ENCOMIUMS ON THE ARAB TAKEN AT RANDOM 125 



no matter what the nature of the country, nothing 

 comes amiss to them, and there is probably in the 

 world no more sure-footed beast of burden to be 

 found ; that they are docile and spirited and willing 

 to the last extremity. Certainly these are Eastern 

 horses, truly Arabs, though not the very best of 

 Arabs, not being of the pure desert breed. They 

 are often spoken of as Syrian Arabs. 



Mr. Sydney Galvayne, in his article 'War-Horses, 

 Present and Future,' says of Arab ponies that there 

 was not a very large number of these valuable ponies 

 sent from India to Africa, but what were sent made 

 a great name for themselves and fully maintained their 

 reputation for endurance and strength. 



The Rev. E. J. Davis, in his ' Life in Asiatic 

 Turkey,' writes that even hard work and starvation 

 cannot tame his spirited little horse, which, in spite 

 of being in bad condition owing to hard work 

 and insufficient food, has never once stumbled, 

 never been sick, and has borne the longest and 

 most difficult marches with the utmost fire and 

 spirit. 



Mr. A. G. Hulme-Bearman, in his ' Twenty Years 

 in the Near East,' refers again and again to the 

 excellence of the Syrian pony upon which he crossed 

 Lebanon, 8,000 feet, through snow up to the girths, 

 then Anti-Lebanon, 6,000 feet, and after a few days' 

 rest the pony took him back just as readily. A 

 writer on the retreat from Moscow speaks of the 

 Cossack pony (Eastern) as living on what it could 



