FEATS OF ENDURANCE 19 



do whatever his rider can ask of him. For this 

 reason, the Arabs say, " Give barley, and overwork 

 him." But without tasking him overmuch, a horse 

 can be made to do sixteen parasangs day after day.^ 

 A horse performing this journey every day, and 

 having as much barley as it likes to eat, can go on 

 without fatigue for three or four months without 

 lying by a single day. 



^ You ask me what distance a horse can accom- 

 plish in a day. I cannot tell you very precisely ; but 

 it ought to be about fifty parasangs, or the distance 

 from Tlemcen to Mascara. But an animal that has 

 performed such a journey ought to be carefully ridden 

 on the following day, and allowed to do only a very 

 much shorter distance.' ^ 



• A parasang is about 5,000 metres ; sixteen parasangs are equal, 

 in round numbers, to about fifty English miles. 

 ^ Daumas, The Horses of the Sahara. 



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