ARAB'S LOVE FOR HORSES. 293 



and intelligence of the horse is thus truly indicated in 

 the ( Romance of Antar/ " Shedad's mare was called 

 Jirwet, whose like was unknown. Kings negotiated 

 with him for her, but he would not part with her, and 

 would accept no offer or bribe for her, and thus he used 

 to talk of her in his verses : * Seek not to purchase my 

 horse, for Jirwet is not to be bought or borrowed. I 

 am a strong castle on her back, and in her bound are 

 glory and greatness. I would not part with her were 

 strings of camels to come to me with their drivers fol- 

 lowing them. She flies with the wind without wings, 

 and tears up the waste and the desert. I will keep her 

 for the day of calamities, and she will rescue me when 

 the battle-dust rises.' " 



D'Arvieux relates a story of an Arab of Tunis who 

 would not deliver up a mare bought for the stud of the 

 King of France. " When he had put the money in his 

 bag, he looked wistfully on his mare, and began to 

 weep. ' Shall it be possible/ said he, ' that after hav- 

 ing bred thee up in my house with so much care, and 

 after having so much service from thee, I should be de- 

 livering thee up in slavery to the Franks for thy re- 

 ward? No ! I will never do it, my darling/ And with 

 that he threw down the money, embraced and kissed 

 his mare, and took her home with him again." In the 

 Rev. V. Monro's ' Summer Ramble in Syria ' we meet 

 with a more recent instance of this friendship between 

 the horse and his rider : " A great ruffian was mounted 

 on a white mare of great beauty. Having asked her 

 price, I offered the sum. The Arab said he loved his 

 mare better than his own life, that money was of no use 

 to him, but that, mounted on her, he felt rich as a pasha. 

 Shoes and stockings he had none, and the net value of 

 his accoutrements and dress might be calculated at 

 something less than seventeenpence sterling." 



Very great dubiety exists as to the native region of 

 the horse. Geologists inform us that his remains are 

 found in nearly every part of the world. " His teeth 



