EGYPTIAN AND ARABIAN IIORSKS. 4()7 



'• A lictrsc w ilh wliiU' on his lips and nioiilli will run faster than the 

 wind. 



•• A hoi'sc whose white face stops on its nose will rear continually 

 and throw llie best of riders. 



" If the up})er lip is Avhite undei'neath near the gums it is a favor- 

 able sign; if it is black it is unfa\()i-able. 



" A white mark on eacli side of the chest, back of the stirrup, indi- 

 cates speed and safety: they are called ' the winiis.' 



" The horse with long white stockings is a dangerous brute. If 

 the white runs higher on the right side than the left, sell him or pre- 

 pare your burial garment. 



"• The horse Avith the chest of a lion, the hind quarters of a Avolf, and 

 the legs of a gazelle, long may he live." 



These maxims show, if any such proof is needed, the great care the 

 Arabs display in k(>eping pure the blood of their royal animal. 



The preceding indicates sufficiently the superiority which the Ara- 

 bian charger has had, and still has, over other races. It is hardly 

 true — as many of our English trained horsemen insist — that the 

 English horse is only the Arabian increased in stature and endowed 

 with other <iualities suited to the varied exigencies of civilization. 

 With its growth in size, the English horse has lost its long wind, its 

 courage, its sol)riety, its endurance, and the suppleness of articula- 

 tion: all of which are characteristic of the Oriental horse. The 

 Arabian horse runs as Avell as the English, and if, as they say in 

 England, the Arabian is perfected in that country, it is only by sacri- 

 ficing all the solid (|ualities of the thoroughbred Arab to an exaggera- 

 lion to a single one — speed — a quality Avhich nature has not seen fit to 

 give him as liberally as to more timid animals. 



The horse, it has been said, is the expression of society; railroads, 

 the automobiles, bicycles, telegraph and telephone, everything nuin 

 has invented to devour space, though they tend to diminish the 

 necessity for the horse, will never cause him to disappear. In spite 

 of all our progress he will always remain an indispensable utility, 

 and, if only for the use of the Army, w-e should endeavor to preserve 

 the thoroughbred Arabian, the " regenerator "' of all other races. 



