VIN DU PAYS 383 



which characterizes the Arabian. You might call the 

 Arabian desert the centre-point from which the horse has 

 got distributed ; at too great a distance, without special 

 efforts to keep it pure, the stock gets diluted or lost. If 

 you wander, for instance, towards Kurdistan, you will find 

 a tough little horse, but he is no longer the Arabian of 

 the desert. He is more of a steppes runt. There is the 

 same peculiar family resemblance in the common horse 

 of almost all countries which there is everywhere to the 

 vin du pays. The bronco and Medoc express the types, 

 which vary as the inhabitants vary. Better care produces 

 a better article. We see the little mean Texan grow fat 

 and handsome when put into the stable of the polo-play- 

 ing swell ; we should again see him, not less tough but 

 the very picture of wretchedness, if put for a month into 

 the brutal hands of an Indian or a Mexican. We see the 

 excellent Chianti of Italy degenerate into the vile pitch- 

 flavored Kpadi ptraivaro of Greece. So with the horse or 

 the wine of the country everywhere. 



Some of the oddest equestrian habits which a horseman 

 has ever imagined are to be found in lands abutting on 

 the home of the Arabian, though, indeed, the Arab has 

 himself enough of oddities. The Kurds ride a tree cov- 

 ered with plaited straw, quite flat, and padded with blank- l(/ 

 ets. This they never remove from their horses, except oc- 

 casionally to dry it out. The horse is kept saddled day 

 and night, summer and winter. This seems incredible, 

 but it is literally true. In Turkestan the horse's entire 

 body, from the ears back, is kept covered up with the bib- 

 lical number of blankets seven which he likewise wears 

 at all times, and which are supposed to sweat him out and 

 keep him in condition. The saddle is placed on the top 

 of these. The habits of horsemen in such countries varjr 

 after a curious fashion. The Kurds sit in their straw, pad- 



