A short history of the horse, and progress of horse knowledge / [Bracy Clark].

  • Clark, Bracy, 1771-1860
Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A short history of the horse, and progress of horse knowledge / [Bracy Clark]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    was the case probably then, than the Horse, whose feet, more nobly formed and constructed, are in reality more sensitive and not so obtuse as those of the Ass. The step of the Ass, also, is more exact and carefully made. Jacob, in departing from Laban, placed his sons and daughters on Camels, and it is curious that an exact enumera- tion of his stock of animals is given with no mention of the Horse among them—200 she goats—20 he goats—200 ewes and 20 rams—30 milch camels with their colts—40 Vine and 10 hulls—90 she asses and 10 foals,—so that in this Land of Canaan there is reason to suppose the Horse was hardly in use at this time. In the latter part of the life of Jacob, however, who lived to be 147 years old, we find the first mention of the Horse in the following manner. That Jacob’s sons, in order to obtain corn, on account of the famine that prevailed in Canaan, “ tooh to the Egyptians Horses, flocks of Herds, and Asses, delivering them to Joseph for the use of PharoahJ Chap. 47, v. 17. And not long after this, from the familiar metaphoric allusion to the Horse by Jacob at the point of death and prophesying the characters of the future twelve tribes of Israel, one might conclude that the Horse had become well known, since he says, “Dan shall he a serpent hy the way, an adder in the path, that hiteth the Horse's heels, so that his rider shall fall backwards.” Chap. 49, v. 17. And Joseph, soon after this, going up from Egypt with the body of his father Jacob for burial in the land of Canaan, “ had with him a large company of chariots and horsemen.” This active and ingenious nation of Egyptians, soon familiar with his use, did not long delay to employ this noble auxiliary to the purposes of war and human destruc- tion. And accordingly some reigns after this, or in about the period of two hundred and fifty years, all the mighty host of Pharoah, with his chariots and horsemen, were, by a signal miracle from heaven, drowned in the Red Sea. This event, according to the best chronologers, happened in the year 3216 of the Julian computation, or 1556 years before the birth of our Saviour. We are now to pass from these simple annals of nature and truth into the wild and extravagant fictions of the Greeks, who dressed in metaphor and quaint conceits all they received from these Egyptians, as though they were jealous of admitting from whence they really received their knowledge, or at any rate chose rather to cloak it in the language of ambiguity and mystery. The Greeks, and after them the Romans, impute to Ericthonius the discovery of the use of the Horse, or at least of his application to the chariot. Primus Ericthonius currus et quatuor ausus Jungere equos, rapidusque rotis insistere victor.— Virg. Georg, lib. 3, v. 133. Pliny also says. Bigas primum junxit Phrygum natio, quadrigas Ericthonius' Lib. 7, cap. 56. It would appear, however, from the researches of a learned Antiquary of Berne in Switzerland (Samuel Schmidt), that this famous Ericthonius was no other than the Horse-breaker of the Egyptians, it being the general expression or phrase in this