HORSES OF ANCIENT ARABIA 185 



ways, and the marvellous poem is saturated with 

 Arabian lore. There is not a single reference in 

 it to Hebrew law or to the sacred writings ; and 

 although it now appears in the Hebrew language, 

 and is the most splendid creation of Hebrew poetry 

 extant, it is said that it was originally written in 

 Arabic, and was afterwards translated into Hebrew. 

 I speak as I have learned, and am no Hebraist. Job 

 was a descendant of Ishmael, and was not a Jew. 

 He lived some 600 years before Solomon, over 

 2,000 years before Mahomet. He knew the horse, 

 and evidently loved him as much as General Harry 

 Smith of Aliwal or Field-Marshal Roberts loved 

 him — perhaps even more. Job's description of 

 the horse (xxxix. 19-25) has never been equalled 

 either in prose or poetry, and no description of any- 

 thing that was ever written by the hand of man is 

 more magnificent. 



In these days of non- Bible-reading in schools, I 

 may be excused for giving it. The college boy and 

 the * Girton girl ' may set it off against the jargon 

 of the racing stable. It will do them no harm. It 

 will not even harm a jockey-boy. I the more readily 

 quote it because a leading man in this State, a good 

 judge of horses, very recently confessed to me that 

 he had never read it. I myself have read it many 

 times, and I have never read it but it has made my 

 blood run hotter : 



' Hast Thou given the horse strength ? hast Thou 

 clothed his neck with thunder } 



