MOHAMMED AND THE HORSE. 317 



A volume might be filled with phrases from the 

 Koran, the traditionary sayings of the Prophet, and the 

 commentaries upon them, all inculcating the love of 

 horses as a religious duty. 



The believing Emir, for prudential reasons probably, 

 appears to be blind to the political results of this re- 

 ligious equestrianism. Not so is General Daumas. 

 With the clearest insight into what Mohammed pro- 

 posed to himself as a great conqueror, he maintains 

 that it was essential that the horse should be looked 

 upon in the light of a sacred animal, a providential 

 instrument of war, created by the Deity for a special 

 purpose, and of a nobler essence than that of which he 

 fashioned the other animals. As the result has proved, 

 he herein showed himself thoroughly acquainted with 

 the temperament of the people who were to be the 

 instruments of his soaring ambition. This policy had 

 sense in it. To worship sacred bulls as the Egyptians 

 did, and the Hindoos do to this day, is a foul degrada- 

 tion of the human intellect, bringing with it no con- 

 ceivable benefit by way of compensation. Hence while 

 with Milton we scorn fanatic Egypt 



" Likening his Maker to the grazed ox," 



we see so much method in Mohammed's fanatical pro- 

 pagandism by means of the sacredness he associated 

 with the horse, that we cannot possibly regard him as 

 a moon-struck dreamer. No, verily 1 with the hoof of 

 the horse he has left his ineffaceable mark upon the 

 human race. 



If, then, we desire to be acquainted with the early 

 history of this precious quadruped, to know its capabi- 

 lities, and be familiar with the treatment of it by the 

 people who love it most and understand it best, we 

 must talk with the Arab in his tent, and wander with 

 him in the desert. 



The Arab and the Desert, to which we are introduced 



