ARABIAN AND BARBARY HORSES 15 



wont to speak of Arabian horses as one breed, in their native coun- 

 try many breeds or families are known, but as the general and 

 almost exclusive use of all these is the same, namely, for the saddle, 

 it follows that there is essential similarity between them all, and 

 there is wanting that variety of type characteristic of the horses of 

 western Europe and Great Britain. 



The origin of these horses is lost in the blank of fathomless 

 antiquity. They form a starting point in many instances for the 

 history of other breeds, but their own origin will probably never 

 be known. In a letter to the French general, E. Daumas, who 

 for many years held important posts in Algeria and the Barbary 

 states, and who has written an excellent account of desert manners 

 and horses,* the illustrious Mossulman, Emir Abd-el-Kader, writes 

 in these terms concerning the origin of their horses : " Know then 

 that among us it is admitted that Allah created the horse out of the 

 wind, as he created Adam out of mud. .... When Allah willed 

 to create the horse, he said to the south wind, ' I will that a creature 

 should proceed from thee ; condense thyself ! ' and the wind con- 

 densed itself Allah created the horse before man, and the 



proof is that man being a superior creature, Allah would give unto 

 him all that he would require before creating himself." 



Certain it is that the history of Egypt and the countries to the 

 east mention the horse as a subject of man, under the saddle and 

 before the chariot at least eighteen centuries before our era, and it 

 seems probable that for forty centuries the ancestry of the modern 

 Arabian and Barbary horses have ministered to man's needs in 

 northern Africa and western Asia. It is not unlikely that the 

 chariot horses of the Pharaohs and the riding animals of the con- 

 temporary desert chiefs were similar to those now found in the 

 same region. The famous and well-known picture of Pharaoh's 

 horses is a good representation of the Barbary breeds. 



Much care is bestowed upon the breeding, rearing and training 

 * " Horses of the Sahara." 



Jl horse naturally feeds from the ground put the hay on the floor. 



