HORSES OF THE SAHARA. 321 



As our compatriots, when in foreign parts, are ac- 

 cused of " coming it grand," and of trusting to the 

 imposing effect of their sturdy physique, we beg quietly 

 to give them the hint that the Arabs laugh at bragga- 

 docio airs, and are not at all impressed by lofty stature 

 and bodily strength. Their esteem is bestowed on 

 activity, address, and courage. Looking at a burly 

 fellow whose praise is being sung, they may be heard 

 whispering, " What to us is the stature or the strength? 

 let us see the heart. After all, it may only be the skin 

 of a lion on the back of a cow." 



But we must not dwell on the manners of the desert 

 we especially wish to tell about its horses. 



The horses of the Sahara are of especial interest, not 

 only on account of their intrinsic merits, but also be- 

 cause of the comparative accessibility of their habitat. 

 If to Europe the infusion of Arab blood has been an un- 

 deniable improvement in the breed of our horses if it 

 be still acknowledged that the thorough-bred horse of 

 Arabia is a most desirable acquisition the question 

 immediately occurs, Where may he be most readily pro- 

 cured ? The answer must be, From North Africa 

 the Barbary States, Algeria regions to us much more 

 accessible than the desert of Arabia or our empire in 

 India, where the breeding of horses is systematically 

 prosecuted by Government. 



And to repair to these regions we have the addi- 

 tional inducement derivable from the fact emphatically 

 asserted by Abd-el-Kader, and assented to by General 

 Daumas, that the horse of the Sahara the Barb is 

 the veritable horse of the Orient, identical with the 

 horse of Arabia, brought into Africa by the ancient race 

 of the Berbers. 



It is through the French in Algiers that we may 

 chiefly hope for supplies of this valuable animal ; but 

 not even through them, without infinite trouble, and 

 very possibly only of an inferior type, and from an 

 Arab compelled by poverty to part with an animal 



