28 FOREIGN BREEDS OF HORSES. 



to calculate tlie time ; and that tlu* Bedouin is naturally given to exagge- 

 ration, and most of all, when relatmg the prowess of the animal that he 

 loves as dearly as his children : yet it cannot be denied that, at the intro- 

 duction of the Arabian into the European stables, there was no horse 

 comparable to him. The mare in her native deserts, will travel fifty miles 

 without stopping ; she has been urged to the almost incredible distance of 

 one hundred and twenty miles, and, occasionally, neither she nor her rider 

 has tasted food for three whole da^'s. 



Our horses would fare badly on the scanty nourishment afforded the 

 Arabian. The mare usually has but two meals in twenty-four hours. 

 During the day she is tied to the door of the tent, ready for the Bedouin 

 to spi-ing, at a moment's warning, into the saddle ; or she is turned out 

 before the tent ready saddled, the bridle being merely taken off, and she is 

 so trained that she immediately gallops up at her master's call. At night 

 she receives a little water ; and with her scanty provender of five or six 

 pounds of barley or beans, and sometimes a little straw, she lies down 

 content, if she is accustomed to lie down at all, in the midst of her 

 master's family. 



Burckhardt relates a story of the speed and endurance of one of them, 

 and shows with what feelings an Arab regards his quadruped friend : — 

 ' A troop of Druses on horseback attacked, in the summer of 1815, a party 

 of Bedouins, and pursued them to their encampment ; the Bedouins were 

 then assisted by a superior force, and becoming the assailants in their 

 turn, killed all the Druses excepting one who fled. He was pursued by 

 some of the best mounted Bedouins, but his mare, although fatigued, could 

 not be overtaken. Before his pursuers gave up the chase, they called to 

 him, and begged to be permitted to kiss his excellent mare, promising him 

 safe conduct for her sake. He might have taken them at their word, for 

 the pledge of an Arab, in such circumstances, might have been rehed on : 

 he however refused. They immediately left the pursuit, and blessing the 

 noble beast, cried out to the fugitive, " Go and wash the feet of your mare 

 and drink oS" the water." This expression is often used by the Bedouins 

 to show the regard they have for their mares.' 



A periodical ^vriter in the ' Sportsman,' on what authority is not stated, 

 but he is right in most of the particulars if not in aU of them, says, that 

 ' taking the comparative excellence of the different races, Nejed, between 

 the desert of Syria and Yemen, and now in the possession of the Wahabis, 

 is generally reckoned to produce the grandest, noblest horses. Hejaz 

 (extending along the Red Sea, from Mount Sinai to Yemen, and including 

 in it Medina and Mecca) the handsomest ; Yemen (on the coast of the Red 

 Sea and the Indian Ocean, and the most fertile part of Arabia) the most 

 durable ; Syria the richest in colour ; Mesopotamia the most quiet ; Egypt 

 the swiftest ; Barbary the most prolific ; and Persia and Koordistan the 

 most warlike.' 



The introduction of the Arabian into England, and the concern Avhich 

 he has had in the improvement of the English horse, will be treated of in 

 the next chapter. 



THE PERSIAN HORSE. 



Next in the route which has been pursued along the south of Asia, to- 

 wards the east, and jdelding only to the Arabian in, beauty and value, 

 stands the Persian horse. He is of larger growth than the Arabian, — 

 purposely bred so, — and on that account some foreign — still east cottntry, 

 but not pure Arabian blood, being introduced. A larger animal, one more 

 adapted for modern war, is the result, but Avitli some diminution of, speed 

 and endurance. The Persian is a nobler-looking animal at the first glance, 



