley Turk, Lister Turk, Darcy white Turk,
Hutton's bay Turk ; Morocco Barb, Thoulouse Barb,
Curwen Barb, Torrans Barb, Hutton's grey Barb,
Cole's Barb; the Markham Arabian, Leeds Ara-
bian, Darley Arabian, and a great number of others
less renowned. Of the powers of English racers
we have already seen the effect, when tried against
the best Russian horses ; the same result was shown
in India, where, a few years ago, Recruit, an Eng-
lish racer of moderate reputation, easily beat Pyra-
mus, the best Arabian in Bengal. The Devonshire,
or Flying Childers, we have also named; he ran
over the course at Newmarket (three miles, six
furlongs, and ninety-three yards) in six minutes
and forty seconds, and the Beacon course (four
miles, one furlong, and one hundred and thirty-
eight yards) in seven minutes and thirty seconds.
In 1772, a mile was ran by Firetail in one minute
and four seconds. In October 1741, at the Curragh
meeting, in Ireland, Mr. "Wilde engaged to ride
one hundred and twenty-seven miles in nine hours ;

* "We have little doubt that the Wellesley was a Persian of
the ancient white stock, mixed with the highest blood of Tur-
koman race, and probably with a cross of the Arabian, as the
make of the head evinced.

THE ENGLISH RACE-HORSE. 255

he performed it in six hours and twenty-one mi-
nutes, riding ten horses, and allowing for mounting
and dismounting and a moment for refreshment:
he rode for six hours at the rate of twenty miles an
hour. Mr. Thornton, in 1745, rode from Stilton to
London, back, and again to London, making two
hundred and fifteen miles, in eleven hours, on the
turnpike and uneven ground. Mr. Shafto, in 176*2,
with ten horses, and five of them ridden twice,
accomplished fifty miles and a quarter in one hour
and forty-nine minutes. In 1 763, he won a second
match, which was to provide a person to ride one
hundred miles a day, on any one horse each day,
for twenty-nine days together, and to have any
number of horses, not exceeding twenty-nine : he
accomplished the task on fourteen horses ; and on
one day he rode one hundred and sixty miles, on
account of the tiring of his first horse. Mr. Hull's
(Dribbler, however, afforded the most extraordinary
instance on record of the stoutness as well as speed
of the race-horse, when, in December 1786, he ran
twenty-three miles round the flat at Newmarket in
fiftv-seven minutes and ten seconds.

Prince Piickler Muskau admits the undeniable
superiority of the English horse over the Arab.
He had practical opportunity of judging both, as
racers and as jumpers over lofty fences ; but he
would place high born persons on Arabs alone,* and
leave the English blood-horse to jockeys, wisely

* Turkish bashaws and Persian chiefs being notoriously
high-born.

256 THE ENGLISH RACE-HORSE.

abstaining from the question of chargers in war9
and overlooking the fact, that in England, where
valuable Arabs abound, they are not as such pre-
ferred by riders over the thorough-bred blood-horses
of the land. Now, by the term blood is understood
the qualities produced in a horse by a superiority
of muscular substance, lightness, and compactness
of form, united with a justly proportioned shape ;
or a physical structure of tendon, bone, and lungs,
proper to afford the full effects of the mechanical
means of speed, when set in motion by high iner-
vation. When these conditions of the problem
are fully carried out by a judicious and persevering
course of breeding and education, there will be
beauty of form, and the blood will be adapted to
such purposes, within the compass of the laws of
nature, as were aimed at, provided recourse has
been had from the beginning to select the finest
models for the purpose. Such has been the practice
in England for more than a century, and it is to
strict adherence to these laws the British turf can
show troops of blood-horses unrivalled in the world,
equal in beauty to the noblest Arab, and superior
to them in stature and power : they alone have power
to excite the modern muse in a strain that Pindar
would not have disowned, as we here show, in a frag-
ment describing the Doncaster St. Leger race : —

" Again — the thrilling signal sound —
And off at once, with one long bound,
Into the speed of thought they leap,
Like a proud ship rushing to the deep*

THE ENGLISH RACE-HORSE.

A start ! a start ! they're off, by heaven,
Like a single norse, though twenty-seven
And 'mid the flush of silks we scan
A Yorkshire jacket in the van :

Hurrah, the bold bay mare ?

A hundred yards have glided by

And they settle to the race,
More keen becomes each straining eye,

More terrible the pace.
Unbroken yet, o'er the gravel road,
Like madd'ning waves, the troop has flow'd,

But the speed begins to tel) •
And Yorkshire sees, with eye of fear,
The Southron stealing from the rear,

Aye ! mark his action well I
Behind he is, but what repose !
How steadily and clean he goes !
What latent speed his limbs disclose !
What power in every stride he shows ?
They see, they feel, from man to man,
The shivering thrill of terror ran,
And every soul instinctive knew
It lay between the mighty two.

These now are nothing, time and space
Lie in the rushing of the race ;
As with keen shouts of hope and fear
They watch it in its wild career.

* Who leads ? Who fails ? How goes it now ?'

One shooting spark of life intense,

One throb of refluent suspense,

And a far rainbow-colour'd light

Trembles again upon the sight.

Look to yon turn ! Already there !

Gleams the pink and black of the fiery mare.

258 THE ENGLISH RACE-HORSE.

Now — now — the second horse is pass d,
And the keen rider of the mare,
With haggard looks and feverish care,
Hangs forward on the speechless air,
By steady stillness nursing in
The remnant of her speed to win.
One other bound — one more — 'tis done ;
Right up to her the horse has run,
And head to head, and stride for stride,
Newmarket's hope and Yorkshire's pride,
Like horses harness'd side by side,

Are struggling to the goal.
Ride ! gallant son of Ebor, ride !
For the dear honour of the North,
Stretch every bursting sinew forth,

Put out thy inmost soul, —
And with knee, and thigh, and tighten'd rein,
Lift in the mare by might and main."

DONCASTER ST. LEGER, by Sir Francis Doyle.

In shape, the race-horse, if we except his supe-
rior stature, is very like the noblest Arab; with
similar eyes, ears, and head gracefully set on the
neck, long oblique shoulders, high withers, power-
ful quarters, hocks well placed under their weight,
vigorous arms and flat legs, short from the knee to
the pasterns, these long and elastic ; the tail placed
high, not superabundantly furnished with long hair,
and the inane likewise rather thin and drooping:
the colours of the blood-horse are bay, chestnut,
brown, black, and grey, but never dun, Isabella, or
roan; the black itself being a residue of ancient
foreign alloy, derived either from the old English,

THE BAY STOCK. 259

the Spanish, or Barbary breeds. Such is the blood-
horse racer; and since cultivation is spread over
nearly every part of Britain, hunting is pursued
with increasing speed, and thorough-bred horses are
become necessary for the sports of the field ; * but

The Hunter being required to carry heavy weight,
with varied pace, through deep ground, or across a
broken and stony country, demands stoutness and
stature as high as sixteen hands, with lofty shoul-
ders ; he must be habituated to going higher, leap
fearlessly fences and ditches, be light in hand, and
have sound, hard, comparatively broad feet; he
must possess many qualities which are not of first
necessity in a racer, but belong equally to the war-
horse, — for both are the companions of their masters,
and on their good qualities life, safety, and success
are often dependent. The hunter and the charger
are not, however, in general thorough-bred, and the
same may be said of the coach-horse, but all owe
their beauty, power, and bottom, nearly without
exception, to the quantity of high-bred blood they
have in their pedigree.

The Irish Blood-horse^ chiefly reared in the coun-
ties of Meath and Roscommon, is large, but con-
sidered as inferior in beauty ; and the rest are in
general smaller than the English. The race, though
rather ragged and angular, possesses immense power,
fire, and courage ; and there have been some, such

* Steeple hunting, that sport alike reckless of the life of man
and horse, is now perhaps the main cause of breeding steeds of
first-rate powers, as well as first-rate speed.

260 THE BAY STOCK.

as Harkaway and others, that evinced first-rate
speed. Irish horses exceed the English in leaping,
not by stepping over lower obstacles or springing
with a flight clear above a fence or lofty hedge, but
by jumping gracefully, like deer, upon and then
down a stone-wall or a bank, often considerably
higher than their heads.

The Queen's Bays, and the British light cavalry
in general, are mounted on half-bred horses of the
bay stock; and excepting in consequence of the
mode of treatment at home, which renders them
delicate in the vicissitudes of a campaign, they form
the best chargers in the world. From half to three-
quarters bred are also selected roadsters or the road-
horse, the most difficult to meet with of any, and
the hackney, which is a hunter on a reduced scale,
or like our present Hussar horses.

On the continent of Europe the introduction of
high-bred horses from an Arabian stock is now also
the practice. France and Belgium imitate the Eng-
lish system, with some exceptions, as a fashion : in
Wurtemburg and Prussia it is a government affair,
steadily pursued ; but none have yet produced first-
rate horses for the turf, or visibly ameliorated the
native races. In Russia, however, where Toorko-
man, Persian, Arab, Abassian, and Circassian horses
were easily procured, the progress of improvement
is more manifest, and even the Kirguise nomad
tribes now possess horses of great powers and speed,
no doubt the produce of a similar parentage as with
us, introduced from the south. If reliance can be

THE BAY STOCK. 261

placed on newspaper report, we shall find the
achievement of the horses at the races of Ouralisk,
such as the fleetest and stoutest of English thorough-
bred steeds will scarcely equal; for it is therein
stated, that on the 29th September, 1838, a contest
of speed took place between the Oural Cossacks
and the Kirguise Kaisaks, over a course of eighteen
versts, said to be equal to thirteen and a half Eng-
lish miles ; the winners, for they were twins, on the
course, ran neck and neck the whole distance, ar-
rived at the winning-post in twenty-four minutes,
thirty-five seconds, — and a Kirguise Kaisak black
horse, ridden by the Sultan's son in person, went
over the same distance in nineteen minutes ! * - —
These achievements, we may remark, took place in
the very centre of the principal region where, in
our view, horses were first subdued, and where all
the original stocks appear to have sojourned at one
time or other, in the first ages of our present zoolo-
gical distribution.

Of the old bay stock, we have seen at Munich
the Life Guard Cuirassiers, mounted upon horses of
Normandy selected by the Bavarian government,
and taken in part of the indemnity paid by France
in 1815-16 to the allied armies, and we never ob-
served the royal guards of France so well mounted,

* If we continue the present practice of wearing our noblest
horses before they are fully arrived at maturity, it will be diffi-
cult to prevent the reality of a degeneracy, which many sur-
mise is already commenced.

262 THE WHITE OR GREY STOCK.

nor with their horses in such good order, as these
were in German hands.

In the more northern regions of Asia and Europe,
the bay primeval stirps, including the domestic races
of hoth regions, and extending to the Rhine, are all
more or less intermixed with the black, the grey,
and the dun ; they bear more particularly the form
and characteristics of the last mentioned, and there-
fore we shall revert to these more anomalous races
when we review the smaller unassignable breeds.

THE WHITE OR GREY STOCK
PLATES IV. AND VIII.

is one, as before observed, which resided and still
resides in part on the territory where we have
noted it in the most ancient existing historical
records. We have shown it on the plateau of
Pamere, * on the steppes north of the Euxine, in
ancient Armenia and Cilicia, and may add the
country of the Argyppei, a nation, as the name im-
ports, of riders on white horses, and as they were
feeders on mulberries, may denote Kaubul or mo-
dern Abassia, where there are still numerous herds
and several high-bred studs of white and dappled
grey horses, forming the majority of those men-

* Touching the western border of the Kalkas, where the
villous race is abundant. It is remarkable that the white horse
of Vishnou should bear the name of Kalki.

^pLIBR^

f\«f 0' TK£

UNIVERSITY

THE WHITE OR GREY STOCK. 263

tioned among the Persian bays of Circassia. The
dapplings, of a purer white than the general colour,
seem to be a typical character of the grey stirps,
marking the quarters and the shoulder more parti-
cularly, and in general obliterated by blackish on
the limbs. With age the colour becomes more
white, and the animal's skin is of a light slaty
blue; but there is a tendency to become roseate
in some cases, and oftener to ladre, or with smut-
coloured stains, and in both cases producing albi-
nism, or very pale cream, with the round dapples
scarcely whiter, and then the eyes are often blue,
and the region round them and on the nose flesh-
coloured. The greys, however, are often without
the light spots, and vary in shades to an inter-
mediate neutral, tending to blue ; but usually the
mane and tail are more or less mixed with black.

The grey stock is naturally of a higher stature
than the bay, and possesses, with greater breadth
and more solid limbs, the contour of form which
painters and sculptors more particularly delight in.
It mixed at all times best with the noble bay of
Western Asia, and it may have added to its stature
and bone, when the breeds of Cilicia and Armenia
came down to Egypt. It may be questioned whe-
ther the white and grey races of Northern Africa
and the Date region are descended from a primeval
invasion from Central Asia, or are merely whitish
in consequence of a law which in those burning
climates operates in a similar manner upon rumi-
nants, such as several species of Bomdce and Ante-

264 THE WHITE OR GREY STOCK.

lopidce, whose black hides are protected by white
coats of hair ; yet if this effect were to be solely
ascribed to the climate, it would not account for
the dappled greys which are not uncommon in
Morocco; all, however, are so intimately blended
with the true Arab blood, that we have described
them among the bay stock in our former pages.

"Vyhether from the nature of the food or the pre-
sence of particular kinds of Hippobosca, or Tabanus,
or horse-flies, the grey races in the east of Europe
are subject to boils which produce great irritation.
By a natural instinct, all these animals tear them
open with their teeth ; and it is common, when
they feel their blood heated, to do the same thing,
and produce an effusion ; hence it is usual to find
their shoulders raw and bloody. Even the horses
of different colours, if they belong in part to the
grey stock, have the same propensity. It is most
observed in the Hungarian and in the grey Circas-
sian breeds, upon which the Russians have several
regiments superbly mounted.

The grey stock having at all times excited atten-
tion from its colour, and been regarded as a fit
distinction for divinities and princes, * it is no
wonder that many breeds should have been carried

* The solar gods, Apollo, Odin, Crishna, the Persian mo-
narchs, &c. all had possession of or access to the original
location of the white stock of horses, and are represented to
have used them. They dwelt on the Tanais, or came from
Farther Thrace, from Armenia, or their legends came from
quarters where the white horse was found.

THE WHITE OR GREY STOCK. 265

into distant regions. Thus a dappled grey race
occupied the Pyrenean mountains, being perhaps
the primeval companions of that Ouralian portion
of the Basque tribes, which in their migration west-
ward brought along that worship which it is well
known contained a solar mystery, whereof some
traces may still be found in the romances of the
Graal Cyclus. * But whether the breed of the
Lower Alps, and of the Cam argue, near Aries, form
connecting links, is beyond the reach of satisfactory
investigation, although we find, again ascending
northward, the Ardenne greys, where St. Hubert's
shrine long supplanted the worship of Arduenna, a
type of Ertha, and resembling the Indian Durga,
whose white consecrated animals were in the Pagan
era devoted, and in the Christian long held as pecu-
liarly patronized by the saint. Further on, at the
Saxon altars on the Weser, those white or cream-
coloured steeds, still esteemed, were once sacrificed
to Woden, and at another sent in tribute to the
Danes; and in the isle of Riigen, Pommeranian
greys or white horses were again sacred to another
divinity, probably another Ertha. The distribution,
therefore, of the grey breeds and races seems to
have a connexion with the local worship of ancient
tribes and with their movements westward at the
most early period, and might be further indicated
by other facts of the same nature as those already
cited. It is true that in several cases the stature of

* See " Einleitung uber den Dichtungskreis des Heiligen
Graals," in the Lohengrun of J. Gorres.

266 THE BLACK STOCK.

the local greys, such as the Pyrenean and the Ar-
denne, is low, or reduced to the pony form ; but
still there is in their proportions an indication of a
larger sized animal, which immediately developes
when crossed with another race, or when removed
to a new locality. Thus the splendid breeds of this
stock, which our Norman and Plantagenet princes
formed by means of crossing the Pyrenean and Gas-
con Lyards, both in their continental possessions
and in England, attest that with slight care the race
immediately resumes its full development. Expe-
rience has likewise shown, in all ages, how advan-
tageously it was amalgamated with the bay in the
East and with the black in the West, acquiring all
the elegance of the former and all the colossal bulk
of the latter, with half-bred intermediates ; of one
of these our enormous grey breed of brewers' horses
is a sufficient proof ; of the other the ancient mous-
quctaires gris in France and the Scots greys in
England are likewise examples, without recurring
to the Russian regiments mounted on Circassians.

THE BLACK STOCK.
PLATES V. AND XIV.

is most generally spread over Europe, and was at
one time, it appears, wild, both in the Alps and the
forests of northern Gaul, living in marshy woods
from the Jura to the Seine, and spreading to the
Ardennes, the Yogesian range, the Black Forest at
the sources of the Danube, the Thuringian and the

THE BLACK STOCK. 26?

Hartz, but chiefly in the valleys of the Rhine,
Meuse, and Scheldt. * Many indications, partially
noticed in a former page, tend to conclusions that
this form of the horse, with the mysterious proper-
ties assigned to it, was indigenous in the West ;
but it must be admitted, that sooty races, more
lightly made, extend over the Scandinavian penin-
sula, and are scattered through Eastern Europe, till
they reach Tahtary, where there are black breeds of
great reputation. These may be considered to have
been mounted by some of the invaders of ancient
Egypt, or to have been conveyed to the Nile as
tribute, after the first conquest of Remses in Asia ;
for we find there are black horses in the hieroglyphic
paintings, which may indeed have been of the Don-
gola breed, but that this was itself unquestionably of
Asiatic origin, whether it came across the Red Sea
or by the Nile to where we now find it, resembling
the Karabulo and Katchenski races of Central Asia
in form, and even in their white feet, as we have
before noticed.

Among the present races of Asia, we find the
Bashkirs possess one of a slaty black colour, with
tanned muzzle and inside of the limbs; the hair
does not grow to the length of the white villous
race, but undulates with an indication of curling.
The individuals we saw had large thick heads, full
necks, and heavy shoulders ; the withers were rather

* The whole vegetable mould of the above geographical sur-
face is more than any other supplied with horse-bones a..d
heavy teeth, most applicable to the black stirps.

268 THE BLACK STOCK.

low, the back hollow, the barrel small, the mane
heavy, but the quarters and limbs remarkably firm
and clean. They were clearly of the same race as
the specimen described by Frederick Cuvier under
the denomination of " cheval a poll frize" which
came from the stables of the Emperor of Austria,
having been plundered by the French at the cap-
ture of Vienna. We saw the individual in Baron
Cuvier's possession at the Jardin du Roi, where the
groom said it was a cross between a Bashkir horse
and a French black. None of those that fell under
our notice exceeded in stature a large mule, but
they had much greater breadth at the hips, and
with their short ears and sunken eyes, really looked
like a low caste of French horses, excepting the
legs, pasterns, joints, and hoofs. We attach no
great importance to the character of the hair, having
ourselves possessed a powerful roan with a similar
coat, which had been purchased from a drove of
horses, said to have come from the mountains above
the Magdalena in Columbia : but regarding the co-
lour and structure, if the original type of the stirps
should be sought in High Asia, it is to this race
that we would refer it. *

In the West, that type is unquestionably the
large-boned heavy Flemish or Belgian breed, almost
invariably black, without any mark of white ; with
a large head, clumsy limbs, short pasterns, broad

* Johnstonus de Quadrupedibus seems to have intended a
figure of this stock in his tab. v., under the name of Equus
Ursutus. but it is not described.

THE BLACK STOCK.

hoofs, an excessive thick mane, and the fetlock not
only profusely clothed with long hair, but a fringe
of the same passing up the back of the legs to the
knee-joints. There are studs of a lighter form,
still retaining the characters of the type, but suffi-
ciently elegant to have served formerly, and we
believe again latterly, for occasional remounts in
our heavy cavalry regiments ; the head, however, is
not so well qualified for the saddle as for draught,
and it is from crossing the old English and Norman
blood with Flemish mares that we have obtained
our present splendid

English Draught Horse. This class of horses, if
it was not already imported in the Saxon era, was
certainly introduced by the Flemish associates of
William the Norman, who, in company with their
Earl, obtained a large portion of the landed spoil at
the conquest. Agricultural improvement, intro-
duced from the same province at a subsequent
period, no doubt increased the number of the large
breed in England, so superior to the indigenous
ponies : there are occasional indications of the fact
in the Flemish archives during the Plantagenet
dynasty. At present, in the west of England, the
black breed of horses is far from improved ; but in
the midland counties, the Lincoln and Staffordshire
studs produce those broad-chested bulky animals
so conspicuous in London, but slower even than the
Flemish.

The Clydesdale are of a similar origin, but in
many cases preferable, because they have greater

270 THE BLACK STOCK.

activity and more supple limbs; they are conse-
quently not seldom used in private carriages. —
Northampton, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Cleveland have
all breeds more or less resulting from the black
stock, though their blood is mixed with Norman
and the indigenous older races. Among all these
heavy horses, there are specimens according to their
kind of very great beauty, and stallions may be
found that have been valued at four hundred gui-
neas, or nearly the same price as a first-rate Arabian,
in the English market. *

Exclusive of the bays and greys already men-
tioned, all our heavy cavalry was and still continues
to be mounted on black horses ; but without chang-
ing the colour, they are now of higher blood, and
the Life Guards in particular are from half to three-
fourths of the Arab stock. To the unwieldy old
form, a lighter and more compact kind of charger
has been substituted ; and it is rather a curious cir-
cumstance, that while we have been reducing the
standard of our cavalry horses, abroad, and in parti-
cular in Russia, the government is making efforts to
increase the size of its own. While the late Grand
Duke Constantine ruled in Poland, as we were
informed by one of the chiefs, he raised the stature
of all the Lancer horses.

* M. Huzard, and after him Desmarets, assert that the
great brewers1 horses of London are of the Boulogne race o^
France ; but beyond the mere occasional experiments made by
breeders, no French horses, excepting of Norman blood, has
met with consideration in England for more than a century.

THE BLACK STOCK. 2?1

On the continent, the noblest black breed in
Europe is the Friesland or Dutch, commonly called
Hart-draver, or fast-trotter : they are from fourteen
to sixteen hands high, with good necks and shoul-
ders, full bodies, round prominent haunches, the tail
'attached rather low, and limbs sufficiently fine,
fringed a considerable way up the tendon above the
pasterns with longish hair : they have fire and
temper, but generally want bottom, although we
have formerly seen the Friesland Carabineers, and
even the black Hussars of Eckeren, handsomely
mounted upon them. Indeed, both the larger and
smaller sized horses of this breed extended con-
siderably into the Westphalian territories towards
Holstein, and the Dutch, Hannoverian, and Hessian
cavalry draw their remounts entirely from thence
for the heavy, and from Holstein and Denmark for
the light cavalry. Other studs are chiefly appro-
priated for coach-horses, and are exported to France
and Belgium.

With slight variations in stature and form, the
black stock extends into Germany, through Swabia,
and by Alsatia, into Switzerland ; we find it again
large and bony in Italy, about Bologna, Tuscany,
and in the March of Ancona; here, however, the
breed becomes more modified by alliance with the
ancient Sicilian and the more recent Spanish horses
introduced at Naples. In Lombardy, the Hunga-
rian and Turkish races have likewise influenced the
better class of horses, and the princes of the country
have exerted themselves of late with the same laud-

272 THE BLACK STOCK.

able views, excepting at Naples, where the noble
breeds of ancient times, Saracen, Norman, Hunga-
rian, and Spanish, have gradually sunken almost to
a level with the rest, and furnishing now only a
few handsome carriage-horses.

In France, where for ages horses do not seem to
have been an object of steady national attention,
they are never sufficiently abundant to mount the
regular force respectably; and although there are
real good horses in the kingdom, the provinces in
general are overrun with bidets or ponies, and
double bidets, galloways comparatively worthless :
the efforts of government, the formation of Haras,
and the liberal exertions of enlightened individuals,
seem to have kindled little more than a temporary
fashion for the display of equestrian paraphernalia
and the excitement of imitation races; while the
once vaunted breed of Limousin is all but extinct, *
and the more ancient Navarrese and Guienne steeds
are now without a representative worthy of the
name. Yet, for draught, there are, in Picardv,
horses very like the breed of Flanders, and there
are others of the stock in Brittany and Normandy ;
but that of Auvergne is perhaps the most ill-shaped
of the whole, though in many points resembling
the Francomptois, which is extensively employed
in the land-carriage trade. From these general cen-

* We saw, some years ago, specimens of the restored race ;
they were black, tolerably well-shaped, but not improved by
foreign noble crosses ; their number was still confined within
the royal Haras.

THE BLACK STOCK. 2/3

sures Normandy and the environs of Paris may
claim exemption, for, within a small circle at least,
a real determination to obtain a race of high-bred
horses seems to exist ; and that to some extent they
will be worthy to compete with the efforts made
elsewhere in Europe, is sufficiently evident from the
prominent part taken in the question by the heir to
the throne.

The black stock, reproducing everywhere in Eu-
rope horses of a large stature, extends, with little
intermixture, down the Danube and through Cen-
tral Germany, Silesia, Moravia, and Bohemia, to
the north side of the Balkan in Turkey. The three
great military monarchies mount their heavy cavalry
almost entirely upon breeds of that origin. They
occur again in Asia, for we have already mentioned
the Karabulo race, so highly valued for speed and
bottom among the Toorkomans and the Katschen-
stzis of EasterL Tahtary, remarkable for a white or
grey mane, tail, and feet, while the rest of the body
is shining black. One or other of these, no doubt,
produced the black horse which ran the course at
the Ouralisk races in nineteen minutes. * In the
mixture of the varieties, the black form may be
found in a grey livery, but retains its own when
fused into the bay, or at most becomes dark brown ;
but while the typical indications remain, clear bay,
dun, or mouse colours never occur. In the chestmu

* There is, nevertheless, m Eastern Asia, a prevalent opinion
that black horses come from the West ; from Fu-lany, which
Father Jaubil translates, Europe-

274 THE DUN OR TAN STOCK.

progeny, apparently brought to the south of Europe
by the ancient Burgundians, the black characters
are strongly marked, but this colour is anomalous
wherever found ; it is one that has baffled our re-
searches. It is seen to assume the shape of all the
stirpes, and yet to be so fixed, that foals of a chest-
nut dam by a black sire are most frequently without
the least assimilation to the paternal colour, but
wholly like the mother.

THE DUN OR TAN STOCK
PLATE VI.

is in our view the fourth stirps, and perhaps even
more distinct from the three already mentioned than
the fifth or pied stem ; for, in the form and mark-
ings there occur evident approximations to the Asi-
nine group, never acquiring the lofty stature of the
black or grey, but always lower and proportionably
longer, with more slender limbs, clean joints, and
smaller hoofs. The dun is typical of the generality
of the real wild horses, still extant in Asia, and the
semi-domesticated, both there and in Eastern Europe.
Beside the general form, the smaller square head,
great length of mane, tendency to black limbs, it is
known by the black streak along the spine, some-
times, though very rarely, crossed by a second of a
fainter colour on the shoulders, and often marked by
black streaks on the hocks and upper arms. *

* Beside the animal figured, Plate VI., we have seen but
two others similarly marked with a cross bar ; but my friend

THE DUN OR TAN STOCK. 275

The common chestnut, through all Temperate
Asia and Eastern Europe, when bearing withal the
dappled spots of the grey, in token of a twofold
intermixture, still often shows, in the dorsal line,
the colour of the legs, the general structure, and
form of the mane and tail, his tendency to absorp-
tion into the more indelible type of the dun, whose
stock, subdivided into many races, everywhere recur-
ring, shows the livery under the names of eelback-
dun, tanned, mouse-coloured, light bay, cervino, pelo
de lolo, &c., but always distinctly bearing the spinal
streak down to the tail, even when deeply mixed
with the noblest blood or divergent into the chest-
nut or Alezan livery, where alone stature is deve-
loped, and where, in the solitary instance of the
Burgundian ancient race, that colour clothes forms
belonging to the heavy black and draught horse.

From the mountains of Scotland to the plains of
Eastern Tahtary, from Iceland and Norway to the
sierras of Central Spain, notwithstanding the cease-
less intermixture with breeds of other origin, or the
further decrease of stature from climate or want of
food, these various shades of dun and the dorsal
streak often reappear upon individuals among droves
apparently all bay, or all sooty, without an ostensible
cause, to the exclusion of grey and dappled, which
are always the result of direct intermixture.

In manners and characteristic intelligence, this
type displays peculiarities not found in the larger

and acute observer, N. Gabriel, Esq., informs me that he has
found several in England.

276 THE DUN OR TAN STOCK.

forms of horse, and in part at least they may be
fairly ascribed to a different cerebral organization.
Unlike the other types, the dun alone invariably
husbands its strength and resources, never wasting
them by untimely impetuosity or uncalculating re-
sistance ; ever provident in securing the moment to
bite at food, or drink ; cautious, cunning, capable of
concealing itself, of abstaining from noise, of stoop-
ing and passing under bars or other obstacles with a
crouching gait, which large horses cannot or will
not perform ; these, and many other peculiarities of
their wild educational instinct, are reflected again
upon all the races of the type, however diversified
by mixture, so long as the prevailing feature of their
stature remains, as all antiquity attest, and modern
times daily witness in domesticated ponies, and
above all, in the high intelligence of those which
have been trained for public exhibitions.

Although varying from circumstances, the dun-
coloured stirps is pre-eminently attached to rocky
and woody locations, always in a state of natui\
seeking shelter in cover, or security among rocks-
where either are accessible ; it feeds upon a greatei
variety of plants than the others, and, contrary to
them, residence in the open plains is rather an
accessary condition than one of preference in their
mode of existence.

The dun, as before stated, was exclusively used
by the ancient Median cavalry, and in chariots of
war. It is still the principal stock of the wild races
of Asia, and even of the Ukraine and Poland ; but"-

THE DUN OR TAN STOCK. 277

in a domesticated state, colour is so intermixed, that
all the semi- wild breeds of Russia, Hungary, an<?
Poland have a great proportion of their numberj
bay, particularly since the Arabian conquests ren-
dered this superior stirps more valued and accessible
in the north.

In their anomalous state, we shall now proceed ti
give a few details on the most remarkable of the
smaller stock, wherever they may be found, and
beginning with those of Northern Asia, we find,

In China, exclusive of the pied horse, there is a
race of mountain ponies, known by the name of
Myautze^ which gallop down declivities at an angle
of forty-five degrees, dash through woods and broken
rocky ground without losing their footing, and are
therefore highly prized by the Chinese officers for
service. There is no notice of the colour of their
coats. We find also an ill-shaped sooty pony, with
little spirit, and unfit for severe work; but the
Tahtars possess, beside those already mentioned,
brown, bay, and dun breeds of horses, full fourteen
hands and a half high, with small square heads,
long ewe necks, good manes and tails, and mule
backs ; the barrel is of little girth, but they have
clean and firm limbs, with small feet; and their
sobriety, hardihood, and speed render them very
valuable. Uniform chestnut and white breeds are
scarcer ; these are reported to have the form of more
western horses, with high hips, and in common with
others above mentioned, as well as with the follow-
ing, they have habits of lightness and sobriety.

278 THE DUN OR TAN STOCK.

In Khoten the horses are likewise small but
hardy, mostly geldings, reared by the Kalmuks;
they are from thirteen and a half to fourteen hands
high, and great droves are exported towards the
south, as far as the plains of India.

The Bhooteahs are very beautiful rather shaggy
ponies, not unlike the Siberian, commonly grey,
white, or spotted ; their strength, courage, prudence,
and surety of footing, in the precipitous paths of the
highest mountains, are highly extolled.

Of the PicJcarrow ponies, apparently held in
esteem among the British residents in India, we
have found no description.

The Yahoos, or ponies of Afghaunistan, are the
common travelling animals of the country, and
though mixed with every race of the East, are of
the original wild bay stock.

Among them, as well as with the Hungarian
horses, it was formerly the custom to slit the nos-
trils, or rather, divide the septum, because that
practice was said to facilitate breathing in violent
galloping, and also to prevent the animals neigh-
ing : the custom is not credited in the writings of
several English authors, but although we have
never seen an instance, we have at this moment
before us a finished sketch of an Hungarian horse's
head by the celebrated Zoffani, where the operation
is fully displayed. "We here subjoin a reduced
copy ; see Plate XXXI.

The common Bashkir horse is short, compact,
with a heavy head, broad- hipped, small-eyed, and

THE DUN OR TAN STOCK. 279

nearly allied to the curly-haired black horse before
mentioned : they do not exceed thirteen and a half
hands and are bred wild, requiring all the skill and
daring to subdue the colts, when captured, that is
evinced by the South American Gauchos.

There is no great difference in the horses of th(
Cossacks of the Don, the Oural, and of Siberia, ex-
cept perhaps in size ; but in general they are rather
low, raw-boned, meagre-looking animals, ragged in
the extreme, and apparently unable to perform the
work, bear the privations, and sustain the weight
which they carry ; yet, taken all together, in good
qualities, the Cossack races have resisted fatigue
and all the incidents of war better than any other
cavalry of the Russian empire, as was fully proved
in the campaigns of 1812, 1813, and 1814; and
recently, still more signally, in the terrible march
towards Khiva* We have never known them en-
tering a stable from necessity, but in the severest
weather they are occasionally sheltered from the
blast by the Cossacks raising a bank of snow in a
circle, with a fire in the middle to warm themselves
and their ever-saddled horses behind them. The
Donski appeared to us in general of dark brown
and sooty bay colours; so also, as might be ex-
pected, the common breeds of Russia, descended
from intermixtures of the original stirps, have in
many cases undetermined, or what has been termed
foul liveries.

The fast trotters are a breed in common use for
hackney carriages and winter sleighs : their move-

280 THE DUN OR TAN STOCK.

ment consists in trotting with the fore-legs and
cantering with the hinder, proceeding at this rate
fifteen or sixteen miles an hour. There are some of
them higher bred that will go the pace of twenty
miles, but how long they can keep it up is not quite
satisfactorily ascertained. These animals are rather
long for their height, very well shaped, with a
square head, and mane so exuberantly long, that
their masters knot them up to keep them from
trailing on the ground. *

This long-maned race is extensively spread to-
wards the south into Poland, the Ukraine, and
Podolia, there being, in the Dresden Museum, a
stuffed specimen, of which we made a drawing ; it
had belonged to the last Saxon king of Poland, and
had a mane which measured twenty-four English
feet in length, and the tail thirty feet. A case of
this kind must be taken, we think, as a result of
what may be termed disease, united with extraordi-
nary care in the grooming to foster the excessive pro-
duction.

It is to this stirps that the wild horses of Lithu-
ania and Prussia, already described, unquestionably
belonged ; and those of the great forest of Bialowitz
have still in general the same characteristics of
livery and form. In Plate VI. we have figured one
ridden by a Russian Lancer officer, who stated the
animal to be of Ukraine race of the wild stock ; we
found it chiefly remarkable foi the cross bar on the

* Bay Bitshock was lately noticed at Moscow for speed,
pretending to thirty miles an hour ! We suspect, thirty versts.

THE DUN OR TAN STOCK. 281

shoulders, distinctly marked, its vicious aspect, and
for the close resemblance it bore to the description
of the wild in colour, though in form there was a
greater similarity with the Samogitian horses, being
rather long than high, though extremely vigorous. *
This stirps, therefore, approximates the Hemionus,
Djiggetai, and Yo-to-tze 'in livery and markings.

The Samogitian horses are small, compact, hardy,
rather short-legged; the Polish, somewhat loftier,
have more blood, and are occasionally dappled grey.
But there are dappled bays and dun-coloured, as
well as dark chestnuts among them.

In the Tzeckler mountains of Transylvania, there is
a smaller sized dun horse, nearly in a state of nature,
probably the remains of a wild indigenous race ; but
in the plains a considerable intermixture of Turkish
and Arab blood is found, which spreads likewise
into Hungary.

The Hungarian and Moldavian common race is
small, dry, angular, with large eyes, small mouth,
plane chaffron, open nostrils, no great carcase, slender
neck ; but broad-chested, with firm legs, hard hoofs,
and the tail rather low. This race extends into
Styria, Illyria, and Dalmatia, and is evidently a
mixed descendant of the horses brought by the
mounted tribes which invaded the Roman empire,
partially improved by Turkish blood: we see this

* Researches, subsequently made among the Russian ca-
valry, procured only two other horses marked with the cross
bar ; in both it was less distinct, though the animals appeared
to be of the same race as the above.

282 THE DtJN OR TAN STOCK.

in the great variety of colours the horses possess,
but where dun, chestnut, and bay are predomi-
nant. They are in general bred almost wild, being
caught only for marking or for sale, when the art
and energy required to subdue them is very much
of the same character as that of the Tahtars and
Cossacks in Russia and the Gauchos in South
America.

In the Morea there is a race of unshorn small
horses, driven down to Attica in herds for sale ; they
have small heads and ears, thin jaws and narrow
foreheads, slender arched necks, but with broad
deep chests, slender firm limbs, oblique pasterns,
and longish hoofs, grey and firm. They are exceed-
ingly wild and vicious, running at dogs, and fight-
ing with their teeth and fore-feet ; but it is probable
that with good management they might be made
excellent light-cavalry horses. The bay and chestnut
colours predominate, and it is likely that their origin
remounts to the early ages of Greece.

Sweden and Norway likewise have small breeds
of the ancient stock in GEland about twelve hands
high, handsome, docile, and intelligent, though bred
in the woods. Those of Western Nordland have
the head rather large, the eyes prominent, the ears
small, the neck short and breast broad, the body
rather long, full and well ribbed up, tail and mane
abundant : the arm of this breed is remarkably
powerful, and the fetlocks without long hair. Their
colours are bay and brown to blackish. We saw
the Hussars of Morner, another Swedish Hussar, and

THE DUN OB TAN STOCK. 283

a light-dragoon regiment, all respectably mounted on
this kind of horse.

Finland has a similar race, but still smaller, and
the Norwegian, notwithstanding the opinion of Hor-
rebow, may be safely regarded as the parent stock
of the Iceland ponies, so renowned for enduring the
excessive cold of an Arctic winter without the least
protection of man. These resemble in almost aJ!
respects

The Scottish or rather Shetland ponies, Plate XV..
some of which scarcely exceed in size the stature of
a large dog, and have been actually carried in a gig.
Yet there are among them many handsome shaggy
little animals, with huge manes and abundance of
tail; they are of all colours, but it is not difficult
to perceive the original dun stock as forming the
parent race.

The Galloway, now no longer found in purity,
was of the same character as the Swedish, though
somewhat higher at the shoulder. In colour the
breed was bay, with black extremities, mane, and
tail ; but it has been suffered to disappear, though
the name itself continues to be used for horses above
the standard of ponies. In the north of England it
is used for Welsh and New Forest horses, when
they are about fourteen hands high. Many of these
animals are of mixed breed, as is very perceptible
by the head and body being often out of propor-
tion, bulky for the length of the limbs ; but others,
though shaggy, want not a certain degree of ele-
gance, and are remarkable for speed as well as

284 THE DUN OR TAN STOCK.

bottom. Thus, in 1754, one of these, belonging to
a Mr. Corker, performed, without distress, one hun-
dred miles a day, for three successive days, over
the Newmarket course. Another Galloway, be-
longing to a Mr. Swelan, executed, at Carlisle, the
extraordinary feat of going one thousand miles in a
thousand hours. Among the New Foresters, there
is a breed of blue-greys, with large dark spots.

The Dartmoor and Exmoor are now also much
adulterated, since the moors have been parcelled out
and partly divided by stone-walls. Formerly this
breed of horses bore all the characters of true de-
scendants of the ancient British ; it was, and even
now is, wild, daring, cunning, and intelligent ;
always ascending towards the Tors or rocky preci-
pices for safety, and often escaping by leaping
down high blocks, or jumping over the pursuers
when they were thought to be at bay. It was one
of this race that started from London for Exeter
with the mail, and notwithstanding the repeated
changes and hard driving, accomplished the whole
distance, being one hundred and seventy-two miles,
a quarter of an hour before the coach. Another,
with a heavy rider, similarly outstripped the coach
between Bristol and South Molton, a run of eighty-
six miles.

Of the Ardennes horses, and the Bidets and
double Bidets of Brittany, some notice has been
already taken, and the Asturian and other smaller
horses of Spain were likewise mentioned ; but we.
may add to the foregoing two races, which may be

THE DUN OIv TATi STOCK. 285

claimed by llie Asiatic bay horae, or the wild
Koomrah of Africa, for they have been aw'uiRiiatcd
to both. Tlie first is

The Sardinian Wild Horse, found most abun-
dantly in the territory of Bultei and of the Nurru.
The best are found in the woods of Canai, in the
island of St. Antiochio. According to Cetti, they
resemble the wild horses of Africa described by Lea
Africanus ; they are very small, rugged, and gene •
rally bay, with asses' feet, long tails, and ahor*
manes. " Whoever is inclined, after making an
oblation at the church of the patron saint of the
island, may proceed to hunt them according to hi$
desire ; but the hides alone are worth having, for
by nature the horses are so vicious, that no domesti-
cation is possible; they perish in their desperate
resistance, or tire out the patience of the captor."
They were well known to the ancients. *

In Corsica, the mountain pony is nearly the
same ; but the domestic horse, like that of Sardinia,
is about twelve hands high, with rounded form,
fiat head, and short neck, considerable girth of body,
and small hoofs.

Returning towards Southern Asia, we find in the
East Indies the Tattoo, or native pony, shabby, ill-
made, and neglected for ages; but gradually ac-
quiring more of public attention since the bullock

* These horses are most certainly wild, never having been
reclaimed at any period, not being worth the trouble ; their
unbroken freedom is as unquestionable as that of their com-
panion the Mouflon.

286 THE DUN OR TAN STOCK.

carriages or rutts have begun to be superseded by
the kerraclwe^ a four-wheeled vehicle on springs,
now commonly serving at Calcutta for hackney-
coaches. Tattoos are in general deep-bodied, with
heavy heads, staring eyes, scraggy necks, fine limbs,
cat-hammed, under thirteen hands high, bay or
chestnut; sometimes grey, or even piebald, and
remarkably enduring: they are obstinate, vicious,
prone to fighting, but easily maintained.

Seringapatam and vicinity produces a similar
email breed and but little improved, although dur-
ing the reigns of Hyder Ali and Tippoo considerable
pains were taken to introduce a better standard.

Indo-China, a land of great rivers, high moun-
tain ranges, and endless forests, is not known to
have an indigenous horse. From the Burrampooter
east, and from the tropic south, horses are reduced
to ponies. Already, in Cassay, Ava, and Pegu,
they are seldom above thirteen hands high, but they
are spirited, active, and well-shaped. Further east,
in Lao, Siam, and Southern China, they are still
smaller and of inferior beauty. In Siam and Cochin-
China, although the diminutive ponies of the coun-
try are ridden, there is no military cavalry. In the
Malayan peninsula, the horse is not even yet natu-
ralized. But the breeds of the great islands we are
about to mention appear in a great measure to be
allied to those of Indo-China and Yunan in China
Proper, and are commonly designated by the name
of

THE SARAN KACE.

Of this class we find, first, in Sumatra, the Achin
and Batta breeds, spirited, but small, and better
suited for draught than the saddle. It appears the
natives call them Kuda^ and bring them dcnvn in
numbers for sale, according to Mr. Marsden, who
adds, that in the Batta country they are eaten for
food.

In Java the animal is somewhat larger, more a
horse in form, but less gay, more shapeless, and
more abstemious. Those of the plains are very
distinct from the mountain breeds : the first is
rather coarse, sluggish, and rises to the height of
thirteen hands one inch; the second is small and
hardy : the Kuningam breed of Cheribon is one of
them, and is often very handsome ; both are more
used for drawing than riding, and although four
ponies on the roads of the country will travel at the
rate of twelve or fifteen miles, a pair of English
post-horses will do the work which requires three
relays of the above mentioned four, and costs in
maintenance only one- third. There is an inferior
breed on the islands of Bali and Lombok.

The Tamboro and Bima breeds of Sambawa
enumerate among their studs the Gunong-api, be-
longing to the Bima ; it is reckoned the handsomest
of the Archipelago, and extensively exported. Be-
yond Sambawa there are horses found on Flores
Sandalwood Island and Timor, but no further to

288 THE TANGUM HORSE.

ttie cast, being unknown in the Moluccas and New
Guinea. Next to Java, it is most abundant in
Celebes, where the best of all the Saran race are
said to exist, and where alone it is found in a wild
state. We find horses, again, in Borneo and at the
Philippine Islands.

The different breeds vary in colour according to
their localities; at Achin the ponies are piebald,
but this distinction gradually disappears : the Bat-
tas are mostly mouse-colour : in Java they are bays
and greys ; roan and mouse-coloured are esteemed,
and the worst are black or chestnut: duns, bays,
and greys form the majority of the Bima breed,
and greys and bays almost exclusively constitute
those of Celebes and the Philippines. In Mr. More's
notices of the Indian Archipelago, from which the
above account of the Saran race is almost entirely
extracted, some considerations are affixed in proo!
that the original breeds must have come from the
main land of Asia : our own views, repeatedly re-
ferred to in the foregoing pages, certainly coincide
with his, and show by the marks of the races, from
what quarter it is likely they were first imported.

THE TANGUM, PIEBALD, OR SKEWBALD HORSE.
Equus varius, Nobis.

PLATE VII.

This form of the domesticated horse, which we
have repeatedly pointed out to notice, appears tc
claim a distinct specific existence, in as much as the

THE TANGUM HORSE 289

typical animal is found with its characteristic marks
in a state perfectly wild, and it appears unmixed
with wild horses of other shape or colours. We
have before remarked that it was first observed by
Father Georgi on the northern declivities of the
Himalaya range ; it was again noticed from report
by D'Hobsonville, who describes the wild animal as
below ten hands in height, in the winter dress,
covered with long hair, and marked symmetrically
with spots. In Bell's Travels, the wild asses' skins,
curiously marked with waved white and brown, of
which he saw many in his route near the sources ol
the Obi, skins which have puzzled succeeding natu-
ralists, may indicate this animal. Another account
refers to the wild spotted horses about Nipchou i)
Eastern Tahtary, being the size of asses, but more
compact and handsome. Moorcroft, again, saw the
species on the highest summits of Thibet, in their
shining summer coats, and with their antelope
forms, scouring along in numbers ; and a Monsieur
de Tavernier seems to allude to them in a recent
notice of his travels to the wall of China. The
Kiang of Moorcroft, which he insists is not the
Ghoor Khur, is evidently the same, as well a
Dr. Gerrard's wild horse, mentioned in his observa-
tions on the Skite valley. * u Horses," he says,
" alone undergo the transition from the elevated
pastures; but they lose the woolly covering that

* Asiatic Researches, xviii. pi. 11, 247. We regret not to
have had access to this work : it is probably also the Tangut
Ksching

290 THE TANGUM HORSE.

invests the roots of their long hair." Comparing
tnis animal with the domestic horse, he further re-
marks, " hoth would^appear to have the same origin,
yet the circumstance of their eluding every attempt
to tame them when caught, and their uniform
speckled colour of fawn and white, demonstrate them
to be a distinct species." Our own correspondence
with British officers, stationed in the higher parts
of India, bears testimony to similar conclusion, do-
mestication excepted, for the Kiang no doubt is
amenable to the same laws as the rest of the genus,
and indeed almost every other highly organized
animal. Applicable to the present species, we be-
lieve there is sufficient proof to view the great pro-
portion of pied horses all over China, and even so
far south as the Indian Archipelago ; and we con-
tend, moreover, that to this form should be referred
the steeds of the Centaurs, which we noticed as first
penetrating westward, and were progenitors of the
Thessalian. They are pointedly noticed in the Scrip-
tures,* and again celebrated under the name of Par-
thian, then, as ridden by the Tahtar conquerors of
Saracen Persia ; they were extolled by the writers of
the classic and the middle ages, sung by troubadours,
figured in stained glass in the Indian illuminated
battles of Aurungzebe, and immortalized by the
pencils of Raffaelle, Titian, and Guido, who took
their types of them from the Ardean, or, since
called, Borghese breed ; which, however, has been
latterly neglected, and we understand is now nearly
* Zachariah, i. 8., and other authorities before noticed.

THE TANGUM IIORSB 291

obliterated by newer forms of bay and black co-
lours. *

Although \ve possess a series of drawings of the
pied form of horses derived from Indian, Tahtar,
and European specimens, it is to be regretted that
of the Kiang, in either his winter or summer garb,
no trustworthy figure has reached us; we have
therefore been compelled to offer a specimen of one
of the domesticated breeds, known, it appears, in
India, by the name of Tangum race, which came
from Sikim in Lower Thibet. It appears to be
taller than the " Tanghans" of the hills near Kat-
mandoo. See Plate VII.

There is some variety in the stature and livery of
these horses, the wild in general being the smallest,
and having the greatest number of squarish clouded
spots ; while the domesticated, similarly white about
the limbs and part of the back, are marked by such
large clouds of bay, that two or three spread over
the whole body, head, and neck. In general the
head is included in the bay colour, and where it
comes down over the shoulder and the thigh, that

O '

colour deepens into black ; there is also a proportion
of black and white in the mane and tail, not unfre-
quently a black edging on the ears, and the eyes

* See the anterior part of this work, where the breeds of
antiquity and the wild horses are described. Pierre Vidal,
who attended Richard Co3ur-de-lion, speaks of them in his
Novelle, 1208. Guill. de la Ferte, 1221, stained glass in Notre
Dame de Chartres, has a pied charger. Raffaelle, in his
picture of Attila, frescos of the Vatican ; and the two other
painters in their Auroras.

292 THE TANGUM HORSE.

are liable to be pale bluish or different : the horn
of the hoofs is pale yellowish, with two or three
slender, vertical, black streaks, and the frogs wider ;
on the inner arm the callosities are large, but scarcely
perceptible on the hind legs ; the hide itself is dull
white or greyish, often spotted with a darker colour
or ladre, particularly on the inside of the thighs
and nose. In form the Tangum stock is compact,
rounded, somewhat fleshy, with rather large bone*;
the head thick, though small ; the neck long, rigid,
but little arched, somewhat full ; the mane rather
erect, and tail not superabundant ; short hair run-
ning down the ridge of the dock, and long hair at
the sides, it is set on low; the shoulders are well
placed but thick, the withers rather full, the barrel
round, with flank well ribbed up, the quarter full.
Few rise to fifteen hands in height, and most are
little above twelve or thirteen ; but they stand on
rigid pasterns, have hard hoofs, vigorous sinews, and
move with unflinching security through the most
dangerous mountain precipices : they bear privation
and fatigue with unconquerable spirit, have good
speed and wind, and are very tractable and docile.

Although the Tangum blood mixes freely with
the other stocks, its characteristic distinctions are
sufficiently indelible ; as is proved by the foregoing
description taken in India, being almost entirely
correct when compared with the breeds of Europe ;
although the last mentioned have been separated
from the parent stock for many ages, and have been
liable to unceasing crossings : personally we are
only acquainted with the Prussian, Austrian, and

THE TANGUM HORSE. 293

Borghese, and in these, particularly the Borghese,
we have a remarkable proof of the permanency of
its characters, since, as we have before mentioned,
it was evidently of ancient standing in the time of
Virgil, and nevertheless is not yet extinct.

We have mentioned a cross breed among the
black Kalmucks, one clouded with brown or sooty
black, and with one or more limbs usually dark.

There is another frequent among the Pindarrees,
when it is a cross with the native Tattoos. We
believe these to be the real Ghoonts found in the
vicinity of Kalunga.

There are in Spain horses of this kind, — Pio Ale-
zan, Pio Castanno, and Pio Negro, — and from them
may have sprung the skewbalds of Patagonia ; but
these possibly descend from accidental causes, which
\ve know operate sometimes in a similar manner on
the livery of horses in England and elsewhere, but
always with characters to be distinguished from the
real Tangum stock.

Finally, the skewbald breed of Achin in Sumatra,
no doubt anciently brought across from the Malay
peninsula, has likewise been mentioned.

In Europe the race is now almost exclusively
employed to mount trumpeters and military bands
in Hussar regiments, and from their known aptitude
and docility, as well as striking aspect, they are
cherished for the exhibitions of equestrian perform-
ances in the modern circus. *

* There were, in 1815, some squadrons of Bavarian Hussars
mounted on skewbalds.

294

THE KOOMRAH.

Equus Jiippagrus^ Nobis.
PLATE XVI.

THIS animal we regard as a distinct species of
Equus, exclusively confined to the northern half of
Africa, and, as far as it is yet known, nowhere
abundant; from its somewhat equivocal structure,
shyness, and mountain residence, though known to
the ancients, a certain mystery has continued to
hang around its history. In the writings of Hero-
dotus, an undescribed animal, by him denominated
Barges^ we may suspect to be no other than the
Bourra of Koldagi mentioned by Riippel, * and
that they are the same as Oppian's Hippagrus.
The two last mentioned animals being brown, horn-
less, and maned, characters completely applicable
to the Koomrah, and only partially observable in
cloven-footed ruminants, which are confounded with
this Equine species, both in the notices of the an-
cients and the tales of the moderns.

The Koomrah, in Northern Africa, is held to be
a rare animal, a species of monster-mule between a
mare and a bull, similar to the produce of the same
kind known in Europe by the name of Hippotaurus,
which was believed to be a possible creature down
to the middle of the last century, when the real

* We beg to refer the reader to what is said of tkis species
in the article on wild horses.

THE KOOMRAH. 295

Hinny, which we shall mention when we treat of
mules, was pretended to be that monster. In truth,
the Koomrah and Hinny are sufficiently similar to
serve the purpose of an imposture, or of a wonder
among the vulgar; but the first is a wild animal,
the second a scarce result of domestication. The
name Koomrah may be a Mograbin adaptation of
the Arab Ahmar, Koh-ahmar in Bereber, mountain
horse, to the Negro term Koomri^ one denoting a wild
Equine, the other a colour, white, as applicable to
the snowy ridge south of the Niger named the
Koomri mountains, where the animal is likewise
found.

Among the wonder-loving Arabs and Shelluhs,
the Hippotaurine Koomrah is of course believed to
be not unfrequently met with, not as a wild, but as
a domestic animal ; occasionally a dwarf kind of
Hinny is shown as such, and hence there are greys,
which then answer the descriptions of some travel-
lers and correspond with the meaning of the Negro
word Koomri ; and as we are informed by a friend,
there are others of a black colour, one of which he
saw, when it was on the way to Constantinople, a
present from the sovereign of Morocco to the Grand
Seignor.

Of the wild and real Koomrah we have seen a
living specimen in England, and the skin of ano-
ther; the first came from Barbary, the second died
on board a slave-ship on the passage from the coast
of Guinea to the West Indies in 17^8, the skin,
legs, and head having been carefully preserved by

296 THE KOOMRAH.

the master, who permitted a sketch and notes to be
taken of it at Dominica.

The Koomrah of the mountains is about ten or
ten and a half hands high ; the head broad across
the forehead and deep measured to the jowl, is
small, short, and pointed at the muzzle, making the
profile almost triangular ; instead of a forelock be-
tween the ears, down to the eyes the hair is long
and woolly; the eyes are small, of a light hazel
colour, and the ears large and wide ; the neck thin,
forming an angle with the head, and clad with a
scanty but long black mane; the shoulder rather
vertical and meagre, with withers low, but the croup
high and broad ; the barrel large, thighs cat-ham-
med, and the limbs clean, but asinine, with the
hoofs elongated ; short pasterns, small callosities on
the hind-legs, and the tail clothed with short fur for
several inches before the long black hair begins.
The animal is entirely of a reddish bay colour, with-
out streak or mark on the spine, or any white about
the limbs. We made our sketch at Portsmouth, and
believe it refers to the same animal, which lived for
many years, if we are rightly informed, in a pad-
dock of the late Lord Grenville's. There was in
the British Museum a stuffed specimen exactly
corresponding in colour and size, but with a head
(possibly in consequence of the taxidermist wanting
the real skull) much longer and less in depth. The
other specimen, which came from the mountains
north of Accra in Guinea, was again entirely simi-
lar. We were told that in voice it differed from

THE KOOMRAH. 297

both horse and ass, and in temper, that which died
on board ship, though very wild and shy at first,
was by no means vicious, and fed on sea-biscuifc
with willingness.

It would appear that this species is not gregari-
ous in Africa, but an inhabitant of mountain cover,
and always desirous of the shelter of the woods ; it
comes down to the wells and drinking-springs alone
or in small families, and is there liable to be way-
laid by men, the great felinse, and hyaenas; but
there is no want of courage in its defence, biting
fiercely ; and having a very delicate sense of smell,
danger is avoided by the wariness of its actions and
the readiness of its rapid retreat up the mountains.

298

See page 302.

THE ASININE GROUP.

ALTHOUGH there are no very prominent external
differences, the eye of the most superficial observer
is almost always sufficient to distinguish this se-
condary and less elegant form of Equidae from the
Cahalline species already described. We have al-
ready remarked on the conflicting opinions of natu-
ralists, whether the two forms should be separated
by generic names; and though we adopt the ar-
rangement of Mr. Gray, it is because it is viewed
by us as more advantageous in a natural system of
classification to refer the species of minor groups to
their common centres, than to insist on the necessity

THE ASININE GROUP. 299

of creating genera for every trifling structural varia-
tion that may be detected.

There is an evident tendency in both, not only to
approximations, but even to actual interchange of
some prominent external distinctions. In the wild
horses of Asia, a highly arched forehead and length-
ened ears are often very observable. We have de-
scribed and figured a specimen of the eelback dun
stock, not only marked with the spinal dark streak
and bars on the limbs, but actually with a cross on
the shoulders : again, the first species of the present
group will foe shown to have the head of a high-bred
blood-horse and the cross on the shoulders like the
onager, but totally different in relative proportions
from the Persian wild ass, which is very commonly
destitute of that mark. In a wild state, both groups
are nearly of the same size. If there be more than
one species domesticated in the first, so there are
also in the second ; all, no doubt, can and have been
subdued by man, and it might be suspected that
there has been even an intermixture sufficient be-
tween both, for the sympathetic action of transfer-
ring the marks and the livery of one to the other,
and in some cases perhaps to perpetuate them.
Excepting some slight structural characteristics, the
chief distinctions between the horse and asinine
groups evidently lie in their instinctive aptitudes ;
one being highly irritable and educational, with a
social temperament, the other dull, intractable, soli-
tary, seems to bear the unceasing impression of his
servitude alone. Like a slave, the sensual appetites

300 THE ASININE GROUP.

remain nevertheless in great vigour, and the males
of the asinine group differ particularly from horses
in their mode of fighting with the teeth instead of
the feet ; for, in a wild state, it was observed by the
ancients and confirmed by more recent information,
that they destroy or disable each other, so that
males are comparatively rare. For the same reason,
in domestication, it is held dangerous to allow a
male ass to pasture in the same field where there is
a stallion. *

The ass tribe has long ears, a short standing mane,
and the tail furnished with only a tuft of hair at the
end ; the hoofs form oval impressions, and sustain
short rather rigid pasterns ; the limbs are clean and
firm; the croup narrow, and often more elevated
than the withers ; there are callosities on the ante-
rior legs only, and the hide is more dense and callous
than that of the horse ; yet none of the group can
sustain the same degree of cold, although they ap-
pear more insensible to intense heat, and are found
wild in Africa as far south as the line. The typical
colours of their livery are silvery grey and tawny,
in a wild state never passing into black or complete
white ; they have mostly a dark dorsal streak, less
distinctly seen in the females, and sometimes en-
tirely wanting in both sexes, while bars on the
joints are not uncommon, and a cross line on the

* Aristotle had observed that the more powerful males

attack the weaker " Tandiu ilium persequuntur donee asse-

cati ore inter posteriora crura inserto testieulos ejus evel-
lant."

THE ASININE GROUP. 301

shoulders is occasionally double. It is said of some
in Africa that they never drink ; they are known
to be in their food still more sober than horses, and
more easily satisfied with thistles and other thorny
plants : in their habits they are cleanly, and fond of
basking in the clean heated sand of the desert, where,
though they want not courage, vigilance, and speed,
they afford the common subsistence of the larger car-
nivora; for, in the absence of man, the lion, hyaena,
and lycaon, or marafeen, appear chiefly destined to
maintain the balance ; and where wild Equidae are
found in the South, one or more of these are sure to
be in their vicinity.

In the ancient history of these animals, more
than one species appear to be confounded, and even
at present the differences between them are noi
satisfactorily cleared up, if not altogether overlooked
by travellers. In the earlier languages, zoological
names of animals which have been recently acquired
are commonly borrowed from others already fami-
liarly known, or from some fancied similarity which
after times seldom confirm ; thus the Romans applied
the name of Lucanian bull to the first elephant they
saw, and the South Sea islanders called the first
horse landed on their shores a pig or a great dog:
in Celebes, the horses now feral still bear, among
other native names, that of buffalo. Adjectives, as
names, are slow in acquiring a strictly defined mean-
ing; a carrier may still designate a pigeon or an
errand-man ; and thus the same epithet in Hebrew
was long applicable alike to a horse, an ass, the He-

302 THE ASININE GROUP.

mionus, and perhaps a dromedary ; hence, what has
been translated an ass in Isaiah and Herodotus, or
actually so named in Pliny, Strabo, and Arnobius,
may in some cases, with good reason, be regarded as
applicable only to the Hemionus. Thus, where
asses are made to draw chariots for war and peace
by the Caramanians, and even the Scythians; and
again, in the painted sculptures of Egypt, where
chariots occur drawn by short -eared animals, which
nevertheless have the cross on the shoulders, asinine
tails, and in stature equal the figures of horses, we
must refer them, not to the small thick-headed
Hamar of the desert or Ghoor of Persia, but to the
Onager, or to the Hemionus, which we shall see is
still domesticated in some parts of India.*

It is no doubt to these larger and nobler animals
that respect was paid in the earlier ages as types of
abstract ideas. The Arabs had an asinine divinity
named Yauk, and Tartak, one of the gods of the
Avim, was most likely figured like an Onager;
though it may be suspected that several of these
animal forms were not personifications but attri-
butes or companions of deities, similar to those we
still find figured behind Indian idols. To the voice
of the wild ass repeated allusion is made in the
Scriptures, and that of the prophet crying in the
wilderness, has reference to the impression which
the solitary cry of the tenant of the desert creates
en the mind of human wanderers when traversing
his haunts. It is even doubtful whether the belief
* See wood- cut at the head of this article.

THE ASININE GROUP. 303

of the heathens, that the Jews worhipped an ass's
head, or the blasphemous absurdity of the Or.oel
form holding a book, with the motto, " Deus Chris-
tianorum Menechytes," was not more the delirious
act of hieroglyphical emblematisers of that Gnostic
sect which strove to unite Christianity with Pagan-
ism, rather than the result of absolute malice ; cer-
tain it is, that in the circles of Behemoth, figured
by the Ophites, the last genius, or Eon ? is deno-
minated Onoel and pictured with asinine forms.
Evidently, when Mirvan II., the last Caliph of
the Ommiad line, was distinguished by the title
of Hymar-el-Gezirah, or the wild ass of Mesopo-
tamia, no disrespect was meant to his person ; nor
in the memorable declaration of Jacob, where Issa-
char is compared to a strong ass between two bur-
thens, for it became an emblem and probably an
ensign of his tribe. Similar ideas of respect were
attached to the figures of asses on the shields of
several Roman legions of the third century, repre-
sented in Pancirolus; to the Borak banner of the
first Babylonian Caliphs, and to those borne on the
ensigns of ancient Naples and Yicenza.

It is to be regretted that travellers of talent and
education have paid so little attention to minutiae in
their accounts of the wild species of the asinine
form, and thereby confounded one with the other:
such, among others, is the description of a wild ass
from the Cape of Good Hope, seen by Bishop He-
ber at Barrackpore, in the menagerie of the Gover-
nor-general of India, led about almost choked with

304 THE YO-TO-TZE.

its bridle. " It is extremely strong and bony, of
beautiful form, has a fine eye and good counte-
nance, and though not striped like a zebra, is beau-
tifully clouded with different tints of ash and
mouse-colour."* Is this a mistake as regards* the
native country ? For the description appears to
apply to a real Kiang of Central Asia, and there is
no indigenous unstriped Equine animal in South
Africa ; or if it refers to the Onager or Ahmar of
the northern part, how did it escape so enlightened
an observer that it was of the same species with the
wild ass of Cutch, the Ghoor-Khurs of Persia, and
Djiggetai of the Mongolese?

THE YO-TO-TZE?

Asinus equuleus, Nobis.
PLATE XVII.

WE have hesitated long whether the present animal
should not be placed with horses, for the external
appearance is so intermediate, and even the voice,
as we were informed, so much a compound of neigh-
ing and braying, that it may be most proper to con-
sider its location with this group as only provisional.
The specimen here figured was drawn by ourselves
at the request of the late Sir Joseph Banks, who
obtained from Earl Rivers information that there
was an un described species of diminutive horse
brought from the Chinese frontiers north-east of
* Vol. i. p 39.

THE YO-TO-TZE. 305

Calcutta, and was then to be seen in a livery stable
near Park Lane. "We give, with the sketch, the
notes made at the time.

" The animal was a male, by examining the teeth,
not quite four years old, and was somewhat under
three feet in height at the withers ; the head eleven
inches and a half from the fore-top to the under
part of the nostrils, with a straight profile, very small
mouth, delicate nostrils, and deer-like aspect resem-
bled that of a noble Arab ; excepting that the eyes
displayed less fire and more cunning, and the nos-
trils opened a little lower ; the ears were only four
inches long, with the tips suddenly contracted and
then again slightly dilated ; their insides white, the
upper third black; the neck was ewe-like, with a
coarse abundant mane, longer than in the ass, but
still standing upright. Compared with its general
size, the barrel was full, very closely ribbed up in
the flank, but the withers, shoulder, croup, hams,
and legs were asinine, with short rather vertical
pasterns and round, more than oval soles of the
hoofs ; the tail, not reaching the hocks by six inches,
was scantily supplied with long hair nearly to its
root, resembling that of a rat-tailed horse; there
were warts on the inner arms, but none on the
hind-legs ; all the limbs clean, yet very strong. It
was entirely of a yellowish red clay colour, except-
ing black tips of the ears, the mane, and long
hair on the tail, a well defined line along the back
extending down the middle of the tail, crossed by
a broad bar of the same colour over the shoulders,

306 THE YO-TO-TZE.

three or four cross streaks very distinctly marked
over the knees and hocks, the cannon joints hrown
and the fetlock and pasterns down to the hoofs
black, the hoofs and hide dark, the eyes brown."
The groom informed us that its voice was a kind of
horse neigh ; terminating with a roar like the lower
tones of an ass's braying. There were on the back
two white marks evidently the effects of a saddle,
attempts having no doubt been made to ride it in
India ; where the sons of grandees are very com
monly placed on the backs of ponies, young stags,
hinds, little oxen, and even sheep. There was an
appearance of considerable docility in its manners,
which induced the groom to throw his leg across its
back and canter up the stable yard ; the man was
certainly much heavier than the beast he rode, but
it took him along to the end, and then with a wild
fling pitched him on a dunghill, and came back at
a trot, stopping by us with perfect gentleness. We
were here again told that it came from some part
of Chinese Tahtary.

Notwithstanding the striking difference of the
head, tail, livery, stature, and voice, we doubted
this individual being merely a variety of the Onager
or Djiggetai, until we saw living specimens of these
animals, when there appeared sufficient reason to
regard the Equuleus as distinct and identical with
the Yo-to-tze of China, provided that in that country
not more than one species is included under the
name. Should the wild ass of the Deccan in Cen-
tral India, described by Colonel ISykes as not larger

UNIVERSITY

THE ONAGER. 30?

than a mastiff, be of the same species, the fact would
prove another instance of the uncertainty we are
thrown into by naturalists asssuming that approxi-
mate resemblances are sufficient to warrant the con-
clusion of a community of species : travellers and
sportsmen, amid the many other causes of indif-
ference, are thereby induced to regard the question
as settled, neglect detailed descriptions, and continue
the duration of ignorance.

THE ONAGER, KOULAN, OR WILD ASS.

Asinus onager, Nobis.

PLATE XVIII.

THE concluding remark in the former paragraph is
again verified in the accounts of the Onager and
Hemionus, both of which are confounded by modern
writers, and none of the late travellers who noticed
wild Equida3, have given more than such slight re-
ferences, that whether they indicate species of the
horse or of the asinine group, whether the Koulan
is the Ghoor Khur, the Asinus silvestris^ the Ha-
mar, or the Djiggetai, remains absolutely uncertain.
Mr. Pennant describes from Pallas an animal under
the name of Dshikketai, wild mule, and Equus he-
mionus, and gives the figure of the Petersburgh
Transactions, xix. 394, tab. 7, with a cross bar on
the shoulder, whicli we consider was drawn from the
Koulan. Shaw takes no notice of the Koulan ; yet

308 THE ONAGER.

the Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles makes that
animal identical with the wild ass, but then there
is a species or race of wild asses of Persia without
the cross on the shoulder of the males, and therefore
wanting in the females : thus there would appear to
be no distinction between the two, but that one is
deficient in two of the usual number of teeth in
Equidas, and has a neighing voice, while the other
invariably brays and has the same dentition as the
ass : that the former seeks the plains and the latter
the mountains. Thus the Djiggetai, Hemionus, Mu-
lus Dauricus, Cappadocius, Kitscharah, and D'Jhen-
gli-Kitscharah appears to be that species which is
without a cross on the shoulder, or at least is but
imperfectly marked with one and is provided with
an evanescent spinal streak usually bordered by a
white line ; while the other is the wild ass or Kou-
lan of the Kirguise, Buchanans, Kalmucks, and
Northern Persians, the Ghoor-Khur of Afghaunis-
tan and the banks of the Indus, and partially the
Kuhr or Ghur of Western Persia, where it is con-
founded with the Hamar or Ahmar, Djaar of the
Arabs and Mograbins, and Daja-Ischake of tht
Turks: it is the Baja Mural of the Tahtars, wai-
certainly known to the ancients by the name oJ
Ovaygog, Qnagrus, and was sometimes confoundec
with the Hippagrus or Equiferus. We have there-
fore restored to the species the name of Asinus
onager.

The Koulan is about twelve and a half hands
high at the shoulder and thirteen and a half at the

THE ONAGER. 309

croup; the length from nose to tail exceeds seven
feet; the head is large, the forehead arched, the
nose sloping down to the lips and thick ; the ears
pointed, nearly ten inches long, very erect, and
moveable; the eyes small; the neck slender, fur-
nished with an upright mane, and the tail, like that
of the domestic animal, is two feet and a half long ;
the body is comparatively small in girth, with the
ridge of the back sharp, the thighs cat-hammed,
and the limbs fine, with narrow hoofs, hard on the
edges, and hollow in the sole ; the mane, line along
the spine, cross on the shoulder, and tuft at the end
of the tail dusky and dark brown : the general
colour of the fur is a silvery grey, passing to white
on the belly and limbs ; but the head, neck, shoul-
der, flank, and haunches are pale Isabella or flax-
colour: there are callosities on the inside of the
arms ; the cross bar is sometimes double on the
shoulder, and commonly is wanting in the females,
who are always smaller and more slightly made.

The species inhabits the dry mountainous parts of
Great Tahtary up to the forty-eighth degree of
north latitude, but only in summer returning south-
ward with the change of season, whole herds being
seen in motion as far as the deserts of the Lower
Indus, but spreading chiefly in the eastern provinces
of Persia,* where their venison is highly prized, and

* Migration from Tahtary to India and Persia is scarcely
possible: there are no passes from Thibet across the Hima-
layas; that which the Indus offers, if frequented by these
animals, would long since have led the nations around to way-

310 THE ONAGER.

the chase of them, from the time of Rustum to the
present, has always been held the pastime of heroes
and princes. It was in hunting the Gour or Guhr
that Baharam V. perished, and Olearius still speaks
of a number of them being slain in his presence by
the Shah and his court.

The manners of this species are very similar to
those of the wild horse and Djiggetai, like them
forming herds under the guidance of a leader, and
with similar distrust watching and escaping from
the presence of danger; but the curiosity of the
males is greater, for in their flight they stop and
look round, resuming their speed to stop and look
again ; perhaps, indeed, from want of wind to con-
tinue a protracted pace without interruption. They
are mountain animals, invariably seeking refuge
among precipices, which they ascend with ease,
looking down upon the pursuers when they have
reached the summit and believe in their security.

The Ghoor-Khur of Ladakh, according to Moor-
croft, is white about the nose and under the neck,
the belly, and legs ; the back is light bay, and the
mane dun : they herd in droves, fly at a trot, stop,
look back, and then fly off with wonderful speed
and wildness, being never taken alive. The same

lay them in their passage: over Hindukoh they could not
come ; further west the Jaxartes and Oxus intervene, and the
asinine group are not swimmers: the migration is probably
only a few hundred miles either way, about Tomsk, and simi-
larly on the south of the great chains down the Indus. The
species or races of Africa and Western Asia do not migrate,
excepting in following the herbage.

THE ONAGER. 311

animal is common in Khoten and in the country of
the Kalmucks ; everywhere observed to have the
females numerous in proportion to the males, who
are accused of that species of hostility, already
mentioned, which destroys or greatly reduces their
numbers. This species is noticed in the book of
Job, and described with the same manners it still
retains in Cutch, where Bishop Heber found it the
size of a galloway, beautiful and admirably formed
for fleetness and powder, apparently very fond of
horses, and by no means disliked by them, in which
respect the asses of India differ from all others of
which he had heard : the same fact had been told
him of the wild ass of Rajpootana. " No attempt
has been made to break the wild ass in for riding,
nor did it appear that the natives ever thought of
such." lu another place this learned and excellent
man remarks that the Cutch species has the cross
stripe on the shoulder and differs in colours and
heavier proportions from the wild ass of Kerr Porter,
and suspects that it may not be the ass but the
Onager (Hemionus) or wild mule, " a name which
I have also seen written Angra." These doubts of
the Bishop's are certainly legitimate, as we also
entertain them respecting some of the above men-
tioned Ghoor-Khurs.

The Ahmar or wild ass stock of Northern Africa,
and probably the Djaar of Arabia, the theme of
glowing imagery in the inspired language of the He-
brew prophets, the object of curiosity in the Eoman
shows of wild beasts, whose colts under the name of

312 THE ONAGER.

Lalisiones were extolled as delicious food for the
tables of epicures, appears to be the same species,
slightly differing in colour. * The species is said to
have once been found in the Canary Islands ; it is
mentioned by Leo and Mannol, occurs on the Nile,
above the cataracts, and is abundant in the upland
plains, between the table hills below Gous Regein
and the Bahar-el-Abiad in Atbara.t It is most
likely that which we find figured among the paint-
ings of ancient Egypt in the yoke of a chariot, and
we have already represented ; agreeing in all respects
excepting the ears, which may have been cropped at
the time that its sexual character was likewise
annihilated. We have seen a pair of these animals
brought from Cairo ; they were equal in size to an
ordinary mule, neatly if not elegantly formed, white
in colour, but silvery grey oil the ridge of the back
and nose, with the forehead, nock, and sides of a
beautiful pale ash with a tinge of purple, the mane,
tail, and cruciform streak black.

Both the stocks of Eastern Asia and of Africa
were confounded by the Romans, and generally by
them named Onager : of one or both Varro remarked
that they were easily tamed, and the domestic ass

* Pliny says those of Africa were esteemed the best for the
table :—

" Cum tener est Onager, solaque Lalisio matre
Pascitur : hoc infans, sed breve nomen habet."

MART. xiii. 97.

t See Voyage on the Bahar-el-Abiad by Adolphe Linant,
and Hoskins^s Travels in Ethiop:a.

THE ONAGER. 313

never became wild again: Pliny states that the
domestic breeds were always improved by cross-
ing with wild animals. It is unquestionably from
these also that the fine race of Egypt and Arabia is
derived, for there is here again a suspicion that the
low smaller domestic breeds of Asia are not of the
same origin, but derived from

The Hymar, or Hamar (Plate XIX.), probably
the real Chamor of the Hebrews, and was first
figured by Sir R. Kerr Porter. It is justly re-
marked by Bishop Heber, that this animal differs
from the great wild ass, Ghoor-Khur, or Djiggetai,
being smaller, with proportionably a large ugly head,
no streak or cross on the shoulders, and having a
dirty bay livery ; it appears to be more solitary than
the former. The habits of stopping may be chiefly
applicable to this animal, when pursued on the open
plains of Mesopotamia and the provinces bordering
the two rivers. It is no doubt the animal Xenophon
particularly mentions to have been seen by him, like
the Zebras of the south, in company with ostriches,
when he traversed the same region. Though con-
founded at present, it is probably one of the several
designated in the Scriptures. * From this stock the
small little valued domestic asses of Ispahan, per-

* The Emperor Philip, after his campaigns in Mesopotamia
and Armenia, exhibited only twenty Onagri in the shows of
Rome, which, had the gregarious kind been within his reach,
he would scarcely have deemed sufficient ; for being by birth
an Arabian, he had every inducement to procure them. See
Pomp. Lsetus, 1. i.

314 THE DOMESTIC ASS.

haps even as far as Beloochistan in India, may be
chiefly derived ; though not unmixed, for towards
the east, the cross on the shoulders is most frequently
wanting. Whether the foregoing be of one original
species or of several, certain it is, that both the
African and Persian may be traced in the domesti-
cated species, and that a small insignificant animal,
as compared with the present Arabian ass, is already
found figured among the earlier pictures of ancient
Egypt.*

THE DOMESTIC ASS.f
A sinus domesticus.

IT may be questioned whether both the wild ass
and the Hemionus have not contributed towards
the formation of the domestic breeds. Aristotle
and Pliny assert the advantage of crossing the
tame animal with the wild, and neither seem to
have been aware that there were two species in
their time still wandering free in Syria; indeed,
Sir R. Kerr Porter's wild ass may be a deteriorated
race of Hemionus, and have partly furnished the ru-
fous small breeds, and the African the large bluish.
The domestic ass, if not of this parentage, is then a
mixed breed between the African and Persian,

* At Beni- Hassan.

t Borello, Arabic ; Bourique, French ; Tasandunt of tho
Shelluhs ; Pico in ancient Egypt.

THE DOMESTIC ASS. 315

chiefly derived from the first mentioned, the marks
on the shoulders and the common hluish ashy fur
being taken as indications of the inference. All
the races of the species are most distinguished by
their profound degradation, heavy dull aspect, thick,
slouching, long ears, and stiff walk. They are
patient and laborious, slow and obstinate ; mankind
thinking every where that no care or kindness is
due to them in return for services ; no wonder they
are both slow and vicious. It is a mistake to be-
lieve in their unlimited resignation to indignity;
when offended, they give warning by drawing back
the lips and showing the teeth ; an insult is repelled
by a kick, but a more grievous injury by biting ;
and when roused by danger, asses will fight with
skill and obstinacy. In distress they bray with an
accent of despair; and we have personally wit-
nessed, on an occasion of grievous torment inflicted
upon one by inhuman schoolboys, the animal, after
proclaiming his sufferings, attack and route his
enemies with the energy of a lion. Though the
species is libidinous, it is also sober, and of such
strength, that no domestic animal, in proportion to
its bulk, can carry a greater weight, or continue to
labour longer without sustenance. The ass is em-
phatically the poor man's horse in every country ;
and if care were taken of the breed, and well se-
lected animals imported from Arabia, perhaps from
the province of Oman, or of those of the white breed
of Zobeir near Bussorah, there is no doubt that in
the sandy districts of Northern Australia, a very

316 THE DOMESTIC ASS.

useful and handsome race might be reared, valu-
able to the poorer settler, and instrumental in work-
ing out the civilization of the natives. *

It is singular that the wild ass of Tahtary should
be able to resist a temperature of climate in winter
more severe than that of Norway, where the do-
mestic is with difficulty maintained ; and if they
be the same species, that the African should be dif-
ferent in manners, still more handsome in form, be
the parent of the best domestic breeds, and deterio-
rate gradually towards the east, till it ceases to be
found even domesticated beyond the Bramaputra.
Egypt, Barbary, then Spain, the south of France,
and part of Italy, produce, with the exception of
Arabia, the finest asses ; but in the last mentioned
region there is the Zobeir Albino breed, apparently
as ancient as the times of the kings of Judah, and
still in equal request : it was the vehicle of princes
in antiquity, and even now is reserved for the grave
personages of Islam law and priesthood.

If the Romans were not the importers of the first
asses in Britain, it was most likely effected by the
monks before they adopted the luxuries of feudal
proprietors ; hence they are noticed in the time of
King Ethelred, as quoted by Pennant ; t but they
cannot have been naturalized, since, in the reign of
Queen Elizabeth, if Holinshed may be credited,

* A choice breed of asses, and of Arabian camels, appears
to be an object well worthy the attention of the local govern-
ments of Australia and New Zealand.

T British Zoology, article Ass.

THE DJIGGETAI. 317

there were none in England; now, however, they
are common in every part of the kingdom. Lin-
nasus and Gmelin erroneously believed that the
males alone were decussated, and Aldrovandus is
mistaken when he asserts that the females do not
bray. A more detailed description of this animal
we think superfluous, and therefore proceed to men-
tion the last species of the present group.

THE DJIGGETAI.

A sinus hemionus.*

PLATE XX.

THE Mongolese name of this animal, very variously
spelt by European writers, signifies the eared^ be-
cause, like the wild ass, it is provided with longer
ears than the horse. In size the animal is little in-
ferior to the wild horse, in general shape resembling
a mule, in gracefulness of action a horse, and in the
mixed colours of its livery and difference of fur in
the cold and warm seasons so like the wild Kiang
or spotted horse, that both are confounded in some
descriptions, and in others a similar confusion exists
between it and the wild ass, as already observed in
our notice of the Koulan. If the account we be-
lieve derived from Pallas can be relied on, the
Djiggetai wants two teeth, but we do not find in
what place of either jaw. The head is long, flat in
* Astalis or Hemippus of the ancients.

318 THE DJIGGETAI.

front, narrow, the nostrils placed low down the
muzzle, the neck slender, shoulder rather vertical,
the withers higher than in the ass, the body and
haunches like a mule's, the tail asinine, and the ears
very erect : the fore-top, like in the Equus hippagrm,
forms a tuft of downy hair ; the mane is erect, short,
and dark ; from thence a line of similar colour ex-
tends along the spine to the terminal tuft of the
tail, and it is asserted to have occasionally an eva-
nescent cross streak on the shoulder ; the fur of the
coat, in winter rather long and hoary, is in summer
smooth, with a variety of featherings or whorls in
the direction of the hair ; silvery on the nose, and
light Isabella, varying to bright bay, on the head,
neck, flanks, and thighs, covering more surface in
southern specimens than in those of the north,
where silvery grey and white run along the ridge
of the back and occupy%the belly, passing up the
flank, behind the arm, and under the throat, while
the same colour edges the quarters : the legs are
white, with the usual callosities on the inner arms,
and the hoofs asinine.

The species extends to the north into Southern
Siberia, spreads over the deserts of Gobi, frequents
the salt marshes of Tahtary, is abundant in Thibet,
in the Himalayas, and is not unknown in India,
unless there is again a confusion between this and

o

the A sinus equuleus. From the testimonies of Hero-
dotus, it appears that his Hemionus, which we think
is justly taken to be identical with the Djiggetai,
was found at that time in Syria ; and Theophrastus,

THE DJIGGETAI. 319

in Pliny, likewise assigns Cappadocia as its dwell-
ing : we hear it is still abundant in Turkistan be •
yond the Oxus, and all describe it as prodigiously
fleet and cautious, yet possessed of the same curio-
sity which decoys the wild ass. They live in small
herds, or large families of females and young ani-
mals, headed by a male. They neigh with a deeper
and a louder voice than a horse, and are much
hunted by the Mongoles and Tunguse for their
flesh.

The assertion of Pallas, and the common opinion
concerning their indomitable nature, is founded in
error; such a conclusion is in fact an assumption
that all animals have been created on invariable
conditions of existence, and that all their actions
are simple results of a mechanical instinct, according
with their organic structure and therefore without
the exercise of any degree of intelligence ; for, as
Frederick Cuvier justly observes, to what purpose
would intelligence exist in beings who did not pos-
sess faculties for distinguishing circumstances favour-
able or hurtful to their existence? To a certain
extent such beings do not exist among mammifera3 ;
to find them, we must descend much lower in the
scale of animal life : it is certainly not the case
with the rhinoceros, the tiger, or the hyasna; nor
is it applicable to the Hemionus, for the accounts
of this animal serving in a domesticated state, as
already mentioned in Isaiah and Herodotus, is con-
firmed by the late M. Duvaucel, whose figure, here
reproduced, is of a male individual, which it appears

320 THE HIPPOTIGRINE GROUP.

was one of a breed he saw domesticated and la-
bouring along with asses at Lucknow. * It differs
from the fine specimen in the Zoological Gardens,
in having the nose black and the proportions fuller,
or such as domestication would render them.

Horse.

Dauw.

Zebra,

THE HIPPOTIGRINE GROUP,
OR ZEBRAS.

WE are now arrived at the third form .of Equida?,
one completely separated from all the others by
being geographically confined to South Africa, ex-
tending little beyond the equator. Owing to this
circumstance none of the species were known to the
ancients, excepting, it appears, in one instance,
where Xiphilinus, in his abridgment of Dion Cas-

* Pharnaces, Satrap of Phrygia, brought nine of them to his
government, whereof three were living in the time of Pharna-
basus his son. — Aristotle. — Which shows that they were no
longer wild in Western Asia in the era of Alexander, though
the ostrich still roamed in Mesopotamia. Aristotle seems to
overlook his former assertion, or to confound two species.

THE HIPPOTIGRINE GROUP. 321

sius, lib. Ixvii., relates that Caracalla caused to bfe
exhibited in the circus, an elephant, a rhinoceros,
a tiger, and a hippotigris. This circumstance ap-
pears to us another indication of what we have
shown in the history of Canidae ; we mean a certain
and gradual diffusion of species over parts of the
world where previously they did not exist, for the
Romans, though possessed of less influence in Equa-
torial Africa than the Egyptians during the ages
when Meroe flourished, nevertheless obtained a spe-
cimen of the Zebra, while no such animal appears
painted in any known monument of earlier date in
thft valley of the Nile that has yet been discovered.
The indication of Hippotigris is so apposite, that
almost all travellers have made a similar comparison
on observing any one of this group of animals, and
on this account we have thought it the most befitting
appellation for the group collectively taken. If the
ancients were silent concerning the striped species,
no wonder that the moderns were not better informed
until the Portuguese established themselves on the
coast of Congo and Angola ; here they encountered
the Zebra, which seems to be the Negro mutation of
the Abyssinian Zeuru of Lobo and the Galla Zeora,
or Zecora, according to Ludolphus ; neither, how-
ever, of these indicated species is the Zebra of the
moderns, for the earliest descriptions, such as that
of Pigafetta, applies to a Dauw, or a species with
alternate stripes of black and brown upon a lighter
general surface, which we shall describe more parti-
cularly

322 THE HIPPOTIGKINE GROUP.

There exist several engravings of striped Equidae
in the older writers, Jonston, De Bry, Kolben, &c. :
of these the uppermost in plate v. of Jonston alone
is not drawn from fancy; it represents, like the
others, a Dauw, but clearly from a skin : Kolben's,
though absolutely worthless, is meant for that of the
Cape Zebra. All might have been better known
and figured at that time, since several authors had
noticed the Galla and Congo Dauw ; one had actu-
ally been sent from Cairo to the king of Naples,
and Tillesius, Thievenot, and others assert that they
had seen domesticated individuals.

This group, in general, has the head of inter-
mediate length between the Equine and Asinine ;
the neck naturally fuller, more arched; the mane
vertical, forming a standing crest : there is more
girth, muscle, and compactness than in the fore-
going ; the lower jaw more curved ; the ears wider,
though lanceolated ; the shoulder more oblique, and
the withers more elevated than in asses ; the hoofs
higher, and as in the horse they are round and flat,
in the ass oval and hollow, so in the species of Hip-
potigris they are oval at the toe and square at the
heel, by the spreading of the frog; which causes
the limb to stand more vertically upon the pastern :
the tail is always, but especially in youth, more se-
taceous than in asses, and less than in horses. They
are all partially or entirely marked with symmetri-
cal stripes of black and white, or with fulvous
intermediate passing downwards across the body
and neck : all have the limbs white, with callosities

THE HIPPOTIGRINE GROUP. 323

on the inner surface of the upper arm : they have
sonorous but varied voices ; their dentition is Equine,
but in one species it is said that there is some ano-
maly in the mammaB of the female. They see re-
markably well both by day and by night, surpass
the Equidae of the northern hemisphere in natural
courage, are their equals in speed, and the species
that are least adorned with stripes appear above the
rest, and, next to true horses, formed for the use of
man. They can be all tamed and ridden; their
vicious disposition, though an impediment, being
placable under judicious treatment; and there is
little doubt that, in a few generations of domestica-
tion, most, if not all, might be rendered serviceable,
particularly in South Africa, where they find their
coarse but natural food, and are exempt from the
distempers which are there often so fatal to our
present breeds.

They are gregarious, but do not keep together in
such numbers as the horses and asses of the northern
hemisphere ; nor does it appear that they are under
the guidance of a stallion leader, who exercises au-
thority, and exposes himself in defence of the herd.
Some prefer mountain localities, others the upland
plains, and each species seems to affect the more
exclusive society of some particular ruminants. The
species amount at least to three, with others not
as yet sufficiently examined to be permanently ad-
mitted, but whether distinct or mere varieties the
location of all in juxta-position, with at best the
separation of a river or of a different mountain or

324 THE ZEBRA.

plain, not rigidly maintained, offers a similar pic-
ture of osculating forms as were pointed out in the
earliest distribution of true horses; and if it he a
question yet to he solved, whether most of these
would not under the care of man similarly commix,
and in time produce races more perfect than any
of the wild, still the probabilities seem to be en-
tirely on the affirmative side.

THE ZEBRA.

Hippotigris zebra.

PLATE XXI.

THE name of this animal is properly a result of the
mistake made by the earlier travellers, who, rinding
at the Cape a striped Equine, concluded that it was
of the same species with that already known by the
equatorial term of Zebra. Mr. Burchell first pointed
out the difference between the two, and proposed
the restoration of the original name to the Congo
animal, and to describe that of the Cape under the
appellation of Equips montanus, because the species
is properly an inhabitant of mountain districts.
Naturalists, however, seem to have preferred be-
stowing Mr. Burchell's own name on the species he
had so clearly pointed out, and left the Zebra's
attached to the animal, such as it had been fixed by
Linnsous. This decision may be so far fortunate,
as we think it doubtful whether the Burchellian
Dauw is really the same as the Congo species.

THE ZEBRA. 325

Of all the banded Equidae, the Cape Zebra has
the greatest external resemblance of form to the
Hemionus, though the head is shorter and the neck
fuller. In order to avoid confusion, it may be ne-
cessary to point out the differences between the
South African banded species somewhat more in
detail than was necessary in the description of the
horse and asinine groups.

The Zebra, wilde paard and wilden esel of the
Cape colonists, is about twelve hands high at the
shoulder, and above double in extreme length. In
shape the animal is light, symmetrical, the limbs
slender, and hoof narrow, though rounded forward ;
the head is light, the ears rather long, and much
more open than in the ass ; the neck full, with the
skin under the throat lax ; the tail asinine, about
sixteen inches long, with a tuft of hair at the tip ;
the ground colour of the coat is white, sometimes
slightly tinged with yellow ; and what distinguishes
the species from all others is, that, leaving only the
belly and inside of the thighs and upper arms par-
tially unpainted, it is cross-barred with black over
the head, neck, body, and limbs to the hoofs, having
regular distinct nearly undivided bands in the male,
and in the female similar bands of a less intense, or
rather brownish colour ; the region around the nos-
trils is bay, darkening to black towards the mouth ;
over the head there are numerous equidistant nar-
row streaks running down the chaffron to the orbits,
around them,- and again others forming curves on
the cheeks ; from the ridge of the neck downwards

326 THE ZEBRA.

there are almost always eight or nine bands, exclu-
sive of two passing down the shoulder, opening
below, where several others in the form of chevrons
are interposed till they gradually become rings down
to the hoofs ; on the sides there are six or seven
descending to the edge of the belly, and crossing a
streak from the mane along the spine, dichotomising
above, and those on the flank running four or five
into one as they descend ; on the croup, down to
the tuft of the tail, are short cross bars; on the
thigh there are four very broad cross bands, fol-
lowed by others down the hocks and hind-legs;
from the breast along the belly there is a single
black streak ; the tips of the ears are black, with
four or five smaller streaks beneath them ; and the
mane, erect and bushy, is alternately banded black
and white : to these characters Captain Harris adds
" a bare spot a little above the knee in all four of
the legs." The female has two inguinal mammae.

The species is gregarious in mountainous regions,
from the territory of the Cape eastward to beyond
Mozambique, perhaps as far as the southern moun-
tains of Abyssinia.

Although vicious and fierce, the animal may be
tamed, as was fully proved by the female that was
long kept in the menagerie of Paris, which was ex-
ceedingly gentle, and could be ridden with safety.

327

THE CONGO DAUW, OR ZEBRA OF PIGAFETTA.

Hippotiyris antiquorum, Nobis.
PLATE XXII.

ALTHOUGH the animal we place under this name
may be only a variety of the Cape Dauw, there are
so many instances of pretended varieties becoming
admitted species, that we think it preferable to
separate the two ; the present species, even allowing
for certain individual variations, differs from the
other in being, like the Zebra, white with only a
tinge of yellow : the ears are more open, with two
black bars and white tips ; the mouth and nostrils
black ; and the stripes, extending downwards to the
knees and hocks, and even to the pastern joints, are
fewer than in the Zebra of the Cape, more irregular,
scattered, dichotomous, than in the Cape Dauw,
and disposed in spots, with the slender brown in-
termediate streaks often interrupted ; the tail is
equine and white, frequently tinged with rufous
or black at the end. In stature and form it is the
most elegant of the whole group, and if the female
had four mammae, as is affirmed to be the case in
the Cape Dauw, we think the fact would not have
escaped the notice of Dr. Smith when he secured the
unborn foal, which we think belongs to the pre-
sent species. If this be the case, the Congo Dauw
extends from the Gareep along the west side of

328 THE CONGO DAUW.

Africa to the Zezeere in Nigritia, for the description
of Pigafetta is only applicable in every part to the
animal we have here figured, and comparing it with
the first Zebra, plate v. in Jonston, the identity will
likewise immediately appear.

It is likely to spread also from Congo eastward
to the Galla country, because we learn that there a
species striped black and brown upon a white
ground is likewise denominated Zeora, Zecor<t, and
Zecuru, all mere mutations of the Negro Zebra.

The Abyssinian and Galla chiefs adorn the necks
of their horses with a wreath made of the mane of
these animals, secured near the throat-band of the
bridle ; one of these we have examined, and recog-
nised the three colours, white, brown and black,
which formed the bars. It may be this species, and
not the Cape Zebra, which Mr. Hoskins, from tUe
description of the Arabs, conjectures to exist in the
desert of Ethiopia above the fifth cataract of the
Nile, that is, in about the 18th degree north.

The Congo species abounds particularly in the
province of Bamba, and when first encountered by
Europeans, was so little alarmed at the report ol
fire-arms, that Battel relates his shooting several,
while others stood by without endeavouring to
escape. *

Near the Gareep river they seem to be mixed
with what we consider the Cape Dauw or

* Purchase's Pilgrims, book 6, chap. i. sect. 2, p. 706, folio.
London, 1617.

THE DAUW.

Hippotigns Burclielli.
PLATE XXIII. MARE AND FOAL.

Bontequagga of the Cape colonists. — Peechy of the Bechuant
and Matalibi.

NOTWITHSTANDING that the merit of first noticing
this species is due to the enterprising and scientific
traveller whose name it bears, we doubt his ap-
proving the practice of bestowing proper names on
species in honour of persons, so long as more appro-
priate may be selected, and believe he would him-
self have preferred another, such as H. campestris,
by which it is designated in our own series.

The Dauw, like the former animal, is about
thirteen hands and a half at the shoulder; the
body is round, the legs robust, crest arched, black,
and surmounted by a standing mane, five inches
nigh, banded black and white; the ears smaller
than in the former, less open, with only one black
bar and white tip ; tail tufted to near the root,
or semi-equine, white, and about thirty-six inches
long ; region round the nostrils and mouth blackish ;
head, neck, body, and croup light bay ; below and
limbs white ; numerous black streaks forming ovals
on the face, broader in chevrons of the same on the
side of jaws, and vertical still wider down the neck,

330 THE QUAGGA.

shoulders, body, and obliquely over the croup, they
dichotomise and divide, but not so irregularly, nor
descend so low as in the Congo species ; on the
spine there is a black streak edged with white
where the cross bars end, though in the former they
pass on until they touch the ridge line ; between
the black there are regular brown lines relieving the
pale bay.

According to Captain Harris, the female has an
udder of four mammae ; the hoofs of both species
are black. The foal is marked like the parents, and
differs from the adults only by its juvenile form.
The Dauw inhabits the plains of South Africa north
of the river Gareep in numerous herds, where they
mix and accompany those of the ko-koon or Colo-
llepas gorgon. Notwithstanding what is reported
of the fleetness of these animals, it appears that
they can be overtaken, and are actually speared by
hunters when they are well mounted.

THE QUAGGA OP THE CAPE COLONISTS.

Hippotigris quacha.

PLATE XXIV.

THIS species, equal or superior in size to the former,
is still more robust in structure, with more girth,
wider across the hips, more like a true horse, the
hoofs considerably broader than in the zebra, and
the neck full, the ears rather small, twice barred

THE QUAGG A. 331

with black, the head somewhat heavy, and the
muzzle black ; the head, neck, and body are reddish
brown ; the mane, edges of the dorsal streak, and
the tail, as well as the colour of the under parts
and limbs white, like the dauw; head and neck
banded likewise in the same manner, but on the
shoulder the bars become pale and on the side
gradually indistinct, till they are totally lost on
the croup, and there are no intermediate brown
bands. The name of this species is derived from
its voice, which is a kind of cry somewhat resem-
bling the sounds qua-cha! It is unquestionably
best calculated for domestication, both as regards
strength and docility. The late Mr. Sheriff Parkins
used to drive a pair of them in his phaeton about
London, and we have ourselves been drawn by one
in a gig, the animal showing as much temper and
delicacy of mouth as any domestic horse.

Quaggas are still found within the boundaries of
the Cape of Good Hope, but on the open plains,
south of the Vaal river, they occur in immense
herds, associating with the gnu, Catoblepas gnu. It
is this species that is reputed to be the boldest of
all Equine animals, attacking hyaena and wild dog
without hesitation, and therefore not unfrequently
domesticated by the Dutch boors for the purpose of
protecting their horses at night while both are turned
out to grass.

332

THE ISABELLA QUAGGA.

Hippotifjris isubeilinus.
PLATE XXV.

WE separated this animal from the foregoing, he-
cause with characters most nearly allied to the last,
such as the equine head, ears, body, croup, tail,
and even shoulders, it still differs in size from all,
being scarcely ten hands high, and still more in
the colours and forms of the cross bands upon its
livery.

The specimen is in the British Museum, and ot;r
drawing of it was taken when it had been recently
set up ; it struck us then as representing the zebre*
or Ane isabelle of Le Vaillant, and found afterwards
that Mr. Temminck, on seeing it, made the same
observation.* At that time there was, however, an
opinion that it was the skin of a colt whose dark
streaks were not as yet apparent; but as we now

* Monsieur Le Vaillant was a travelling naturalist in the
employ of Mr. Temminck 's father, who held a high official
situation in the Dutch East Incka Company's government at
home. From the context of what Le Vaillant says about thfci
animal, it is clear that he saw, but did not possess it. Buffon's
figure of the young Quacha is copied from Allemand, of which
we have seen an original drawing with black streaks, and there-
fore is not like the Isabella. For these reasons we cannot assent
to the opinion of Mr. Gray, nor agree with the writer of the
article Horse in the Penny Cyclopaedia, vol. xii. p. 313.

THE ISABELLA QUAGGA. 333

know that even in the foetus the black marks are
vejy distinctly visible, the objection is not valid,
and there are besides other indications which prove
the skin to have belonged to an adult.* We there-
fore shall describe the specimen under the above
name, in order to attract the attention of natu-
ralists, and leave to future information the final
determination of its locality as a species or acci-
dental variety.

The Isabella Quagga is, as before remarked, much
below the stature of the others, and in a stuffed
form proportionably longer ; the specimen is a male,
and, compared with the quagga, has a different
coloured nose, ears, and mane, — all being white;
the general tone of the head, neck, body, and croup
is yellowish buff, with brownish streaks on the face
and cheeks, but more undefined, and not extending
the usual length ; on the neck, shoulder, body, and
croup there is a series of bands more numerous
than in the dauw, some few are branched, but in-
stead of a dark colour, while the specimen was
recent, they were all pure white, and those on the
croup particularly numerous and interwoven; the
belly and limbs are white, but, as if to prove that
these marks were not the result of albinism, the
anterior pasterns and rings above the hoofs of the
posterior feet were sooty black and the hoofs dark.
These marks do not occur in any known species.

* In the whole group there is a greater tendency to lose tho
marks with age than to increase them. When we la«t saw thu
specimen, the original colour was nv.ich changed.

334 THE MULES.

The late Dr. Leach believed the skin to have
come from the Gape, and it appeared that in his
opinion the white markings were owing to nonage
We think it exceedingly probable that Le Vaillani
had a sight of a similar animal and gave the above
notice of it from its diminutive size, and, at a small
distance, the seeming uniformity of its livery.

THE MULES.

As the space we have remaining is insufficient to
enter at full length into the physiological views
which offer themselves in the consideration of
hybrid propagation, we must be content with a
more abstracted notice, and endeavour to present to
the reader some general notions of the progress
made in this department of research since Buffon
wrote his article on the mule, and Frederick Cuvier
published remarks on the same subject in the " Me-
nagerie du Mnsee d'Histoire Naturelle."

Although naturalists establish, upon the myste-
rious action of the reproduction of species and its
accompanying phenomena, some most important
maxims of the zoological science, and in particular
point out the law which asserts the identity of
species where consimilar individuals follow each
ather in succession through a series of generations ;
yet, when they draw conclusions from known ob-
servations in order to generalise them over others,

THE MULES. 335

where all the conditions of the problem are not
proved to be similar, they exceed the proper limits
of inference, as we have already shown in the Natu-
ral History of Dogs, and endeavoured again to point
out in the foregoing pages. The laws affecting
organic matter are modified by the Power that
ordained them, and subjected to a multitude of
exceptions, warning us at every moment to be cau-
tious in the assignment of their bounds. Formerly,
because science would not recognize the evidence of
these modifications, it was endeavoured to escape
from acknowledging the value of truth, by asserting
that bats were birds and cetacea fishes, because they
were not quadrupeds ; and when the objection was
destroyed by adopting as a general term the word
mammalia, many, habituated to received doctrines,
maintained them to be at best on the utmost verge
of possible adaptations of that class of beings ; but
with a more intimate knowledge of American ani-
mals, and still more after the discovery of the
Marsupialia of New Holland, new phenomena in
gestation and reproduction came to light. In the
case of Opossums, they had often been denied or
overlooked, and were held impossibilities, until sys-
tematic research overthrew all doubt and transferred
incredulity to the as yet unsettled questions relating
to the Monotremes, whose wonderful history is con-
spicuous in the Ornithorynchus or water-mole.

Now, all these questions were and are accessible
to direct proof by anatomical investigation; and if
thf-y were so long contested more than examined.

336 THE MUWES

we must not expect assent t& be readily granted
to others not amenable to similar demonstration.
Where we have as yet only a very small stock of
experiments to guide us, where a multiplicity of
distant and minor considerations must be weighed
against each other, conclusions that appeared legiti-
mate become questionable , and though the human
mind often continues to uphold them with more
tenacity than judgment, they are defended with
less and less ardour, and finally are surrendered
like all other unprofitable prejudices. We mig*..;
go on to show how little we are acquainted with
the resources of Nature in the history of insects, in
the laws affecting the life of those low orders of ex-
istence which pass into vegetable and stony forms ;
we might ask what is known of the microscopic and
ephemeral beings which spring into vitality and
perish within the few hours of a solar day, and are
not again reproduced until a space of time is elapsed
indefinite or exceeding three hundred fold the dura-
tion of the appointed limits of animation ; we might
point to surmised animals and their germs reposing
in the depths of earth, slumbering perhaps in a night
of ages, to be called at some future moment into
their day of active being ! Finally, whon we every-
where observe organic remains in evidence of au
infinity of lost animal forms, of destroyed families
and getiera and species that once were quickened
by the irritabilities of life, once fulfilled a design
and accomplished the tasks assigned them, wa
surely, while the plastic power is nndeuiable in aU

THE MULES. 33;

its modifications, may with propriety refrain from
denying the probability of those other flexibilities in
the laws of propagation which we have here advo-
cated, although the evidence as yet remains in some
cases presumptive, and we only descry the workings
of Almighty Beneficence darkly.

With the limited knowledge we as yet possess,
we are not justified assuming as law, without strik-
ing exceptions, that sterility is a necessary result of
the commixture of different species, and fertile off-
spring an unerring proof of their identity. Frederick
Cuvier, notwithstanding an evident disinclination to
depart in opinion from the conclusions of the great
and eloquent Buffon, is obliged to qualify his assent,
and points out himself the disregard of his own con-
clusions and the unsatisfactory state of opinion that
noble writer and his followers are driven to when
they attempt rigorously to uphold them.

" In this science (zoology), as in all those depend-
ing upon observation, the generalisation of facts,"
says F. Cuvier, * u is the surest guide to truth ; but
the inductions to be drawn, in order to escape false
conclusions, must rest upon facts strictly amenable to
comparison. Nothing appears more natural, from
an observation of the phenomena of the succession of
individuals in an ascending or a descending line
being similar to each other, than that they are of
the same species; and this consideration, coupled

* Frederick Cuvier's great work, Lithographed Mammals of
the Menagerie of Paris. Folio, coloured. Articles Zebra and
Mule.

333 THE MULES.

with a certain repugnance which many animals
manifest towards others very similar to themselves,
induced Buffon to draw the above mentioned con-
clusion. But he soon after could not help perceiv-
ing, that we can only pursue our inquiries with
certainty among a few domesticated species, some of
them expatriated, or under various conditions of
restraint, and that with all the others we depend
entirely upon inference." He discovered that there
were species, admitted to be distinct, which never-
theless produced fertile offspring : this was the case
in his later experiments with wolves and dogs, with
goats and sheep, and he was not then aware that
all these names include more than one species, which
there is every reason to believe can mix and pro-
duce fertile descendants, since several are already
known to possess the faculty. It was in endea-
vours to account for these exceptions that Buffon
was driven to arbitrary restrictions and extensions
of his rule ; and had he given due consideration to
the fact, first published by himself, of the different
number of mammae in different dogs, and known
that the vertebrae of the back, the sacrum, and tail
vary exceedingly in hogs, said by those who main-
tain the rigorous maxim before quoted to be of the
same species, he would most unquestionably have
framed his view of the law with more circumspec-
tion.

As a general proposition, we do not mean to dis-
pute that it is still the best and most trustworthy
method for distinguishing species ; only the inferences

THE MULES. 339

demand not to be made more absolute than is
necessary, and should be limited in the application,
to the true phenomena of each case, for these vary
exceedingly upon the slightest discrepancies between
osculating or nearly osculating animals, some hy-
brids being sterile, others reproductive, though with
an apparent decreasing power of fertility, and some
where there is no observable check in progenitive-
ness, or where it is soon obliterated. Such we
conceive to be the true horses here described, the
two species of camel, the goat and sheep, and most
if not all the species of both; we might add the
domestic cats, including the blue or chartreux, ori-
ginally belonging to a distinct feline group; the
Bengal cat described by Pennant, of a second, and
the tortoiseshell cat, to all appearance sprung from a
third group originally indigenous in South America,
and still sufficiently aberrant to produce in the do-
mestic commixture males with the greatest rarity,
though the distinctive character is so strong that the
females alone are competent to preserve it. Frederick
Cuvier rejects the existence of mules where neither
of the parents are domesticated, but we know wild
mammalia under restraint are likewise in the pre-
dicament as well as several species of birds in a
state of liberty, such as Gallinacea and several Meru-
li'dsB and Fringillidas. We question the reserve of
all polygamous ruminants and of some pachyder-
mata ; all those that expel a proportion of the males
from the herd and that can find approximating
epecies. From personal inquiry among those who,

340 THE MULES.

like the ancients, reside in the presence of uncon-
trouled animal nature, we have found that, like
them, though they helieve in heterogeneous inter-
mixtures known to he untrue, they nevertheless
infer them from others which have every appear-
ance of reality; thus, we may instance the well
authenticated fact of th®- American hison, in the
frenzy of defeat and expulsion, forcing his way to
seek companions among domestic cows, whose do-
mesticity in this case is an accident, not a cause :
we may point out likewise, in the rut of Indian
repudiated Axine bucks producing among the un-
speckled Porcine the intermediate well known breed
of spotted hog-deer, an instance where both species
are wild.

" In Natural History," Cuvier remarks, " we
judge from the forces acting at present on the law.f
of nature, and not from those of a different charac-
ter which have ceased to operate, or are no longer
within reach of observation." To render this maxim
wholly admissible, it would be necessary to sub-
stantiate the facts: undoubtedly the period when
animals extended their habitation after primitive
distribution is in a great measure past, excepting
where the intervention of man continues to act ; yet
it is not wholly so, nor is it proved that the earlier
migrations of mammals were entirely without human
intervention. If the feral horse, stretching without
his instrumentality towards Tierra del Fuego and
to California, is not wholly free from objection, the
progress of the Bengal tiger to the reedy shores of

THE MULES. 341

Lake Aral is at least believed to be recent and un-
aided : nor is the influence of man the only remain-
ing agent in the operation of modifications. We
believe it at present perceptible in a species of goat
known as the wild asgagrm, which is occasionally
found in the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Caucasus, and
the mountains of Bootan, in all appearing to be a
prolific hybrid between the domestic goat, of what-
ever origin or country it may be derived, and the
local wild capra of the region, whether it be ibex,
caucasica, or any other. Besides, if there be not
already in South Africa, similarly to what we con-
tend occurred in Asia, one or more modifications
intermediate between the zebra and quagga, totally
independent of the intervention of man, we may at
least point out the probabilities of what might be
effected by a well ordered system of cross breeding
with the same species and their actual osculants,
and what might be the results after repeatedly in-
fusing the blood of one desirable form to modify
and perfect another.

There are as yet so few carefully conducted expe-
riments of this class, and there is so evident an
unwillingness in practical men to encounter new
combinations where certain profit is not immedi-
ately demonstrable, that the immense latent power
of sympathy between the foetus and the mother of
the more highly organised domestic animals is,
among other subjects, well worthy investigation;
since the influence exercised upon what is called
natural education is not only acknowledged, but in

342 THE MULES.

the reproduction of forms, marks, and colours, the
evidence of anterior excitements are demonstrated
in the case of the mare whose first foal having heen
a mule by a stallion quagga, continued after a lapse
of five years to reproduce the markings of that ani-
mal in three successive births, although the parent
of this and the subsequent progeny was a black
Arabian, and of course one of homogeneous species
with herself: these facts, detailed in letters of the
late Earl of Morton, and published in the first part
of the Philosophical Transactions of the year 1821,
have not yet received all the consideration they de-
serve, and they prove that at least some important
forces at present acting on the laws of nature are not
beyond the sphere of observation. We here subjoin
representations of the mare and hey successive off-
spring, in Plates XXYL, XXVIL, and XXIX., *
which represents the quagga mule, and Plate XIV.
the brood mare and her last foal, still marked with
the black stripes on the body ; the mare was seven-
eighths of Arabian blood, and consequently her
progeny by the Arab was nineteen-twentieths tho-
rough-bred ; yet not only these hippotigrine marks
remained, but the manes also were coarse and stand-
ing, though in other respects the young horses were
elegant and spirited animals. One more remark on
this subject must not however be omitted, inasmuch
as it seems to point out the fact of the quaggas

* All the figures produced in these plates are reduced
copies from the paintings, by Agasse, in Surgeon's College,
London.

THE MULES. 343

themselves being of remote hybrid descent ; because
any disturbing action in the regular filiation of their
progeny reproduced indications of a more decided
system of variegated painting on the true horses
and superadded cross bars on the joints, neither of
which occur or are conspicuous in the quagga.

Already, in the time of Buffon, the idea of pro-
ducing mules from the striped species of Equida?
had occurred. Lord Clive, in experiments to effect
this purpose, had found it necessary to deceive a
female zebra by painting a male ass with hippoti-
grine stripes. No such precautions, it appears from
Frederick Cuvier's remarks, were subsequently de-
manded at the Menagerie du Roi at Paris; here
the hybrid result was a powerful slate- coloured
animal with but scanty marks of the zebra dam in
his livery ; as often occurs in the first descent,
when in the second they are much more conspicuous.
In a second instance, we do not know, but the sire
appears to have been zebra and the dam an ass ;
for the structure indicates her form, and the more
conspicuous strias the parental livery. See Plate
XXVIII.

With regard to the quagga mule, Plate XXIX.,
we detect in the figure a more powerful animal, but
its subsequent history is not known to us. Equine
mules, though there are both ancient and modern
attestations to the contrary, may be justly regarded
as unable to continue their race: the Paris zebra
mule likewise evinced an indifference, which, in the
course of a long life and ample food, proved a simU

344 THE MULES.

lar state of organic inability ; but it is in form in cr
cross breeds between positively osculating species,
such as tbe South African, particularly the quagga
and the two or three dauws, all homogeneous in
most respects, that an improved Austral horse may
be attainable, one that would be more durable, more
serviceable, more easily kept, cheaper, and less
liable to disease in the southern hemisphere than
any of the races introduced from the north.

In hybrids, it is true, deterioration may be at
first in some measure expected, but after the second
and third generation, with well selected animals of
unadulterated blood, Nature recovers from the dis-
turbing effects, and assuming characteristics of sta-
bility without loss of a great part of the required
qualities brought in by the mule hybrid, is again
prepared for a further infusion of them by a fresh
cross, until the desired point is obtained, and stature,
form, colour, or marks are produced equal to the
proposed intention in a number of individuals suffi-
ciently large to prevent decrease or decay in the
progenitive powers. These inferences rest upon the
case of the hybrid wolves of Buffon continuing to
breed among themselves, though they were under
circumstances of restraint, neglected, and insuffi-
ciently numerous or aided by recrossings from either
side of their parentage ; causes in themselves suffi-
cient to produce a gradual sterility.

The common mule is the offspring of a male ass
and a mare ; familiar to every reader. This kind
of animal was already abundant in Palestine at the

THE MULES.

time of the first kings of Israel, and is frequently
mentioned in the Scriptures and in Persian history.
In the district of Zobeir, or Old Bussorah, the an-
cient habitation of Orchaenian magi, and not far from
the west bank of the Lower Euphrates, there is still
a race of white asses anciently renowned, as well as
the breed of similarly coloured mules, reared with
attention, and the most beautiful in form that are
known. In antiquity, the sons of kings rode them,
and old princes put them in the traces of their
chariots. In the time of the caliphs of Bagdad,
they sold for eighty or more pieces of gold, according
to Abdulatif. They continued to be bought at high
prices for the use of Moslem chiefs, of heads of the
law, civil and religious.

The common grey mule of Egypt and Baibary is
a handsome, docile, and in general a large animal,
much used by merchants, Jews, and Christian*,
who, until very recently, were denied the privilege
of riding horses. In Auvergne and the south of
France and Spain, partially supplied from beyond
the Pyrenees, the race is in general black, large, and
robust. It is the fashion to shave their skins in
summer, and their tails are often clipped in a suc-
cession of tassels like a bell-rope. So late as the
reign of Louis XIY. the medical men of Paris still
rode mules. In Spain they continue to serve, be-
cause they are sure-footed and cautious, in travers-
ing mountain precipices and stony roads with a
rider or with merchandise upon their backs, and
have an easy pace. In Italy the dun-coloured breed

346 THE HINNY.

of Yolterra is in highest estimation for bulk and
good qualities, and therefore it is eagerly bought up
to draw the carriages of cardinals and Roman
church dignitaries. It is in Italy alone, as before
remarked, that we find a mule in complete panoply
is mounted by a knight in armour. It is observed
of hybrids in general, that males are much more
abundant than females, and the fact is equally true
in the mules between ass and mare, where the males
are in the proportion of two or three to one female :
another observation proves that the offspring always
partake more of the character of the male parent
than of the female ; thus, in the common mule, we
perceive the ears to be long, the head, croup, and
tail asinine; while in the hinny, or progeny of a
stallion and female ass, the head, ears, body, and
tail resemble the same organs in a horse ; but the
mule in bulk and stature takes after the mare, and
the hinny in like manner is low like the she- ass.

THE HINNY.
PLATE XXX.

THIS animal, though rather more docile than the
common mule, is of inferior utility, because less
hardy and somewhat disproportioned in the bulk of
the carcase in comparison with the legs, and there-
fore more easily fatigued. Hinnies are now extremely
rare in Europe, and even so uncommon in Barbary,
that few have seen them, and when they occur are

THE HINNY. 347

a cause of marvel, which the Oriental mode of
thinking is sure to embellish. It was no doubt in
Africa that the story arose, which was long credited
in Europe, and seemed to have influence even upon
Buffon, respecting a monstrous breed of hybrids be-
tween a bull and female ass, or a male ass and cow :
one author asserting that he had himself rode one in
Piedmont, and others that they occurred in the
valleys of the Pyrenees : the first mentioned variety,
it was said, bore the name of Baf or Bof, and the
second that of Bif. In France both were supposed
to be known by the appellation of Jumar, a word
clearly borrowed from one or other of the Arabic
dialects, Ahmar or Hymar, already noticed. In
Barbary, where this story is still believed, and per-
sons assert they have seen individuals of the mon-
ster form, we find, if they are all of the kind such
as a black specimen already mentioned, that it is
simply a hinny ; but the Western Arabs assert that
these animals are wild, and produce in proof of it
the species of horse we have described before under
the name bestowed upon it by them, namely, the
Koomrah; which having low withers, a bulky
body, and the forehead covered with a woolly fur,
has an equivocal appearance, perhaps sufficient to
have raised suspicion of a bovine intermixture so
early as to be the same animal which Herodotus
without a description has denominated Boryes.

In concluding this essay on the Natural History
of Equidae, we beg to assure the reader, without
claiming his implicit assent to the mode of viewing

348 CONCLUSION.

we have fearlessly ventured to submit as the result
of our convictions, that we arrived at them after
researches originally made more amid the wild
scenery of Nature than among books, and that we
found them ever recurring where the maxims of our
present physiology are incompetent to explain the
phenomena which offer themselves ; they do not
claim to be demonstrations, but tentamina to excite
attention, and to account for facts which otherwise
are inexplicable. In the progress of science, in the
accumulation of observation, we daily feel the neces-
sity of abandoning dicta and maxims, which, after
having been long trusted on authority, are gradually
undermined, and finish by being surrendered.

Thus, neither the depth of view, nor the elo-
quence of Buffon, have been able to maintain many
of his conclusions ; they have failed to uphold his
" Tableaux de la Nature," and his u Degenerations
des Animaux" has not fared better. If, in the
leading points we have discussed, we should not
carry with us the consent of scientific men, the
cause may be justly ascribed to our inability more
than to the doctrines here advocated ; and in abstruse
questions, such as those where systematic nomen-
clature and physiology are insufficient, we believe,
in order to come at sound probabilities, that we must
study also the earth's surface, the phenomena of
its revolutions, its geographical history, and, finally,
apply an enlightened philological system to the
whole. Though every way humble and inadequate
to grapple with these desiderata with real strength,

CONCLUSION. 349

such means as we possess have been made available,
not to repeat a thrice told tale, but to offer views
which close investigation into species appears to
sanction, so far at least as those mammalia are con-
cerned which were destined by Almighty Wisdom
to be +}>» *»o?ace and serTar.f of man.

350

SYNOPSIS OF THE EQUIDJE.

INCISORS - cuspidate . — r, or in the females of

?' 0—0 i 6—6 QQ Afl

some species jj— y ; molars - — ^ = 38 or 40 ; mo-
lars furrowed on each side with flat crowns and
vermiform ridges of enamel ; void space between the
cuspidate and molars ; upper lip very moveable ;
eyes large, pupil elongated laterally; ears rather
large, erect, very moveable; feet solidungalar ; tail
setose, or with a tuft at the end ; mammas two, ingui-
nal; stomach simple, membranaceous; intestines and
caecum very large ; colour plain, dappled, or striped.

THE EQUINE FORM.

Equus caballus.

Tail setose up to the root ; flowing mane ; raised
withers ; round solid hoofs ; neighing voice ; mam-
mas two.

Eq. caballus domesticus... The Bay Wild Horse or Tarpan.

The White villous Wild Horse.

... The Black ?

The Eelback Dun decussated.

Eq. varius The Tangum or Kiang.

Eq. hippagrus The Koomrah of Africa.

THE ASININE FORM.

Tail with a tuft at tip ; forehead arched ; nostrils
more forward; withers low; mane rugged, short,
erect; ears long; back carped; hoof, soles oval;
voice braying or dissonant; mammaa two; colour
silvery greys ; back decussated.

Asinus equuleus The Yo-to-tzd.

A. onager The Wild Ass.

A. hamar The Wild Ass of Persia.

A . Jiemwnus The Djiggetai.

THE HIPPOTIGRINE FORM.

Tail asinine or equine ; withers slightly elevated ;
ears long and wide ; mane erect, forming a standing
crest ; hoof, soles anteriorly oval, posteriorly square ;
colours white or clouded with rufous, but all more
or less regularly and symmetrically striped; voice
various ; mammee two or four.

Hippotigris zebra The Zebra.

H. antiquorum The Congo Dauw.

H. Burchelli or campestris The Dauw.

H.quacha The Quagga.

H. isalellinus The Isabella

HYBRIDS.

The Mule.
The Hiimy.
The Quagga Mule.
The Zebra Mule.

352

MEMORANDUM.

SINCE the text was written, among many services
rendered by Mr. Edward Blyth, whose merits as a
naturalist are well known, the author has to thank
him for an interesting notice of horse-teeth, found
at the Big Bone Lick, the well known place where
the remains of Mastodon abound, which proves the
existence of Equidse in North America during a
former Zoology ; and, in that particular, invalidates
the remarks in the text concerning their pristine
absence.

J. OGDEN AND COM PRINTERS, 172, ST. JOHN 3TBEET, B.C.

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