Tin-: BARB. 



19 



ment. Mi\ Bruce relates, tliat ' the best African horses are said to be 

 descended from one of the five on which Mahomet and his four immediate 



THE GODOLPHIN ARABIAN. 



successors fled from Mecca to Medina, on the night of the Hegira.' This 

 must be received with very considerable allowance. The inhabitants of 

 almost the whole of these countries are as cruelly oppressed as the Fellahs 

 of Eg7P*5 and the consequence of that oppression is the same. The Arabs 

 vnW scarcely be induced to cultivate a breed of horses of much value, 

 when, without scruple or compensation, they may be deprived of every 

 colt by the first man in power that chooses to take a fancy to it. It is 

 only among the tribes of the Desert, who are beyond the reach of the 

 tyrants of their country, that the Barb of superior breed, form, and 

 power, is to be found. 



The common horse of Barbary is a very inferior animal— just such a 

 one as many years of supineness and neglect would produce ; but the 

 followmg are the characteristic points of a true Barb, and especially from 

 Morocco, Fez, and the interior of Tripoli, as described by Berenger :— 

 'The forehand is long, slender, and ill-furnished with main, but'^rising 

 distmctly and boldly out of their Avithers ; the head is small and lean ; 

 the ears well-formed and well-placed ; the shoulders light, sloping back- 

 ward, and flat ; the withers fine and high ; the loins straight and short ; 

 the flanks and ribs round and full, and with not too much band ; the 

 haunches strong; the croup, perhaps, a little too long; the quarters 

 muscular and well developed ; the legs clean, with the tendons boldly 

 detached from the bone ; the pasteni somewhat too long and oblique ; and 

 the foot sound and good. They are rather lower than the Arabian, 

 seldom exceednig fourteen hands and an inch, and have not his spirit, or 

 speed, or continuance, although in general form they are probably his 

 superior.' 



The Barb has chiefly contributed to the excellence of the Spanish 

 horse ; and, when the improvement of the breed of horses beo-an to be 

 systematically pursued in Great Britain, the Barb was very^early in- 

 troduced. The Godolphin Arabian, as he is called, and who was the 



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