KIND TREATMENT OF HIS HORSE BY THE ARAB. 27 



temper as for his speed and coura^^'e. In that deUghtful bookj 

 ' Bishop Heber's Narrative of a Jonrne) through the Upper 

 Provinces of India,' the Ibilowing interest" ng character is given 

 of him. " My morning rides are very pleasant. My horse is a 

 nice, quiet, good-tempered httle Arab, who is so fearless, that 

 he goes without starting close to an elephant, and so gentle and 

 docile that he eats bread out of" my hand, and has almost as 

 much attachment and coaxing ways as a dog. Tiiis seems the 

 general character of the Arab horses, to judge from what I have 

 seen in this country. It is not the (iery dashing animal I had 

 supposed, but with more rationality about him, and more ap- 

 parent confidence in his rider, than the majority of English 

 horses." 



The kiudness with which he is treated from a foal, gives him 

 an affection for his master, a wish to please, a pride in exerting 

 every energy in obedience to his commands, and, consequently, 

 an apparent sagacity which is seldom seen in other breeds. 

 The mare and her foal inhabit the same tent with the Bedouin 

 and his children. The neck of the mare is often the pillow 

 of the rider, and, more frequently, of the children, who are 

 rolling about upon her and the foal : yet no accident ever occurs, 

 and the animal acquires that friendship and love for man which 

 occasional ill-treatment will not cause him for a moment to 

 forget. 



When the Arab falls from his mare, and is unable to rise, she 

 will immediately stand still, and neigh until assistance arrives. 

 If he lies down to sleep, as fatigue sometimes compels him, in 

 the midst of the desert, she stands watchful over him, and neighs 

 and rouses him if either man or beast approaches. An old Arab 

 had a valuable mare that had carried him. for fifteen years in 

 many a hard-fouglit battle, and many a rapid weary march ; at 

 length, eighty years old, and unable longer to ride her, he gave 

 her, and a scimiter that had been his father's, to his eldest son 

 and told him to appreciate their value, and never lie down to 

 rest until he had rubbed them both as bright as a looking-glass. 

 In the first sldrmish in which the young man was engaged he 

 was killed, and the mare fell into the hands of the enemy. 

 AVhen the news reached the old man, he exclaimed that " life 

 was no longer worth preserving, for he had lost both his son and 

 his mare and he grieved for one as much as the other ;" and he 

 immediately sickened and died. 



Man, however, is an inconsistent being. The Arab who thus 

 lives with and loves his horses, regarding them as his most 

 valuable treasure, sometimes treats them with a cruelty scarcely 

 to be believed, and not at all to be justified. The severest treat- 

 ment which the English race-horse endures is gentleness compared 



