544 



FARMERS' REGISTER— THE BARB-DONGOLA HORSE. 



heel?, and speedily destroy him. They readily 

 submit, however, lo the dominion of man, and be- 

 come perl(.'ctly docile and tiiitlifnl. 



AmonfT the Tartans, the tlosh of the horse i.s a 

 fi-enuent article of Ibod; and although they do not, 

 iike the Indians of the Pampas, eat it raw, their 

 mode ol cookery would not be very invitinfj to the 

 European cjjicure. 'I'hey cut the muscular parts 

 into slice.s, and jilace them under their saddles, 

 and after tliey have <pallopped thirty or forty miles, 

 the meat becomes tender and sodden, and tit for 

 their table; and, at all their feasts, the first and 

 last and most iavorite dish, is a horse's head. 



"When ^vater was not at hand, the Scythians 

 ii3ed to draw blood from their horses, and drink it; 

 and the dukes of Muscovy, tiir nearly two hundred 

 and fiixty years, presented Tartar ambassadors 

 ■with the milk of mares. If any of this milk fell 

 upon the mane of the horse, the duke by custom. 

 W^s bound to lick it olT, 



Troops of wild horses are occasionally met with 

 in the central parts of Africa, in the island of St. 

 Domingo, on the deserts of Arabia, and in a few 

 other parts of the world; but no where do they 

 equal the domesticated horse in form, strength, or 

 even speed. 



The Barb. 



It has been already stated, that the earliest re- 

 cords we have of the horse, trace him to Egypt, 

 whence he gre\dually found his way to Arabia and 

 Persia, and the provinces which were colonized 

 fi-om Egypt; and thence to the other parts of the 

 Old World, But Egypt is not now a breeding 

 country, and it does not appear to possess those re- 

 quisites which could ever have constituted it one. 

 Without, hov/ever, entering into the question 

 whether the horse was primarily the inhabitant of 

 some particular region, whence other parts were 

 gradually supplied, or whether it was common to 

 many countries, but differing in each; we have 

 stated it to be probable that the horses of Eg\'pt, 

 the earliest on record, were derived from the neigh- 

 boring and interior districts of Afi'ica. There- 

 fore, in giving a very sunmiary account of the 

 most celebrated and useful breeds of different 

 countries, it is natural to begin with those of 

 All-ica. 



At tlie head of these is the Barb, from Barbary, 

 and particularly from IMorocco and Fez, and the 

 interior of Tripoli; and remarkaWe for his fine and 

 graceful action. It is rather lower than the Ara- 

 bian, seldom exceeding fourteen hands and an 

 inch. The shoulders are flat, the chest round, 

 the joints inclined to be long, and the head particu- 

 larly beautiful. The Barb is decidedly superior to 

 the Arab in form, but has not his spirit, or speed, 

 or countenance. 



The Barb has chiefly contributed to the ex- 

 cellence of the Spanish horse; and, when the 

 improvement of the breed of horses began to be 

 systematically pursued m Great Britain, tlie 

 Bai'b was very eai'ly introduced. The Godolphin 

 Arabian, as he is called, and who was the origin 

 of sonae of our best racing blood, was a Barb; and 

 others of our most celebrated turf-horses trace 

 their descent from African mares. 



More in the centre of Africa, in the kingdom of 

 Bournou, is a breed, which Mr. Tally, in his al- 

 most romantic history of Tripoli, reckons superior 

 even to those of Arabia or Barbary; it possesses 



the best qualities of both those breeds, being as 

 serviceable as that of Arabia, and as beautiful as 

 that of Barbary. 



In the more southern and \\'estern districts of 

 Africa, and particularly in the neighborhood of 

 the Guinea Coast, the breed of horses is very in- 

 ferior. They are small, weak, unsale, and uiitrac- 

 table. But neither horses nor any other produce 

 of value, can be looked lor in those unhappy coun- 

 tries, so long as they are desolated by the internal 

 slave-trade mflicted upon them by the most civili- 

 zed, but truly unchristian, nations of Europe. 



The Dongoja Horse, 



The kingdom of Dongola, and the neighboring 

 districts lying between Egypt and Abyssmia, con- 

 tain a horse not at all like any other oriental. 



The -'Dongola horses stand full sixteen hands 

 high, but the length of the body, from the shoul- 

 ders to the quarter, is consiilerably less. Their 

 form, therefore, is oj)posite to that of the Arabian, 

 or English thorough-bred, which are longer by 

 some inches than they are high. The neck is long 

 and slender, the crest fine, and the withers sharp 

 and high, giving a beautiful forehand; but the 

 breast is too narrow, the quarters and flanks too 

 flat, and the back carped. They constitute excel- 

 lent war-horses, from their speed, durability, and 

 size. Several of them have lately been imported 

 into Europe, but they are litde valued. Possibly, 

 with three-part-bred mares, they might improve 

 our cavalry horses." 



Bosnian, Avhose descriptions prove him to be no 

 bad horseman, thus speaks of them, but in some- 

 what too flattering a manner, "The Dongola 

 horses are the most perfect in the world, being beau- 

 tiful, symmetrical in their parts, nervous ami elastic 

 in their movements, and docile and afiectionate in 

 their manners. One of these horses was sold in 

 1816, at Grand Carlo, lor a sum equivalent to 

 1000/." 



Mr. Bruce tells us, that the best African horses 

 are said to be descended from one of the five on 

 which Mahomet and his four immediate succes- 

 sors fled from Mecca to Medina, on the night of 

 the Hegira. He thus accounts for very singular 

 and opposite customs among the Arabs and Af- 

 ricans. 



"No Arab ever mounts a stallion: on the con- 

 trary, in Afr-ica they never ride mares. The rea- 

 son is plain. The Arabs are constantly at war 

 with their neighbors, and always endeavor to 

 take their enemies by surprise in the grey of the 

 evening, or the dawn of day. A stallion no soon- 

 er smells the stale of the mare in the enemy'a 

 quarters, than he begins to neigh, and that would 

 give the alarm to the party intended to be sur- 

 l)risod. No such thing can ever happen when 

 they ride mares only. On the contrary, the Punge 

 trust only to superior force. They are in an open, 

 plain country — must be discoverecl at many miles 

 distance — and all such siu-prises and stratagems 

 are viseless to them," 



The Arabian. 



Going further eastward we arrive at Arabia, 

 whose horses deservedly occupy the very highest 

 rank. 



A ^ew wild horses are yet seen on some of the 

 deserts of Arabia. They are hunted by Bedou- 

 ins for their flesh, which is considered a delicacy, 



