POWER OF ENDURANCE IN THE HORSE 301 



penetrated thirty miles into the Transvaal. Con- 

 tinuing their course, they reached within ten miles 

 of Wakkerstroom, where lay one of our beleaguered 

 garrisons. Returning, camp was reached at six 

 o'clock Saturday night; seventy-five miles having 

 been traversed in eighteen hours. Not bad, this, for 

 the much-despised British hussar.' l 



Something has already been said of the speed 

 and endurance of the Arab horses of Northern Africa. 

 They are swift and hardy, no doubt ; but the reader 

 is not obliged to believe the following : 



' There existed in ancient times several stallions 

 whose fame has come down to us ; among others El 

 Koura, of the tribe of the Beni-Timin, and Aouadj, 

 " the concave," of the tribe of the Beni-Helal. On 

 the subject of this latter the following anecdote is 

 told. His master being asked, " What canst thou 

 relate of a surprising nature in connection with thy 

 horse ? " replied, " I was wandering one day in the 

 desert, mounted on Aouadj, when I was seizad with 

 a violent thirst. By good fortune I fell in with a 

 flock of ketaa (partridges) flying towards a spring. 

 I followed them, and though holding in my horse 

 as much as possible, I reached the water as soon as 

 they did, without once pulling up to breathe him." 

 It is a most extrordinary example of speed, for the 

 flight of the kataa, always rapid, is greatly quickened 



1 Cassell's Boys' Newspaper, February 23, 1881. 



