CHAPTER VII 



SUNDRY ENCOMIUMS ON THE ARAB TAKEN AT RANDOM, 

 AND INSTANCES OF THE LOVE OF THE ARAB BY 

 GREAT SOLDIERS 



Bishop Heber, in his ' Narrative of a Journey 

 through the Upper Provinces of India,' says : ' My 

 horse is a nice quiet, good-tempered Httle Arab, who 

 is so fearless that he goes without starting close up 

 to an elephant, and so gentle and so docile that he 

 eats bread out of my hand, and has almost as much 

 attachment and as coaxing- ways as a dog.' My 

 guests frequently notice the strange coaxing ways of 

 my stallions, and my unbroken mares love to be 

 petted, coming up around you for that purpose 

 in the paddock. Although unbroken, and only 

 handled when being weaned, they eat thistles out 

 of the hands of the children of one of my men. 



Captain Shakespeare, in his ' Wild Sport in India,' 

 says that the Arab is the very best horse under the 

 saddle that can be had in India for all general 

 purposes. 



Mr. H. Chichester Hart, in ' Scripture Natural 

 History,' writes of the Syrian horses of to-day, that, 



124 



