HORSE.
Hisan, . . . ARAB. Asp, PEns.
Son ; H'nyet, . . Bunn. Kon, Hest, DAN. Loschad, . . . . RU8.
Paard, . . DUT. Asu ; Hya; Aswa, SANMK.
Cheval, Fn. Caballo, Sr l'ferd ; Gaul, . . GER. Hast, SW.
'Ivrro‘, GR. I Kudri, . . . TAM.
Sus, HEIL i Gummu, . . . TEL.
Chum HIND. Sukk, Tens.
Cavallo, . . IT., PORT. Ccfl, . . . WELS11.
Equus, Caballus, . LAT. Aspa, ZEND.
The king Sesonchosus of Egypt is supposed to have been the tamer of the horse. But, from time immemorial, the horse has been domesticated and subservient to man, and been largely used in war. An ancient eastern prince (Job xxxix. 19-25) describes the horse as a creature which at fear, and is not affrighted ; He saith among the trumpets, Ha! ha And he smelleth the battle afar off, The thunder of the captains and the shouting.' Judging by its varied names, the horse seems to have been very generally diffused over the central parts of the old world, some of the terms being derived from its neigh. Amongst every nation of the old world its use and beauty have made it a favourite. Supernatural powers have even been attributed to it by some nations. It was sometimes considered the most acceptable sacrifice that could be offered to heathen deities ; and we read in 2 Kings xxiii. 11 that Josiah took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun. According to Herodotus, the horse was the most appropriate offering that could be made to the sun, on account of its great swift ness. The Persians dedicated horses to the sun ; and Sextus Pompeius sacrificed to Neptune by throwing horses into the sea.
During the Hindu rule in Hindustan, prior to tho advent of the Mahomedans, the horse was offered in sacrifice by sovereigns claiming para mount power. See Aswa. Medha.
The sacred horses of the Germans were white, and the device of the Saxons was a white horse. Marco Polo tells us that 100,000 white horses were presented to the Great Khan on New Year's day ; and the Tartar chiefs continued at least to the time of Kan-ghi to present a tribute of white horses to the emperor. Native princes in all parts of India continue fond of white horses, and generally have one or more favourites of this colour in their stud. A favourite colour for state occasions is cream-colour. The royal carriage of Britain on state occasions is drawn by six cream coloured horses. The horse represented on Greek and Roman bas-reliefs was a small, compact, and spirited-looking little animal, not larger than what we would call a pony, but he must have been perfectly trained, for neither bridle nor bit nor saddle was used by his rider, who guided him by a small stick, tapping him on either side of the neck as he wished to turn.
Naturalists generally believe that the varieties of all horses have descended from one species, but there are at present numerous varieties, presenting great differences in size, shape of ears, length of inane, proportions of the body, form of the withers and hind quarters, and especially of the head, and the pedigree of a racehorse is generally more to be relied on in judging of its probable success, than its appearance.
The horse can bear both intense heat and intense cold. In Siberia are wild horses in lat. 66° N., and he comes to the highest perfection in Africa and Arabia. Much humidity seems more unfavourable, to the horse than heat or cold ; and this, perhaps, will explain why, to the eastward of the Bay of Bengal, over a humid area of enormous extent, in Burma, Siam, Malayan 'Archipelago, the Loo-Choo Islands, and a large part of China, full sized horses do not occur. In Japan, farther east, they recur. The range of colour in horses is very great. The English racehorse is said never. to be. dappled ; cream-coloured, light and mouse-coloured dims are occasionally dappled. Horses of varied colours, of diverse breeds, and from various parts of the world, have a tendency to become streaked, and racehorses often have the spinal stripes, the stripe being generally darker than the other parts of the body ; they occur across the shoulder and on the legs. Dar win considers the whole horse genus to have had for a progenitor an animal striped like a zebra (but perhaps otherwise very differently con structed), the common parent of our domestic horse, whether or not it be descended from one or more wild stocks of the ass, the hemionus, quagga, and zebra. He says that the spinal stripe in the English racehorse is more common in the foal than in the grown animal. The ass not rarely has distinct transverse bands on its legs, like those on the legs of the zebra. The spinal stripe occurs on horses of all colours, but on the mouse duns and on duns the transverse bands occur on the legs, and sometimes also a faint shoulder stripe. In the Kattyawar breed, a horse without stripes is not considered purely bred. The spine is always striped and the legs barred, and a shoulder stripe is common, and sometimes is double or treble. The ass has almost always a dark stripe or band on the shoulder, which is sometimes even double, but is always variable in length and breadth. The koulan of Pallas has been seen with a double shoulder stripe. The hemionus has no shoulder stripe, but their foals' legs are generally striped.