I50 THE ARAB THE HORSE OF THE FUTURE 



Mr. W. K. Kelly, the traveller, in his book on 

 'Syria,' 1844, says that the Bedouin and his horse 

 should be seen together. When the rider's feet are on 

 the ground, he creeps listlessly about, and the horse 

 stands tamely, looking hungrily after the few blades 

 of grass. But when the Bedouin springs into the 

 saddle an electric energy seems breathed into the 

 man and horse. The horse makes the air whistle 

 with his speed, while his streaming tail often lashes 

 his rider's back. 



This is exactly what Madam Ida Pfeiffer writes 

 in her ' Travels in the Holy Land,' about fifty 

 years ago. She said that at first sight they looked 

 anything but handsome. They were thin, and 

 generally walked at a slow pace, with their heads 

 hanging down. But when skilful riders mounted 

 them they appeared as if transformed. Lifting their 

 small, graceful heads with fiery eyes, they threw 

 out their slender feet with matchless swiftness, 

 and bounded away over stock and stone, with a 

 step so light, and yet so secure that accidents very 

 rarely occurred. It was quite a treat to see 

 them. 



Madam Pfeiffer and Mr. Kelly both dwell on the 

 Arab's powers of endurance. Mr. Kelly says they 

 are most remarkable. His on more than one occasion 

 carried him for sixteen or eighteen hours at a stretch 

 without food, and once he cantered him from Hebron 

 to Jaffa, nearly fifty miles, without pulling bit. At 

 the end of such a journey, Arab horses, he says, 



