HORSES OF ANCIENT ARABIA 185 



ways, and the marvellous poem is saturated with 

 Arabian lore. There is not a single reference in 

 it to Hebrew law or to the sacred writings ; and 

 although it now appears in the Hebrew language, 

 and is the most splendid creation of Hebrew poetry- 

 extant, it is said that it was originally written in 

 Arabic, and was afterwards translated into Hebrew. 

 I speak as I have learned, and am no Hebraist. Job 

 was a descendant of Ishmael, and was not a Jew. 

 He lived some 600 years before Solomon, over 

 2,000 years before Mahomet. He knew the horse, 

 and evidently loved him as much as General Harry 

 Smith of Aliwal or Field- iMarshal Roberts loved 

 him — perhaps even more. Job's description of 

 the horse (xxxix. 19-25) has never been equalled 

 either in prose or poetry, and no description of any- 

 thing that was ever written by the hand of man is 

 more magnificent. 



In these days of non- Bible-reading in schools, I 

 may be excused for giving it. The college boy and 

 the ' Girton girl ' may set it off against the jargon 

 of the racing stable. It will do them no harm. It 

 will not even harm a jockey-boy. I the more readily 

 quote it because a leading man in this State, a good 

 judge of horses, very recently confessed to me that 

 he had never read it. I myself have read it many 

 times, and I have never read it but it has made my 

 blood run hotter : 



' Hast Thou given the horse strength ? hast Thou 

 clothed his neck with thunder ? 



