SECRETARY'S REPORT. 153 



John Brooks, Jr., Princeton ; William C. West, Chilmark ; 

 Salmon Capen, Windsor ; F. A. Willard, Harvard ; D. E. Mcr- 

 riam, Chelmsford; Silas Root, Westfield ; S. F. Marsh, Stur- 

 bridge ; M. R. Van Deusen, Alford ; A. D. Briggs, Springfield. 



Inasmuch as there was very little difference of opinion among 

 those who answered tlic circulars upon the subjects discussed, 

 it has been deemed expedient to embody their views with those 

 of the Committee in the report now respectfully submitted. 



REPORT ON HORSES. 



General Daumas, of the French army, wrote to the celebrated 

 Arab chieftain, Abd-el-Kadir, for information respecting the 

 Arabian horse, and received the following account of his origin : 

 *' When God wished to create the horse. He said to the south 

 wind, ' I wish to form a creature out of thee, be thou con- 

 densed,' and the wind was condensed. And God formed a 

 chestnut horse, saying, ' I have called thee horse ; I have 

 created thee an Arab, and 1 have given thee a chestnut color. 

 I have bound fortune on the mane which falls over thine eyes ; 

 thou shalt be the chief among animals ; men shall follow thee 

 whithersoever thou goest ; good for the pursuit as for the re- 

 treat, thou shalt fly without wings ; riches shall repose in tliy 

 loins and wealth shall be made by thy intercession.' Then he 

 marked him with the sign of glory and of happiness, a star 

 shining in the middle of his forehead. After the creation of 

 Adam, God called him by name and said, ' Choose now be- 

 tween the horse and the borak.' Adam replied, ' The more 

 beautiful of the two is the horse.' And God said, ' Excellent! 

 thou hast chosen thy glory and the glory of thy sons ; while 

 they exist my blessing shall be with them, because I have not 

 created any thing that can be more dear to me than man and 

 the horse.' " 



Never, perhaps, have the noblest qualities of the horse, his 

 inestimable value to man, and the universal admiration in which 

 he is held, been more eloquently expressed than in this beau- 

 tiful specimen of Oriental style. 



An English writer upon the natural history of the horse — 

 Col. C. H. Smith — has given utterance to similar sentiments, 

 in these words : — 



