NAPLES 



the front of his box at one sweep of his fore- 

 foot, and long wire nails threatened to pierce 

 his flesh at any moment. The Italians, who 

 were handling the horses for the shipping com- 

 pany, had no more horse sense than Chinamen 

 who had never seen a horse. My one stand-by, 

 Said, who knew more about Arab horses than 

 all the people in Naples, I could not find for a 

 long time. When I did he was just where I 

 wanted him to be. He came off the barge 

 leading our favorite Gomussa, the blue-lipped 

 colt, our finest animal. The colt, all excite- 

 ment from the squealing of the stallions, was, 

 for the time being, transformed into a wild 

 horse. He reared, and jumped, and kicked, 

 and snorted, and stamped. The black groom 

 hung to him and tried to pacify him by yelling 

 an Arab word, "Nam," "Nam," "Nam," but 

 Gomussa had forgotten his Arabic. He 

 didn't hear. He struck the groom with his 

 forefoot and knocked him senseless, apparent- 

 ly, against an iron fence. I caught the colt 

 by the halter, and he threw me off, but Said, 

 who was not hurt, again grabbed him, and was 

 hanging on by the head. 



Neither of us had been injured, but a mo- 

 ment later he struck Said again, and this time 



[213] 



