ABD ALLAH. 161 



short in flank ; " roached back ; " hip and loins medium breadth, peaked from 

 hips to setting on of the tail, which was very thin-haired ; long from hip to 

 hock ; rather thin quarters, and short to fetlocks, without any marks. At this 

 time about four years old. 



I may add, that from various sources I gather the following points 

 descriptive of Abdallah: He was a blood bay, mth a glossy skin of 

 the finest texture; a star in his forehead, and left hind foot white 

 above the ankle; his head was large — bony, but thin on the nose — 

 rough in the outline and abounding in expressive angles. His eyes 

 were large and full, standing out Like a bright orb; very expressive. 

 He had a long, big and rather sharp ear — one of the most noticeable 

 features about him being his big ears. His shoulders were more 

 sloping than the average Messenger, and the withers were higher, 

 showing that there was a cross toward some other family not far away. 

 His neck was rather on the ewe order, with little or no crest; his throt- 

 tle and windpipe the largest and most expressively blood-like to be 

 seen anywhere. His limbs and feet were of the finest quality; and 

 his barrel was deep at the chest and flat on the sides and ribs, very- 

 narrow at the hips and growing more peaked and flat-sided as you 

 passed toward his hind quarters, with straight and flat cat-hammed 

 quarters, not very long, but clean and blood-like to the hock. 



Any one who has ever seen the son of Volunteer, called Gold- 

 smith's Abdallah, and observed his clean, flat-sided, but blood-like, 

 form, perfection of limbs and feet, narrowness at the hips and loin, 

 and straight, flat hams and quarters, will have no difficulty in bring- 

 ing in clear view the form and appearance of Abdallah, with the 

 exception of his more homely outline of head, ear and body, with a 

 tail set on very high, and no more hair than a naked stump with a 

 small and dainty wisp at and near the end. In his later years such a 

 tail was enough to complete his unsightly form, and drive away any 

 one who was not willing to accept for beauty in horseflesh that which 

 was hideously repulsive in the extreme. 



His sire was a bay, and Abdallah was a dark bay of very clear 

 caste ; but in this matter of color his offspring differed very widely 

 from him and among themselves. Some were bays and browns, but 

 many were chestnuts of every dull shade anywhere to be seen; many- 

 light or yellow bays, and many with light colored flanks and bellies. 

 His light colored bays and chestnuts, or buckskin colored produce, 

 generally had a list or stripe extending from the mane to the tail, the 

 entire length of the spine; and this may be regarded as an Abdallah 



