546 



FARMERS' REGISTER-THE ARABIAN HORSE. 



one as much as the other;'' and he immediatek- 

 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 treatment which the English race-horse 

 endures is gentleness compared with the trial of 

 the young Arabian. Probably the filly has never 

 belore been mounted; she is led out;" her owner 

 springs on her bade, and goads her over the sand 

 and rocks of the desert at full speed for fifty or six- 

 ty nules without one moment's respite. She is 

 then Ibrced, steaming and panting, into water 

 deep enough ior her to swim. It; 'immediately 

 after this, she will eat as if nothing had occurred, 

 her character is established, and she is acknowl- 

 edged to be a genuine descendant of the Kochlani 

 breed. The Arab is not conscious of the cruelty 

 which he thus inflicts. It is an invariable custom, 

 and custom will induce us to inflict many a pano- 

 on those whom, atier all, we love. 



The following anecdote of the attachment of an 

 Arab to his mare has often been told, but it comes 

 home to the bosom of every one possessed of com- 

 mon feeling. "The whole stock of an Arab of 

 the desert, consisted of a mare. The French 

 consul offered to purchase her in order to send her 

 to his sovereign, Louis XIV. The Arab would 

 have rejected! he proposal at once with indigna- 

 tion and scorn; but he was miserably poor. He 

 had no means of supplying his most urgent wants, 

 or procuring the barest necessaries of life. Still 

 he hesitated; he had scarcely a rag to cover him 

 — and his wife and his children were starvino- 



my child. I did never beat nor chide thee; I ca- 

 ressed thee in the proudest manner. God pre- 

 serve thee, my beloved ! thou art beautiful, thou 

 art sweet, thou art lovely ! God defend ihee from 

 envious eyes !" 



Sir John Malcolm gives two anecdotes to the 

 same purpose, but of a more amusing nature. 



"When the envoy, returning from his former 

 mission, was encamped near Eagdad, an Arab 

 rode a bright bay mare of extraordiinary shape and 

 beauty before his tent, until he attracted his at- 

 reniion. On being asked if he v>'duld sell her; 

 'What will you give me?' was the reply: 'That 

 depends upon her age; I suppose she is past five?' 

 'Guess again,' said he. 'Four?' 'Look at her 

 mouth,' said the Arab, widi a smile. On exam- 

 ination she was found to be rising three. Tliis, 

 from her size and sj^mmetry, greatly enhanced her 

 value. The envoy said, 'I will give you fitly to- 

 mans' (a coin nearly of the value of a pound ster- 

 ling.) 'A little more if you please,' said the fel- 

 low, apparently entertained. 'Eighty. A hun- 

 dred.' He shook his head and smiled. The ofl>r 

 at last came to two hundred tomans ! 'Well, 

 said the Arab, 'you need not tempt me further — it 

 is of no use. You are a rich elchee (nobleman.) 

 You have fine horses, camels, and mules, and, I 

 am told, you have loads of silver and gold. Now, 

 added he, 'you want my mare, but you shall not 

 have her for all you have got,"* 



"An Arab sheick or chief, who lived within 

 fifty miles of Bussorah, had a favorite breed of 

 horses. He lost one of^ his best mares, and could 

 not for a long while discover whether she was 

 stolen or had strayed. Some time after, a 5'oung 

 man of a different tribe, who had long wished to 



1 ne sum Ottered was great— it would provide him marry his daughter, but had always been rejected 



and his family with food for life. At length, and 

 reluctantly, he consented. He brought the mare 

 to the dwelling of the consul— he dismounted— he 

 stood leaning upon her; he looked now at the gold, 

 and then at his f^ivorite; he sighed— he wept. 

 'To whom is it,' said he, 'I am going to yield thee 

 up? To Europeans, who will tie" thee close— who 

 will beat thee— who will render thee miserable. 

 Return with me, my beauty, my jewel, and re- 

 joice the hearts of my children.' As he pronounced 

 the last words, he sprung upon her back, and was 

 out of sight in a moment." 



The next anecdote is scarcely less touching, 

 and not so well known. Ibrahim, a poor but 

 worthy Arab, unable to pay a sum of money 

 which he owed, was compelled to allow a mer- 

 chant of Rama to become partner with him in a 

 valuable mare. When the time came, he could 

 not redeem his pledge to this man, and the mare 

 was sold. Her pedigree could be traced on the 

 side of sire and dam for full five hundred years. 

 The price was tliree hundred pounds; an enor- 

 mous sum in that country. Ibrahim went fre- 

 quently to Rama to inqu"ire after the mare: lie 

 would embrace her, wipe her eyes with his handker- 

 chiet^rab her' with his shirt-sleeves, and give her 

 a thousand benedictions during whole hours that 

 he remained talking to her. "'My eyes!' would 

 he say to her, 'my'soul ! my heart ! must I be so 

 unfortunate as to have thee sold to so many mas- 

 tens and not keep thee myself ? I am poor, my 

 antelope ! I brought thee up in my dwelling as 



*Smith on Breeding, p. 80. 



by the sheick, obtained the lady's consent and 

 eloped with her. The sheick and his followers 

 pursued, but the lover and his mistress, mounted 

 on one horse, made a wonderful march, and esca- 

 ped. The old chief swore that the fellow was either 

 mounted upon the devil, or the favorite mare he 

 had lost. After his return, he f()und the latter 

 was the case; that the lover was the thief of his 

 mare as well as his daughler; and that he stole 

 the one to carry off the other. The cliief was 

 quite gratified to think he had not been beaten by 

 a mare of another breed; and was easily reconciled 

 to the young man, in order that he might recover 

 the mare, which appeared an object about which 

 he was more solicitous than about his daugh- 

 ter."t 



One of our oAvn countrymen, the enterprising 

 traveller. Major Denham, affords us a pleasing 

 instance of the attachment with which the docility 

 and sagacity of the horse may inspire the owner. 

 He thus relates the death of his fiivorite Arabian, 

 in one of the most desert spots of Central Aii'icu. 

 His feelings needed no apology. We naturally 

 honor the man in whom true sejisibility and un- 

 daunted courage, exerted for useful purposes, were 

 thus united. 



"There are a few situations in a man's life in 

 which losses of this nature are felt most keenly; 

 and this ■was one of them. It was not grief, but 

 it was something very nearly approaching to 

 it; and though I felt ashamed of the degree of 



♦Malcolm's Sketclios of Persia, vol. ]. p. it. 

 flbid p. 45. 



