212 



NEW ENGLAND FAUMEU, 



Jan. 22, 1830. 



LIBRARY OF ISKFIL KNOWLEDGE. 



ICtntiniud fnm jM/a 90t.] 

 CHAPTER II. 



THE DIFFKRENT FOREIGN BREEDS. 



THE DABB. 



It Ims alrcndy bc-en Rlnleil, thnt the cnrlicut 

 rccordewe liuvc of ilm lioise trace liiiii to E;;y|it, 

 whence lie {irudiitilly fuund liin way to Araliiu iiiid 

 I'crain, niid tlio pioviiiccs wliicli were colonized 

 from Ej-'Vpt; and lliencc to llie oilier pans of the 

 old world. Hut Egypt is not now a breeding 

 counliy, and it does not appear to possess those 

 rcipiijites wliicli could ever have consliluted it one. 

 WitlioMt, however, cnuiiij^' into the qiujslion 

 whether the horse was primarily llie iiilialiilant of 

 •joine particnhir rejiion, wliencc other parts were 

 gradually supplied, or whether it was common to 

 ;nany counlries, lint difririiif,' in each,; we have 

 anted it to he probalile that the horses of Egypt, 

 he earliest on record, were derived from the 

 leighboring and interior districts of Africii. 

 Therefore, in giving a very snnunary acconnt of 

 •.he most celulirate<l and useful breeds of diffiient 

 .onnlres, it is naliiral to begin willi thnse of .Alrirn. 

 At the head of these is the Uaiib, finm Barbary, 

 ind particularly from Morocco and Fez, and the 

 nterior of Tripoli ; and remarkable fur his fine 

 ind graceful action. It is rather lower than the 

 Arabian, >'ehlom exceeding fourleen li.inds and an 

 uch. The shoulders are flat, the cliest roniiil, 

 ■ he joints inclined to be long, and tlie head par- 

 icularly beaiiliful. The Barb is decidnlly superior 



the Arab in form, but lion not his spirit, or 

 peed, or countenance. 



The Barb has chiefly coiitribntcd to the cxccl- 

 encc of the Spanish horse ; and, when the im- 

 \ rovement of the breed of horses began to be 

 ystematically pursued in Gn-at Britain, the Barb 

 vas very early iiitroduccrl. The Godolphiii Aru- 

 lian, as he is culled, tlic origin of some of our 

 lest racing blood, was n Barb ; and others of 

 )ur most celebrated turf horses trace their de- 

 ; cent from African mares. 



More in the centre of Africa, in the kingdom 

 of Bournou, is a breed, which Mr Tiilly, in his al- 

 most romantic hislory of Tripoli, reckons superior 

 5Ven to those even of Arabia or Barhary ; it 

 possesses tlic best qualities of both of those breeds, 

 ')cing a» serviceable as that of Arabia, and as 

 Ocautiful as that of Barhary. 



Ill the more soutlierii and western districts of 

 '.fiica.and parlicularly in the neighborhood of the 

 iuinea coast, the breed of horses is very inferior. 



1 hey arc small, weak, unsafe, and niitraclable. 

 ut neiilier horses, nor any other produce of value, 

 in ho looked for in those unhappy countries, so 



' iig as they are desolated by the infernal slave- 

 ' nde inflicted upon them by the most civilized, 

 I It truly unchristian, nutiuns of Europe. 



TUP. noNoii 



The kingdom of Dong 



sIriclM lying between 



<intain a horse not at al 



.A IIORHE. 



la, and llio neighboring 

 I'gypt ami Abyssinia, 

 like anv other oriental. 



The " Dongola horses stand full sixteen hands 

 ' gli, 1)111 the hriiglh of the body, from the slionl- 

 •isto the (piartcr, is considrrably less. Tlii'ir 

 j.'ni, therefore, is oppusite to that of the Arabian, 

 or English thoroughbred, which are Imiger by 

 some inches than they are high. The neck is long 

 and fdendcr, ihe crest fine, am' the withern sharp 

 uid high, giving a beautiful forehand ; but thu 



breast is l<io narrow, the riiiartcis and flanks too ful uccount is kcjit of those genealogies than I 



longs to the most ancient family of the proud •' 

 Arab chief, and very biiigular precautions are «f 

 ken to prevent the po.-^sibilily of fraud, bo far 

 the wrilien pedigree exteiids. 



The Kochlani are principally reared by the 1 

 doiiin Arabs, i'l the remoter deserts. A sialli * 

 may beprocuicd without much difl'iculiy,aliliou 

 nt n great prirc. .\ innre is rarely to be obtain 

 except by fraud and excessive briliery. The h 

 have found out that which the English brt 

 should never forget, that the female is more 

 cerneil than the ii:ale in the excellence and va * 

 of the jirodiice ; and the genealogies of their h 

 ses are always rcckonc;! from the mothers. 



The Arabian horse would not be ocknowled^ ^ 

 by every judge to possess a perfect form ; his he ^ 

 however, is inimitable. The broadness and squn i" 

 ness of the foreheail, the shortness and finciiesj|'^ 

 the muzzle, the promii.cnce and brilliancy of 

 eye, the smallness of the ears, and the beaut 

 course of the veins, will alway& characterize 

 hcail of the Arabian liorse. • 



His body may be considered as too light, i 

 his chest as loo narrow ; but beliind the arms 

 barrel generally swells out, and leaves EufBci 

 room for the play of the lungs. 



In the formation of ihe shoulder, next to tha 

 the bend, the Arab is superior to any other br« 

 The withers are high, and the shouliler-blade 

 dined backward, and so nicely adjusted, tha' 

 descending a hill, the point or edge of the I ^ 

 never rutflcs the skin. He may not be thou 

 suflicicntly high ; he seldom stands more t 

 fourleen hands two inches. 



The fineness of his legs, and the oblique f ( 

 lion of his pasterns, may be supposed to lesser 

 apparent »trength ; hut the leg, nlthough fiiiq 

 flat and wiry ; anatomists know that the bone 

 no common density, and the starling mus<lc 

 the fiire-arm and the thigh indicate that he is I 

 capable of accomplishing many of the feats w 

 are recorded of him. 



The Barb alone, excels him in noble and s| r 

 ted action ; and if there be defects about bin. 

 is perfect for that for which he was designed, 

 presents the true combination of speed and 

 toiii — strength enough to carry more thnii a 1 

 weight, and courage that would cause him to 

 rather than to give up. 



We may not, perhaps, believe all that is toh 

 of the Arabian. It has been remarked, t|iat ll 

 are, on the deserts which this horse traverse-, 

 mile stones to mark the ilislance, or walcln- 

 calculate the time; and the Bedouin is natiu 

 given to exaggeration, and, most of all, when 

 lating ihe prowess of the animal which he U 

 as dearly as his children ; yet it cannot he del 

 that, at the introdiirlion of the Arabian iulo 

 European stables, there was no other horse ci 

 parable to him. 



The -Arab horse is as rclcbrnlcd for his doci 

 and good lempcr as for his speed and rniiri 

 In that ileligbtful hook, ' Bishop Ileber's Niirrn 

 of a Journey ihrough the Upper rrovinces of 

 din,' the following interesting character is gi 

 of him. " My morning riilcs nni very ph-asi 

 My horde is n nice, quiet, gund-tempered I 

 Arab, who is so fcnrless, thai ho goes with 

 starting close to an elephant, and so genllc 

 docile that lie i-als brrail out of my hand, niwt 

 almost as much attachment andcuaving ways 

 dog. This Kceins the general character of 



flat, and the back carptd. They constitute excel 

 lent war horses, from their fpeed, durability, and 

 size. Several of them have lately been imported 

 into Europe, but they arc little valued. Possibly, 

 with ihrce-part-bred inures, they might improve 

 our cavalry horses." 



Bosnian, whose descriptions prove him to be no 

 bad horsenian, thus speaks of ihciii, but in some- 

 what too flattering u manner. — "The Dongola 

 horses are the most perfect in the world, being 

 beaiitifid, symmetrical in their parts, nervous and 

 elastic in their movemcnls. and docile and aflec- 

 tionnte in their manners. One of these linr.ses was 

 sold in 18 IG, at Grand Cairo, for a sum equivalent 

 to JCIOOO." 



Mr Biucc tells us, that the best African horses 

 are said to be descended from one of the five on 

 which Mahiiinet and his four immediate successors 

 fled from Mecca to Medina, on the night of the Ile- 

 gini. He thus accounts for very singular and op- 

 posite customs among the .Arabs and Africans. 



" No Arab ever mounts a stallion : on the con- 

 trary, in Africa they never ride mares. The rea- 

 son is plain. — The Arabs are conslantly al war 

 with their neighbors, and always endeavor to take 

 their enemies by surprise in the grey of the eve- 

 ning, or the dawn of day. A stallion no sooner 

 smells the stale of the mare in the enemy's quar- 

 ters, than he begins to neigh, and that would g'vc 

 the alarm to the party intended to be surprised. 

 No such thing can ever happen when they ride 

 mares only. On the eontaiy, the Fiinge trust on- 

 ly to superior force. They are in an open, pinin 

 country — must he discovered at many miles' dis- 

 tance — and all such surprises and stratagems are 

 useless to them." 



THE AltAIilJN. 



Going further eastward, we arrive at Arabia, 

 whose horses deservedly occupy the very highest 

 rank. 



A few wild horses are yet seen on some of 

 the deserts of Arabia. They are hunted by the 

 Hcdouins for their fle^h, which is considered a de- 

 licacy, if the animal be young ; and also to in- 

 crease their stock of inferior horses, which they 

 often palm on the mere!- nut as desceniled from 

 the sacred breed. They are said to be even swifter 

 than the domeslicatcd horse, and are usually ta- 

 ken by traps liidilen in the sand. Mr Bruce, how- 

 ever, doubts whether any wild horses are now 

 fuund in .Arabia Descrln. 



Although in the seventh renliiry the .Vrabs had 

 no horses of value, yet the Cappadocian and oilier 

 horses, wliirh they had ilerived from their iiii^li- 

 bors, were (irescrved with so much care, and pro- 

 pagiilcd so unifiirmly and strii-tly from the finest 

 of the breed, that in the thirteenth century the 

 Arabian hnr.se began to assume n just and unri- 

 valled celehrily. 



There are said to be three breeds or varieties of 

 Arabian hors(!s: — Ihe J]ltcchi,<ir inferior breed, on 

 "vliich they set little value, and \« Inch are fuinid 

 wild on some parts of lh(! deserls; the Knilischi, 

 literally horses of an unknown race, aiiswcriiig 

 our half-bred horses — a mixed hreeil ; and 

 Kochlani, horses whose genealogy, necordiiig to 

 to the Arab account, is known fiir two ihousand 

 years. Many of them have written and atte.-tei! 

 pciligrces I'XIcnding more than fiuir hiimlrcd yiais, 

 and with trini lOasti'm exaggi-ration, traced by oral 

 tradition from the stud of Solomon. A more rare- 



