THE ARABIAN HORSE. 165 



returning with their plunder, when some horsemen belonging 

 to the Pasha of Acre surrounded them, killed several, and 

 bound the rest with cords. Among the latter was the chief 

 Abou el Marek, who was carried to Acre, and, bound hand 

 and foot, laid at the entrance of their tent during the night. 

 Kept awake by the pain of his wounds he heard his horse, 

 who was picketed at a distance from him, neigh. Wishing 

 to caress him, perhaps for the last time, he dragged himself 

 up to him, and said, ' Poor friend ! what will you do among 

 the Turks? You will be shut up under the roof of a khan, 

 with the horses of a Pasha or an Aga. No longer will the 

 women and children of the tent bring you barley, camel's 

 milk, or dhourra, in the hollow of their hands; no longer 

 will you gallop free as the wind in the desert; no longer will 

 you cleave the waters with your breast, and lave your sides, 

 as pure as the foam from your lips. If I am to be a slave, 

 at least you may go free. Return to our tent, tell my wife 

 that Abon el Marek will return no more; but put your head 

 still into the folds of the tent, and lick the hands of my 

 beloved children.' With these words, as his hands were 

 tied, the chief with his teeth undid the fetters which held 

 the courser bound, and set him at liberty; but the noble 

 animal, on recovering his freedom, instead of galloping away 

 to the desert, bent his head over his master, and seeing him 

 in fetters and on the ground, took his clothes gently between 

 his teeth, lifted him up, and set off at full speed towards 

 home. Without resting he made straight for the distant 

 but well-known tent in the mountains of Arabia. He arrived 

 there in safety, laid his master down at the feet of his wife 

 and children, and immediately dropped down dead with 

 fatigue. The whole tribe mourned him, the poets celebrated 

 his fidelity, and his name is still constantly in the mouths 

 of the Arabs of Jericho." 



For the sake of the beautiful moral it contains the follow- 

 ing story is well worth adding. In the tribe of Negde there 



