INFLUENCE OF SIRE AND DAM RESPECTIVELY 171 



age at which this animal can be rehed on for breeding ; and here, again, 

 example is better than theory. The most remarkable instance of moderate 

 success in adopting tliis plan is in that of The Ugly Buck, whose dam. 

 Monstrosity, was put to Venison when only a two-year-old. The horse, 

 also, was not more than seven, and the dam of Monstrosity bred her in her 

 fourth year. But though Ugly Buck promised well as a two-year-old, he 

 failed in his subsequent career, and his example is not, therefore, to be 

 considered as at all conclusive. Still, his is a most extraordinary instance, 

 and as such it should not be lost sight of. There are many cases in which 

 the first produce of a mare has been her best ; such as, in former times, 

 Mark Anthony, Conductor, Shuttle Pope, Filho da Puta, Sultan, Pericles, 

 Oiseau, Doctor Syntax, Manfred, and Pantaloon. Nevertheless, these may 

 be considered to be exceptions, and a large majority of the brood mares in 

 the Stud-book are credited with their most successful produce subsequently 

 to their first. The rule generally adopted is to wait till the mare is three 

 years old before breeding from her, and then to put her to a horse of at 

 least full maturity — that is to say, seven or eight years old. 



THE INFLUENCE OF THE SIRE AND DAM 

 RESPECTIVELY 



I HAVE ALREADY at page 33 alluded to this question as relating to the 

 breeding of the Arab horse in his native country, and have there shown 

 that the opinions held by Abd-el-Kader in modern days do not coincide 

 with those which have long been supposed to be general in Arabia. In the 

 passage which I have there quoted, this celebrated chief attempts to define 

 the exact part which each parent takes in producing the foal, but he goes 

 still farther in subsequent answers to the questions asked by General 

 Daumas, in relation to the value put by the Arabs on their stallions and 

 mares respectively. To these Abd-el-Kader replies as follows : "It is true 

 that Arabs prefer mares to horses, but only for the following reasons : the 

 first is that they look at the profit which may arise from a mare as very 

 considerable. Some Arabs have realized as much as 20,000 dollars from 

 the produce of one mare. They have a proverb that ' the fountain-head of 

 riches is a mare that produces a mare.' This is corroborated by the Prophet 

 Mahomet, who says, ' Let mares be preferred, their bellies are a treasure, 

 their backs the seat of honour.' ' The greatest blessing is an intelligent 

 wife or a mare that produces plenty of foals.' These words are thus ex- 

 plained by commentators. Their bellies are a treasure because the mare by 

 her produce increases the riches of her master ; and their backs are the 

 seat of honour because the pace of a mare is easier than that of a horse ; 

 and there be those that say it is sufficiently so as in time to render a 

 horseman effeminate. The second reason is that a mare does not neigh in 

 war, that she bears hunger, thirst, and heat better than a horse, and that 

 therefore she is more useful to people whose riches consist in camels and 

 sheep. Now all the world knows that our camels and sheep thrive only in 

 the desert, where the soil is so arid that Arabs drinking chiefly milk find 

 water seldom oftener than every eight or ten days, in consequence of the 

 distances between the pasturages, which are only to be found in the neigh- 



