Ii6 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER 



specimens of the race, but they were certainly not 

 bad ones. A fortnight or so afterwards, when I was 

 at Tebessa, the commandant showed me an English 

 thoroughbred, which, he said, had easily run away 

 from every Arab he had ever tried him against. But 

 what was far more remarkable about this horse was 

 that, once acclimatised, and accustomed to the hard 

 life and hard fare of the Arab horses, he quite 

 equalled them in hardiness and endurance, as had 

 been proved in the course of many expeditions and 

 tours of inspection among the tribes of the district. 



c The course a la Jiaie was also open to all com- 

 petitors, and here again the indigenes did not cover 

 themselves with glory. The haie consisted simply of 

 an obstruction about two feet high, and composed of 

 rushes. The French horses knew what a sham it 

 was, and brushed through it without taking the 

 trouble of even going through the form of rising ; 

 but the Arabs were puzzled, and one ridden, I 

 think, by old Plum-colour rose straight into the air, 

 and descended on the obstacle as if out of a balloon, 

 after which he demolished it. The defile des etalons, 

 which followed the last race, produced one or two 

 magnificent animals, and several very commonplace 

 ones ; and then came the great event of the day the 

 fantasia by the gouins. 



'In preparation for this the crowd of mounted 

 Arabs concentrated itself gradually on one side of 

 the course, and the swells withdrew from the centre 



