90 POPULAR SCRIPTURE ZOOLOGY.

horses appear on Egyptian monuments more than four
thousand years old; and also on still more ancient sculp-
tures on the banks of the Euphrates. The first men-
tion of the horse occurs during the wise administration of
Joseph in Egypt, who, we are told, gave the famishing in-
habitants bread ‘in exchange for horses,’ and also when
the body of the patriarch Jacob was removed from Egypt
to Canaan for burial, we read that ‘there went up with
him both chariots and horsemen.’ The period when the
horse is thus indicated as a beast both of draught and of
burden, is 1650 years before the birth of Christ, which is
a date anterior to any that profane history affords on the
subject *.”

In the 11th chapter of Joshua, the first mention is made
of horses, unconnected with Egypt, and then it is in
countries to the north of Palestine; it 1s curious that no
mention is made of the animal, during the period when the
Israelites were wandering on the confines of Arabia, which
is considered by some naturalists as its native country,
Camels, asses, oxen, and sheep are all named as existing in
considerable numbers; but even at a much later time, as
recorded in the book of Judges, ch. vi., when the Arabians

* Maunder’s Treasury.