ARAB PROVERB. 333 



long bloody wheals along the animal's belly and flanks, 

 which inspire him with such terror that he becomes as 

 tame as a lamb, and will track out his master like a dog. 



They have a proverb, " The horseman makes the 

 horse, as the husband makes the wife ; " and therefore 

 every Arab trains his own horse. Here, we opine, is a 

 hint worth something to every man wishing to be on 

 comfortable terms with his horse or his wife. 



We certainly resent any interference with our con- 

 jugal authority; and husbands and wives, upon the 

 whole, jog on pretty well in the matrimonial yoke. But 

 our horses are treated shockingly ill ; their education 

 is intrusted to an ignorant groom or a brutal breaker- 

 in, with hardly a single right idea as to the philosophy 

 of equestrian training which, by the way, is begun 

 and finished by the Arabs at a much earlier age than 

 with us. "The horse," they say, "is a labourer; let 

 him, then, be accustomed to it in good time." They 

 universally fatigue him without mercy when two and 

 three years old, but spare him from three to four years 

 of age. They maintain that sustained work at an early 

 age strengthens the chest, muscles, and joints of the 

 colt, at the same time imparting a docility that will 

 never leave him. After these rude trials are over, his 

 constitution should be developed by rest and abundant 

 diet, because now he will show whether he be worth 

 keeping. 



Such, also, is the testimony of M. Petiniaud, who was 

 commissioned by the French Government to travel 

 through Upper Asia to procure horses of pure Oriental 

 blood. And as the treatment of the horse by the Arabs 

 of Asia and Africa is thus shown to be identical, and 

 as these men are confessedly the best horsemen in the 

 world, and thoroughly acquainted with the modes of 

 training the animal to be serviceable, it is not unlikely 

 that British breeders will ere long be brought to see 

 the advantage of putting the colt to salutary work from 

 its earliest age. 



