THE ARABIAN. 13 



immediately stand still, and neio-h until assistance arrives. If he lies 

 down to sleep, as fatigue sometimes compels him, in the midst of the 

 desert, she stands watchful over him, and neighs and rouses him if 

 either man or beast approaches. An old Arab had a valuable mare that 

 had carried him for fifteen years in many a hard-fought battle, and many a 

 rapid weary march ; at length, eighty years old, and unable longer to ride 

 her, he gave her, and a scimitar that had been his father's, to his eldest 

 son, and told him to appreciate their value, and never lie down to rest until 

 he had rubbed them both as bright as a looking-glass. In the first skir- 

 mish in which the young man was engaged he was killed, and the mare 

 fell into the hands of the enemy. When the news reached the old man, he 

 exclaimed that " life was no longer worth preserving, for he had lost both 

 his son and his mare, and he grieved for one as much as the other ;" and 

 he immediately sickened and died*. 



Man, however, is an inconsistent being. The Arab who thus lives 

 with and loves his horses, regarding them as his most valuable treasure, 

 sometimes treats them with a cruelty scarcely to be believed, and not 

 at all to be justified. The severest treatment which the English race- 

 horse endures is gentleness compared with the trial of the young Ara- 

 bian. Probably the filly has never before been mounted ; she is led out ; 

 her owner springs on her back, and goads her over the sand and rocks of 

 the desert at full speed for fifty or sixty miles without one moment's respite. 

 She is then forced, steaming and panting, into water deep enough for her 

 to swim. If, immediately after this, she will eat as if nothing had occurred, 

 her character is established, and she is acknowledged to be a genuine 

 descendant of the Kochlani breed. The Arab is not conscious of the 

 cruelty which he thus inflicts. It is an invariable custom, and custom will 

 induce us to inflict many a pang on those whom, after all, we love. 



The following anecdote of the attachment of an Arab to his mare 

 has often been told, but it comes home to the bosom of every one possessed 

 of common feeling. " The whole stock of an Arab of the desert con- 

 sisted of a mare. The French consul offered to purchase her in order to 

 send her to his sovereign, Louis XIV. The Arab would have rejected the 

 proposal at once with indignation and scorn ; but he was miserably poor. 

 He had no means of supplying his most urgent wants, or procuring the 

 barest necessaries of life. Still he hesitated ; — he had scarcely a rag to 

 cover him — and his wife and his children were starving. The sum offered 

 was great, — it would provide him and his family with food for life. At 

 length, and reluctantly, he consented. He brought the mare to the dwell- 

 ing of the consul, — he dismounted, — he stood leaning upon her ; — he 

 looked now at the gold, and then at his favourite ; he sighed — he wept. 

 * To whom is it,' said he, ' I am going to yield thee up ? To Europeans, 

 who will tie thee close, — who will beat thee, — who will render thee miser- 

 able. Return with me, my beauty, my jewel, and rejoice the hearts of 

 my children.' As he pronounced the last words, he sprung upon her 

 back, and was out of sight in a moment." 



The next anecdote is scarcely less touching, and not so well known. 

 Ibrahim, a poor but worthy Arab, unable to pay a sum of money which 

 he owed, was compelled to allow a merchant of Rama to become partner 

 with him in a valuable mare. When the time came, he could not redeem 

 his pledge to this man, and the mare was sold. Her pedigree could be 

 traced on the side of sire and dam for full five hundred years. The price 



* Smith pn Breeding, p. 80, 



