THE HORSE. 91

made annual incursions into Palestine, and “their camels
were past numbering,” the horse is still unmentioned, and
even their kings rode on camels. ‘“ And Gideon arose and
slew Zeba and Zalmunna” (kings of Midian), “and took away
the ornaments that were on their camels’ necks,” Judges viii.
In the reign of Saul, too, when the tribes beyond Jordan
made war upon four Arabian tribes, they found 50,000
camels, 250,000 sheep, 2000 asses, and 100,000 slaves’;
but still there is no mention of horses, and indeed, in the
whole of Scripture history they are never named in con-
nection with Arabia. Strabo also describes that country
as destitute of these animals, which accounts for the fact
that Solomon obtained his horses from Egypt, and also for
the prohibition in Deuteronomy xvii., “He shall not mul-
tiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to
Egypt to the end that he shall multiply horses.” “It is not
difficult to discover the reasons of this prohibition, namely,
the danger attending an intercourse with Egypt, to the re-
ligious principles of the people, and also that the possession
of cavalry might pave the way to those foreign conquests,
from which Moses designed to keep them back; Palestine,
being mountainous, was better defended by infantry. David
first violated this command by reserving horses sufficient