Show The Original Home of the Horse There is no doubt that the original home of the horse is not Europe but Central Asia for since the horse in its natural slate depends upon grass for its nourishment and fleetness for its weapon it could not in the beginning begin-ning have thriven and multiplied in the thick forest grown territory of Europe Much rather should its place of propagation be sought in those steppes where it still roams about in a wild state Here too arose the first nations of riders of which we have historic knowledge the Mongolians and the Turks whose existence even at thIs day is as it were combined with that of the horse From these regions the horae spread in all directions especially into the steppes of aouthern and southeastern Russia and into Thrace until it finally found entrance into the other parts of Europe but not until after the immigration of tbe people This assumption is at leaat strongly favored by the fact that the farther a district of Europe is from those Asiatic steppes i e from the original home of the horae the later does the tamed horse seem to have made ita historic appearance in it The supposition is further confirmed by the faot that horae raising among almost every tribe appears aa an art derived from neighboring tribes in the east or northeast Even in Homer the ox appears exclusively the draught animal in land operations opera-tions at home and in the field while the horse Was used for purposes of war only Ita employment in mm tary operations was determined by swiftness alone That the value of the fihoraa must originally have depended de-pended on ita fleetness can easily he inferred from the name which is repeated re-peated in all the branches of the IndoEuropean language and signifies signi-fies nearly hastening quick The same fact is exemplified by the descriptions of the oldest poets who next to ita courage speak most of its swiftness Popular Science Monthly |