THE MODERN ARAB 31 



never detected him in a trip. A pleasanter, safer hack could not be, and a 

 ilvtor Arab the world never saw. He stood 14 hands 2 inches, bay with 

 black points, wiry limbs, very muscular all over, and measured 7f inches 

 round a fore-leg of the finest bone and flattest sinew." This time is as good 

 as that of the average of our Derbys, but the test is a very fallacious one, 

 and unless the time is taken over the same course, and that in the same 

 running condition, no comparison can possibly be drawn. 



Captain Shakspear, in his work on the Wild Sports oj India, gives the 

 following most minute description of the Arab, as he is now met with in 

 India. As it differs in some particulars from the accounts of other observers, 

 I extract it entire. The price of a good Arab, he says, varies from .150 to 

 200, and there is plenty of choice in the Bombay and Bengal markets. 



"The points of the highest caste Arab horse, as compared with the 

 English thoroughbred, are as follow : the head is more beautifully formed, 

 and more intelligent ; the forehead broader ; the muzzle finer ; the eye 

 more prominent, more sleepy-looking in repose, more brilliant when the 

 animal is excited. The ear is more beautifully pricked, and of exquisite 

 shape and sensitiveness. On the back of the trained hunter, the rider scarcely 

 requires to keep his eye on anything but the ears of his horse, which give 

 indications of everything that his ever-watchful eye catches sight of. The 

 nostril is not always so open in a state of rest, and indeed often looks thick 

 and closed ; but in excitement, and when the lungs are in full play from 

 the animal being at speed, it expands greatly, and the membrane shows 

 scarlet and as if on fire. The game-cock throttle that most exquisite for- 

 mation of the throat and jaws of the blood-horse is not so commonly seen 

 in the Arab as in the thoroughbred English race-horse ; nor is the head 

 quite so lean. The jaws, for the size of the head, are perhaps more apart, 

 giving more room for the expansion of the windpipe. The point where the 

 head is put on to the neck is quite as delicate as in the English horse. This 

 junction has much more to do with the mouth of the horse than most 

 people are aware of, and on it depends the pleasure or otherwise of the 

 rider. The bones, from the eye down towards the lower part of the head, 

 should not be too concave, or of a deer's form ; for this in the Arab as in 

 the English horse denotes a violent temper, though it is very beautiful to 

 look at. Proceeding to the neck, we notice that the Arab stallion has 

 rarely the crest that an English stallion has. He has a strong, light, and 

 muscular neck, a little short perhaps compared to the other, and thick. In 

 the pure breeds, the neck runs into the shoulders very gradually; and 

 generally, if the horse has a pretty good crest, comes down rather per- 

 pendicularly into the shoulders; but often, if he is a little ewe-necked, 

 which is not uncommon with the Arab, it runs in too straight, and low down 

 in the shoulders. The Arab, however, rarely carries his head, when he is 

 being ridden, so high in proportion as the English. He is not so well 

 topped, which I attribute to the different way he is reared, and to his not 

 being broken in regularly, like the English horse, before he is put to work. 

 His shoulders are not so flat and thin, and he is thicker through in these 

 parts generally for his size than the English tl oroughbred horse. His girth 

 does not show so deep, that is, he does not look so deep over the heart ; but 

 between the knees and behind the saddle, where the English horse very 

 often falls off, the Arab is barrel-ribbed ; and this gives him his wonderful 



