INFLUENCE OF SIRE AND DAM. 147 
rather than those of the sire ; it does not proceed from its being better at 
all times and under all circumstances to ride a mare rather than a horse ; 
but it is based upon material interests, and on the necessities enforced 
by the description of life which Arabs lead. It must, however, be 
admitted that a horse is more noble than a mare. He is stronger, more 
courageous, and faster. That a horse is stronger than a mare is thus 
proved. If both were struck by the same mortal wound a mare would 
fall at once, but a horse would seldom drop until he had carried his rider 
into safety. I saw a mare struck by a ball-on the leg; the bone was 
broken ; unable to bear the pain she fell immediately. A horse was hit 
in the same manner ; the broken limb hung only by the skin; he con- 
tinued his course, supporting himself on his sound leg, until he bore his 
rider from the battle-field and then fell) The Arabs prefer mares to 
horses for the reasons I have given, and those reasons are sufficient to 
show why amongst us the value attached to the possession of a mare is 
ereater than that they attach to the possession of a horse, even though 
the breeding of each were the same ; for whilst on the one hand the foal 
takes more after the sire than the dam, on the other the proprictor of a 
horse cannot gain in many years as much as the proprietor of a mare car 
gain in one year if she throw a foal. However, when a horse has dis- 
played any extraordinary qualities, it often happens that he will not be 
parted with, probably producing to his master in the way of booty or 
otherwise as much as the most valuable mare. I saw amongst the 
Annazas, a tribe extending from Bagdad to Syria, horses so beyond all 
price that it was almost impossible to purchase them, and certainly 
impossible to pay ready money for them. ‘These animals, of a fabulous 
value, are sold only to the highest personages, or to rich merchants who 
pay for them by thirty or forty instalments, or by a perpetual rent settled 
on the vendor or his descendants. The birth of a horse can never be 
considered a misfortune by an Arab, however much he may prefer a mare 
for the material advantages which they procure. Mares almost always 
produce, and it is on that account principally that they are preferred. I 
repeat it—the birth of an animal that guarantees its master against humilia- 
tion can never be considered a misfortune. A poet says: ‘My brothers 
reproach me with my debts, yet I never contracted one but for an 
honourable purpose. In giving the bread of heaven to all, in purchasing 
a horse of noble race, and buying a ‘slave to attend upon me.’—Bailey’s 
Magazine of Sports, June, 1860. 
My own BELIEF in this matter, founded upon observations made during 
a long series of years on the horse as well as the dog, is that no rule can 
be laid down with any certainty. Much depends upon the comparative 
physical power and strength of constitution in each parent, even more 
perhaps than the composition of the blood. There have been many 
- instances of two brothers being used in the stud, both among horses 
and greyhounds, in which one has almost invariably got his stock 
resembling himself in all particulars, not even excluding colour, while 
the descendants of the other have rarely been recognisable as his. ‘Thus 
among horses the Touchstones have been mostly brown or dark bay, and 
as a lot have shown a high form as racehorses, while the Launcelots have 
been of all colours, and have been below mediocrity on the turf. Several 
examples of the same nature may be quoted from among greyhounds, 
such as Ranter, Gipsey Prince, and Gipsy Royal, three brothers whose 
stock were as different as possible, but the fact is so generally recognised 
that it is not necessary to dwell upon it. Now surely this difference in 
L2 
