DETERIORATION IS FROM THE ARAB 93 



I have above once or twice pointed out that 

 Spanish horses had a good deal of Arabian blood 

 in them. All readers of history or travel, or of 

 novels, of the early part of the nineteenth century, 

 have learned this. We have many times in our 

 lives read of the celebrated Spanish jennet. Until 

 very recently, however, I have taken the jennet to 

 mean a Spanish horse of a natural Spanish breed, 

 but it will be seen that the jennet is not really a 

 Spanish horse at all, but an Arabian domiciled in 

 Spain. 



The word is not Spanish ; it is derived from the 

 Arab word Jeneta, a great Berber nation noted for 

 the value of its cavalry. Goldsmith says : ' Next to 

 the Barb travellers generally rank the Spanish 

 Jenette.' In fact, the jennet was a Barb. It was a 

 foundation of fact, and not a dream of fiction, which 

 led Sir Walter Scott, in ' The Talisman,' early in 

 the nineteenth century, to depict Saladin on his 

 Arab, at the end of the twelfth century, riding rings 

 around Kenneth of Scotland's huge charger. That 

 was a preliminary illustration of the folly of huge- 

 ness which Oliver Cromwell realized, and which 

 was recognised at Omdurman, and which has since 

 been brought home to the nation, by the Boers. 

 Before the Boer War many did not believe in the 

 possibility of Saladin's achievement. De Wet has 

 now taught them that it was true by illustrating 

 it with examples. 



In the old romances which used to be the fashion 



