406 MANUAL OF MODERN FARRIERY 



him a dignified aspect ; his tail is turned up in the 

 air, and forms a most graceful curve, which our 

 English dealers have vainly attempted to imitate by 

 the cruel and absurd practice of nicking the ver- 

 tebrae. 



In Arabia the horse is treated with the utmost 

 gentleness, kindness, and affection. He inhabits the 

 same tent with his master and family. His wife and 

 children, with the mare and her foal, associate together 

 in indiscriminate friendship, occupying the same bed, 

 where the children may be seen prattling with and 

 climbing over the bodies, and hanging round the 

 necks of the docile creatures, who in their turn will 

 frequently repose with their heads inclining on some 

 one of the family. Whipping, by an Arab, is con- 

 sidered the greatest cruelty to horses, and it is by 

 gentle measures alone that he secures the willing 

 service and affection of his steed. Their friendship is 

 mutual ; for if the rider falls, although in the most 

 rapid career, the horse instantly turns round, and 

 halts till remounted by his master. 



The Arab will never sell a mare on any considera- 

 tion whatever. The genealogies are always recorded 

 from the dams. In the pedigree of their steeds^, they 

 are more particular than any other people on earth ; it 

 is an undoubted fact that they have pedigrees among 

 them of not less than five hundred years. In this re- 

 spect they look upon it as of more importance than 

 that of their chiefs. Among the great dealers, they 

 pride themselves upon being rigidly strict, and are 

 more to be depended on than many of those of Europe 

 in the pedigree of the horses they offer for sale. 

 Weston, in his " Fragments of Oriental Literature," 

 gives the following pedigree, which was hung about 

 the neck of an Arabian, purchased by Colonel Ainslie 



