1 86 THE ARAB THE HORSE OF THE FUTURE 



' Canst Thou make him afraid as a grasshopper ? 

 the glory of his nostrils is terrible. 



' He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in 

 his strength : he goeth on to meet the armed 

 men, 



' He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; neither 

 turneth he back from the sword. 



' The quiver rattleth against him, the glittering 

 spear and the shield. 



' He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and 

 rage : neither believeth he that it is the sound of 

 the trumpet. 



' He saith among the trumpets. Ha, ha ; and he 

 smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the 

 captains, and the shouting.' 



That description was not written of Mr. Day's 

 * heavy-shouldered, slack-loined, little-legged brutes 

 that would fall over a straw.' It was written of the 

 Arab, and the Arab only ; and the same chapter of 

 Job that I have quoted, in verse i6, shows, on the 

 testimony of an Arabian, that horses were, at all 

 events, then ridden ; for he says ' the ostrich scorneth 

 the horse and his rider.' This was 1,500 years before 

 Christ. 



A good many people think of the Arabs as only 

 a few scattered tribes of Bedouins roaming about 

 with their tents and their horses, themselves only 

 semi-savages and thieves. No doubt some of them 

 are. There are such even in England. But they 

 were a great people with a great literature. It has 



