2G4 ANECDOTES OF ANIMALS. 



and foot, laid at the entrance of their tent during tho 

 night. The pain of his wounds kept him awake, and 

 he heard his own horse neigh, who was picketed at a 

 distance from him. Wishing to caress him, perhaps 

 for the last time, he dragged himself up to him, and 

 said, 'Poor friend! what will you do among the 

 Turks ? You will be shut up under the roof of a khan, 

 with the horses of a Pasha or an Aga. No longer will 

 the women and children of the tent bring you barley, 

 camel's milk, or dhourra, in the hollow of their hands ; 

 no longer will you gallop free as the wind in the 

 desert ; no longer will you cleave the waters with your 

 breast, and lave your sides, as pure as the foam from 

 your lips. If I am to be a slave, at least you may go 

 free. Return to our tent, tell my wife that Abou el 

 Marek will return no more ; but put your head still 

 into the folds of the tent, and lick the hands of my 

 beloved children/ With these words, as his hands 

 were tied, the chief with his teeth undid the fetters 

 which held the courser bound, and set him at liberty ; 

 but the noble animal, on recovering his freedom, instead 

 of galloping away to the desert, bent his head over his 

 master, and seeing him in fetters and on the ground, 

 took his clothes gently between his teeth, lifted him 

 up, and set off at full speed towards home. Without 

 resting he made straight for the distant but well-known 

 tent in the mountains of Arabia. He arrived there in 

 safety, laid his master down at the feet of his wife and 

 children, and immediately dropped down dead with 

 fatigue. The whole tribe mourned him, the poets 

 celebrated his fidelity, and his name is still constantly 

 in the mouths of the Arabs of Jericho. 



The Arabs have five noble races, among which that 



