The Horse of America in His Derivation, History, and DevelopmentWallace, John Hankins
History
The Horse of America in His Derivation, History, and Development
Wallace, John Hankins
Horse breeds -- History; Horses -- Breeding -- United States; Horses -- United States -- History
“Constantius sent ambassadors to those who were formerly called
Sabæans, but are now known as Homeritæ, a tribe descended from
Abraham, by Keturah. As to the territory which they inhabit,
it is called by the Greeks Magna Arabia and Arabia Felix, and
extends to the most distant part of the ocean. Its metropolis
is Saba, the city from which the Queen of Sheba went forth to
see Solomon.... Constantius, accordingly, sent ambassadors to
them to come over to the Christian religion.... Constantius,
wishing to array the embassy with peculiar splendor, put on
board their ships two hundred well-bred horses from Cappadocia,
and sent them, with many other gifts.... The embassy turned
out successfully, for the prince of the nation, by sincere
conviction, came over to the true religion.”
Other facts might be quoted from this epitome, showing that Theopholis
was made a bishop and placed at the head of this embassy and that
he remained in Arabia Felix several years, prosecuting his work
successfully. It might also be quoted to show that the people of the
cities of Yemen (Arabia Felix) were, at that day, well advanced in
civilization and refinement, and that wealth and luxury abounded on
all sides. Their lands, from the sea to the desert, were wonderfully
productive, and their people lived in the cities and on their farms,
but few leading a nomadic life. In later generations this part of the
country, which is in Arabia Felix, has been called Yemen, and I believe
it is universally conceded among the Arab tribes and by writers who have
studied the subject that the best horses come from Yemen.
Taking the administration of Joseph as indicating the time when the first
horses were introduced into Egypt, about B.C. 1720, and the actual date
when Constantius sent the first into Arabia, A.D. 356, we find that Egypt
led Arabia by two thousand and seventy-six years. And yet numbers of men
have written great pretentious books on the horse, in which they tell
us that the Egyptians got their horses from the Arabians; while others
equally pretentious and voluminous tell us the Arabians got their horses
from the Egyptians; and neither class probably ever gave the labor of an
honest hour to settle this question. The one is over two thousand years
out of the way, and still they know just as much about it as the other
knows. They are both equally ignorant and equally dishonest, for they
simply copied, as their own, what somebody had said before them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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