XLIV 



To come back to our quadrupeds. This dress is, of all 

 clothing, the one you and I would select as being most 

 illy adapted to horseback work; and yet the Arab is 

 equally at home in the saddle or sitting with his legs 

 crossed under him. Like all every-day and all-day horse- 

 men, he is perfect within his lines. Some people yield him 

 the palm among all riders, an opinion which I do not 

 share. He might perhaps be said to occupy the highest 

 position among horsemen, in that he has bred and edu- 

 cated the most docile race of horses known to man, and 

 the one which has given the civilized world the impress 

 of thorough blood. But as a rider I am inclined to think 

 that our own skilful equestrian could beat him in riding 

 over a country, in rounding-up a big bunch of ugly, stam- 

 peded cattle, in the twists and brushes of polo, in school- 

 riding, or in almost any duty or pleasure requiring in its 

 kind horsemanship of the highest order. This has really 

 been demonstrated in some things ; but, ex uno, we must 

 not fall into the error of discere omnes. The Arab, when 

 he is a horseman, is a superb one, even though he does not 

 come within our canons of the art. When the horse is 

 only a beast of burden or a means of transportation, the 

 Arab is no better than his ilk elsewhere. When, as in the 

 desert, the horse is his pet, his companion by day, his 

 dream by night, the Arab is, in a sense, incomparable. No 

 master can be more kind. No dog is more intelligent than 

 the dark, liquid-eyed mare he has bred and trained, whose 



