THE EXCELLENCE OF THE ARAB HORSE in 



understand the boundless affection the Arab feels for 

 his horse ? It is only equalled by the services 

 rendered by the latter.' 



General Daumas, while frankly admitting that this 

 letter, of which I have set out part, contains an ad- 

 mixture of legendary anecdote with snatches of 

 natural history, sometimes true, sometimes fabulous, 

 says that there are, nevertheless, lurking within it 

 incontestable truths, and that the poets of Greece 

 were inspired by the same idea that it was the wind 

 which impregnated the mares of Thessaly, the 

 swiftest of ancient times ; and it might be that those 

 mares were introduced into Greece from Syria or 

 Arabia together with the fabulous pedigree assigned 

 to them by the poets of both countries. On this 

 General Daumas says that history is in accord 

 with tradition, and that if so the Arabian horses 

 must have been what they still are on their native 

 soil — the fleetest and best in the world. The 

 French cavalry found that out more than once 

 in their history, as did some other cavalry in 

 Africa. 



The General says that Ishmael is the personifica- 

 tion of the Arab people. The horse had made the 

 Arab King of the Desert, and in return he makes a 

 friend and companion of his horse, and between them 

 there was only one interest. He only desires to add 

 one more word on the portrait of the thoroughbred 

 horse, the pure Arab, by Abd-el-Kader, who takes 



