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and tills is proved by man being the superior creature ; therefore G od created 

 all that man could want, before he created him ! For the wisdom of God 

 indicates that everything on the earth was created for Adam and his pos- 

 terity. And when he had created him, he called him Adam, and said to 

 him, " Choose between the horse and the borak" (the creature on which 

 Mohammed rode across the heavens, an animal, neither male nor female, 

 and something like a mule.) 



Adam answered and said, " The most beautiful of the two is the horse." 

 God said, " It is well. You have chosen that which is a glory to you, and 

 will be to your children. As long as they exist my blessing shall be upon 

 them, for I have created nothing more dear to me than man and the 

 horse." God also created the horse before the mare. The male is more 

 noble than the female. 



Many historians say that after Adam, the horse, as well as all other 

 animals lived in a wild state, the gazelle, the ostrich, the buffalo, and 

 the ass. The first man, after Adam, that mounted the horse, was Ismail, 

 the Father of the Arabs, who was the son of our Lord Abraham, the cher- 

 ished of God, who taught him to call the horses, and they all ran to him. 

 He took then the most beautiful and spirited among them, and tamed them. 

 Afterwards a great many of them lost their purity, and only one single 

 race was gathered, in all their original nobility, by Solomon, the son of 

 David ; he called them the Zad-el-Rakeb, the Gift of Horsemen (cavaliers). 

 To this all the Arabian horses owe their origin. It is said that Arabs of 

 the tribe of Azed went to Jerusalem the Noble, to compliment Solomon 

 on his marriage with the Queen of Sheba. Solomon ordered out of his 

 stable a magnificent stallion, of the issue of the race of Ismail, and gave 

 it to them, saying, " Behold the provisions I give you for your journey 

 home ! When hunger seizes you, take some wood, light a fire, put your 

 best horseman (cavalier) on this horse, armed with a good lance, and you 

 will hardly have your wood gathered and burning before you will see your 

 cavalier return with abundance of game from the chase. Go, and may 

 God cover you with his protection." The men of Azed took to the road, 

 and at their first halt, did as Solomon had directed; and neither zebra, nor 

 gazelle, nor ostrich, could escape from him. In gratitude they called that 

 race of horses Zad-el-Rakeb. It has spread to the east and to the west. 

 "We divide into four epochs, the history of this horse. 1st. From Adam to 

 Ismail. 2d. From Ismail to Solomon. 3d. From Solomon to Mohammed. 

 4th. From Mohammed to us. It is, however, thought that the Solomon 

 race, having been forcibly divided, into many branches, has, like races 

 of men, became varied in the color of its robe, &c. It is admitted, 

 now, that in stony districts, his robe becomes grey, and also where 

 the lands have a light complexion. I have often seen evidences of 

 this fact. You ask me how Arabs know the noble horse, the Drinker of 

 Air? I answer, by the firmness of his lips, and cartilage of the lower 

 part of the nose ; by the dilation of his nostrils ; by the leanness of the 

 flesh about the veins of his head ; by the elegance of the neck and shoul- 



