THE ARAB AND HIS STEED 7 



young maidens, piercing the air with joyful acclama- 

 tions.^ 



Nevertheless, endurance is the quality most culti- 

 vated in the Arab horse. It is necessary that the 

 horse should be able to travel long distances upon 

 scanty food and little water, for in the African deserts 

 the places where man and horse can refresh are few 

 and far between ; wells are many miles apart, and 

 even when the traveller has found water for himself 

 and steed, the chances are that no food can be had, 

 except what the horse and his rider have brought 

 with them from their last halting-place. 



' Every horse inured to fatigue brings good for- 

 tune,' the Arabs say. So to speak, he is always on 

 the march. He travels with his master, who is one 

 of the greatest travellers on horseback in the world. 

 He travels to seek his food ; he traverses long dis- 

 tances in search of water, and this sort of life renders 

 him abstinent and not easily tired. Sidi-Hamed- 

 Ben-Mohammed-el-Mokhrani, the chief of one of the 

 most illustrious families of all Algeria, says : 



^During my long career, in my tribes, by my 

 friends, or among my followers, I have seen upwards 

 of ten thousand colts reared, and I aflB.rm that all 

 those whose education was not begun at a very early 

 age have never turned out other than stubborn 

 troublesome horses, unfit for war. I also affirm that 



* Daumas, The Horses of the Saliara. 



