Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Mass.) 1828-1830, 1830-01-26

latner 10 Egypt. 1t would seem, however,
that horses had been but lately introduced,
and were not numerous, or not used as
beasts of burden for the whole of the
corn, which was to be conveyed some
hundred miles, and was to afford subsist-
ence for Jacobs large household, was car
ried on asses.
1t appears, then, that about 174O years
before Christ, horses were first used in
Egypt; but they soon afterwards became
so numerous as to form a considerable
proportion of the Egyptian army; and
when the lsraelites returned into Canaan
the horse had been introduced and natu-
rallied there for the Canaanites event
out to fight against Israel with horses and
charlots very many"
The sacred volume, therefore, clears
upa point upon which no other record
throws any light-namely, the period
when the horse first became the servant
of man, at least in one part of the world
and that the most advanced in civilization
and before Greece was peopled. A long
time must have elapsed before man was
able to ascertain the value and peculiar
use of the animals that surrounded him.
He would begin with the more subordi-
nate-those which were most easily caught
and most readily subdued and the bene.
| fits which he derived from their labours
! would induce him to attempt the conquest
of superiour quadrupeds. In accordance
with this, the writings Of Moses shew us
that, after the OK, the sheep, and the goat
man subdued the ass, and then the camel
and, last of all, the horse became his ser.
want and no sooner was he subdued, his
strength and docilty and sagacity appre.
ciated, than the others were comparatively
disregarded, except in Palestine, where
the use of the horse was forbidden by di-
vine authority, and on extensive and bar.
rem deserts, where he could not live. y
From Egypt the use of the horse was
propagated to other and distant lands
and, probably, the horse himself was first
transmitted from Egypt to several coun.
tries. The Greeks affirm, that Neptune
struck the earth with his trident, and a
horse appeared. The truth is, that the
Thessalians, the first and most expert Of
the Grecian horsemen, and likewise the
inhabitants of Argos and of Athens, were
coonists from Egypt.
The Bible likewise decides another
point-that Arabia, by whose breed O
horses those Of other countries have been
so much improved, was not the native
place Of the horse. Six hundred years
after the time just referred to, Arabia hat
no horses. Solomon imported species
gold and silver from Arabia ; but all the
horses for his own cavalry and chariots,
and those with which he supplied the
Phenecian monarchs, he procured from
Egypt
In the 9TH century after Christ, when
Mahomet attacked the Koreish near Nee
ca, he had but two horses in his whole
army and at the close of his murderous
campaign, although he drove off twenty
four thousand camels, and forty thousand
sheep, and carried away twenty-lour thou
sand ounces of silver, not one horse ap-
pears in the list of plumber.
There is curious record of the copl'
merce of different countries at the close Of
the second century. Among the articles
exported from Egypt to Arabia, and par
ticularly as presents TO reigning monarchs.
were horses.
In the 4th century, two hundred Cap
padocian horses were sent by the Roman
emperour, as the most acceptable present
he could offer powerful prince of Ara
bia.
So late as the 18th century, the Arabs
had few horses, and those of little value.
These circumstances sufficiently prove
that, however superiour may be the pres
ent breed, it is comparatively lately that
the horse was naturalized in Arabia.
The horses of Arabia itself, and of the
southeastern parts of Europe, are clearly
*When Sir Gore Ousely travelled through
! Persia, and the different countries OF the
East, he examined, among other rellcks oil
antiquity, the sculptures on the RUNS OF Per
cepolis, and he draws from them curious
and interesting conclusion as to the manner
in which the horse was gradually subdued
There are no figures" says he, mount
ed on horseback, although some travellers
| have mentioned horsemen among those
sculptures. One would think that the sim
Pile act of mounting on horses BAG k would
naturally have preceded the use OF wheel
carriages and their complicated harness
yet no horsemen are found at Persepolls
and we know Homer's horses are represent
ed in chariots, from which the warriors
sometimes descended to combat on foot: but
the poet has not described them as fighting
on horseback. The absence of mounting
figures might authorize an opinion that those
sculptures had been executed before the
| time of Cyrus, whose precepts and example
| first inspired the Persians with love OF
equestrian exercises, of which, before his
time, they were wholly ignorant" vol. IL.
p. 279.
tThe historian gives us the price of the
horse aud the chariot at that time. A horse
brought from Egypt, including, probably,
the expense of the journey, cost one humid
rod nd 4iftv chac elS Of SILVER which. al