430 



THE MODERN SYSTExM 



parents to the water-side, theie staking them 

 down till the overwhelming tide swallows 

 them up, is an awful preparation, and certainly 

 rather appalling ; but a Horse, however saga- 

 cious, is not, and cannot be made aware of 

 what awaits him, but ends his life, at best one 

 of toil and trouble, with a flash quicker than 

 thought, and so devoid of pain or sensation, 

 that if he falls with a leg distended there is 

 not enough of life left to draw it up; or, if 

 contracted, to stretch it out. 



WHITK LEGS. 



There is in England a general dislike to 

 white legs in Horses ; yet other countries may 

 consider it a prejudice, if Horses of that de- 

 scription are remarkable for enduring fatigue, 

 and who are prized on account of their dura- 

 bility and cleanness of limb. A writer who 

 signs himself " Javelin,"' says : 



Turn to the banks oC the Euphrates, to the 

 decayed but once splendid seats of the Ca- 

 liphs of the Black Banner, to the cradle of the 

 Arabian Tales ; to the Queen of the East, 

 Bagdad, the beloved capital of the Great Ha- 

 roun al Reschid ; and there we have a breed 

 of Horses uniting the fire of the Persian with 

 the symmetry and enduring qualities of the 

 Desert breed. Go further to the southward, 

 cross the Great River, roam among the set- 

 tled tribes who have pitched their tents on the 

 very verge of civilization, near unto the great 

 cities, the dwellings of slaves, as they are not 

 inaptly termed by the Bedouins, and you may 

 lay your hand on the flowing Horses of the 

 Montafique Arabs, all chesnut, with the start- 

 ing prominent eye, like an ember glowing, 

 " full of fire and full of bone," and all sin2:u- 

 larly and invariably stamped with the pecu- 

 liar distjnclive marks of tlieir caste ; the white 



blazed face, and white legs (generally three^ 

 white up to the knee, perhaps the ancestorn 

 of the great Eclipse ; a chesnut also with 

 these remarkable marks, and which sometimes 

 breaks forth in his most distinguished des- 

 cendants; to wit. Sultan of the present day_ 

 and his son Beiram. 



The prejudice against white legs is strong; 

 yet my experience, and it justifies me in the 

 assertion, has proved that the chesnut Aral 

 Horse with the white legs up to the knee is 

 one of the hardiest, cleanest-limbed, fastest, 

 and most honest of all the breeds ; none bear 

 so much rattling. I speak not of one, but of 

 many of this kind. 



Go along the shores of the Red Sea, and 

 you shall see a breed of Horses, small, not 

 fast, but lasting, feeding upon dates, and the 

 offal of /ish ! and eating it greedily too, and 

 thriving upon it, carrying that perfect bar- 

 relled carcase too, one of the characteristics 

 of the Arabian Horse. These are the Horses 

 bred by the Zoasmee pirates, the tribes who 

 subsist by piracy and fishing. 



TOURNAMENTS, 



When we read of tournaments and jousts, 

 and tiltings at full speed, it goes down very 

 well ; our imagination is excited by the con- 

 templation of the stirring scene, and measur- 

 ing the speed of their Horses by our own, we 

 are lost in admiration at the desperate daring 

 of the men, and the feats of activity thwt were 

 performed by their steeds ; or, as they are 

 flowery denominated 



" The noble chargers of black, white, or soiirsl.' 



No wonder the nags were tractable ; tht- 

 v/eight thev had to carry was enough totoM*' 

 them ; there was no room for play or vicioEi*. 



