366 WEIGHT OF ARABIANS 



ers in Africa. He weighs little for his height, and yet 

 without appearing over leggy. Officials in the East are 

 so very unreliable that I do not feel that I have arrived 

 at a just estimate of the weight of the Arabian horse. I 

 have had several put on the scales ; but when a horse of 

 more than fifteen hands, which I should gauge at over 

 eight hundred pounds, is said to weigh only four hundred 

 and eiiJ^htv-eight, as was declared to me on one occa- 

 sion, I am disinclined to credit the accuracy of the scales 

 or weigher, or of both. The Arabian has a round, well- 

 coupled, but exceedingly small barrel, no breadth of shoul- 

 der or haunch, and in Syria has smaller bone than in 

 Egypt. From behind he is knife-blady. Still, thorough- 

 bred bone weighs heavy ; a cubic inch of a racer's shin- 

 bone weighs three or four times as much as a cubic inch 

 of the more porous bone of the bulky brewer's dray-horse. 

 In most respects the Arabian is built to weigh little and 

 do much for his weight ; but I must still hold him to 

 four-fifths or over the weight of a similar animal at home. 

 The same applies to donkeys. I have been told that a 

 certain donkey weighed only two hundred pounds when 

 I was certain he weighed two hundred and seventy-five to 

 three hundred pounds. 



The Arabian is generally in good flesh. He more rarely 

 loses his roundness than our horses do. This comes in 

 part from his having so small a framework to fill out. It 

 is easy to keep a narrow-hipped horse fat. His legs and 

 feet are as near perfect as may be. The reason has al- 

 ready been given — that he stands day and night on the 

 ground. 'No Oriental stable has a floor, unless rarely 

 that of a pacha or an emir, so that the diseases of the 

 hoof from which we suffer are not apt to be found. He 

 is, moreover, not generally called on all day and every 

 day to 'ammer, 'ammer, 'ammer on the 'ard, 'igh road, 



