THE ARABIAN 405 



forearms and thighs prove that the Arabian horse is 

 fully equal to all that has been said of his powers. 

 The Arabian is never known in a tropical climate to 

 be a roarer, or to have curbs ; the shape from the 

 point of the hock to the fetlock being very perfect. It 

 is a remarkable fact that the skin of all the light- 

 coloured Arabians is either pure black or bluish black, 

 which gives to white horses that beautiful silvery 

 grey colour so prevalent among the coursers of noble 

 blood. If an Arabian horse exceeds fourteen and a 

 half hands in height, the purity of the blood is always 

 doubted in India. Three of the swiftest horses which 

 were known in our own times at Madras, were under 

 fourteen hands. 



Above all others, the Kohlan horse of Arabia is 

 distinguished for his superior qualities and the beauty 

 of his form. He possesses an uncommon mildness of 

 temper, an unalterable attachment to his master, a 

 courage and intrepidity as astonishing as they are 

 innate in his noble breast, an unfailing remembrance 

 of the places where he has been, of the treatment he 

 has received ; not to be led, not to be touched but by 

 his master ; in the midst of carnage in battle he is 

 cool and collected ; he never forgets the place he came 

 from, and though mortally wounded, if he can gather 

 up sufficient strength, he carries back his desponding 

 rider to his defeated tribe. His intelligence is wonder- 

 ful, and he seems to know when he is sold. When 

 the proprietor and purchaser meet for that purpose in 

 the stable, the Kohlan soon guesses what is going on, 

 becomes restless, gives from his beautiful eye a side- 

 glance at the interlocutors, scrapes the ground with 

 his foot, and plainly shows his discontent. 



The action of the Arabian in his native plains is 

 very beautiful. He carries his head high, which gives 



