222 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



on, or rather thrown out, at a perfect arch; coats smooth, 

 shining and light ; the mane long, but not overgrown nor 

 heavy ; and an air and step that seemed to say, ' Look at 

 me ; am I not pretty ? ' Their appearance justified all repu- 

 tation, all value, all poetry. . . . But, if asked what are, 

 after all, the especially distinctive points of the Arab horse, 

 I should reply, the slope of the shoulder, the extreme clean- 

 ness of the shank, and the full, rounded haunch, — though 

 every other part, too, has a perfection and a harmony un- 

 witnessed anywhere else.'* 



No Arab ever dreams of tying up his horse by the neck. 

 The tether replaces the halter. A Jight iron ring furnished 

 with a padlock encircles the hind leg just above the pastern. 

 A rope is attached to this, and made fast to an iron peg set 

 in the ground. To make of their horse a devoted friend is 

 the end sought after by all Arabs. With them he leads, so 

 to speak, a domesticated life, in which, as in all domestic 

 life, women play a conspicuous part, — that, in fact, of pre- 

 paring, by their gentleness, vigilance, and unceasing atten- 

 tion, the solidarity that ought to exist between the man and 

 the animal. A sustained education, daily contact with man, 

 — that is their grand secret ; it is that which makes the Arab 

 horse what he is, — an object worthy of our unexceptional 

 admiration. No wonder the Arab poets sing, with the meta- 

 phor and hyperbole peculiar to that glowing clime: "Say 

 not it is my horse ; say it is my son. He outstrips the flash 

 in the pan, or the glance of the eye. His eye-sight is so good 

 that he can distincruish a black hair in the nig-ht-time. In 

 the day of battle he delights in the whistling of the balls. 

 He overtakes the gazelle. He says to the eagle, ' Come 

 down, or I will ascend to thee.' When he hears the voice 

 of the maidens, he neighs with joy. When he gallops, he 

 plucks out the tear from the eye. He is so light he could 

 dance on the bosom of thy mistress without bruising it. Ho 

 is a thorough-bred, the very head of horses. No one has 

 ever possessed his equal. I depend on him as my own heart." 



The famous Arab chieftain, Abd-el-Kadr, who for so many 

 years gloriously resisted French aggression in northern 

 Africa, betrayed unhappily by fortune, but saved by history, 

 prepared, while languishing in confinement in France, a series 



