82 LIGHT HORSES I BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



Dayrell, West Australian, Bend Or, Minting, and of a few 

 other past and present worthy representatives of the three 

 great Eclipse, King Herod, and Matchem lines, we must bear 

 in grateful recollection that all of these full, broad streams 

 had their source in the Darley Arabian, the Byerly Turk, and 

 the Godolphin Barb said to have been of pure Managhi 

 descent. It would be passing strange (seeing the conditions 

 under which they have been respectively reared) to find the 

 Arab of the same stature as our English racehorse. From 

 the days, perhaps, when the sons of Noah, descending from 

 Mount Ararat, settled in the plain of Shinar, or from those of 

 Nimrod, that mighty hunter, the great grandson of the first 

 navigator, ' the bold man of great strength of hand, who 

 stayed and tyrannised in Babylonia,' down to the present 

 day, the Arab has been bred under circumstances well cal- 

 culated to arrest his growth, and to inure him to long days 

 of continuous toil, semi-starvation, and thirst. For a few 

 months, possibly, he may enjoy the pastures of the Maharaina, 

 of Esdraelon, or some watered plain in ' Araby the blest ; ' 

 but for many more he has to subsist on scant feed, such as a 

 Basuto pony alone could thrive upon. ' Never let an animal 

 lose its sucking flesh,' is an axiom with our breeders, who are 

 careful to keep their colts and fillies in growing condition. 

 The Arab foal, on the contrary, endures great privations, has 

 to follow its dam on many a forced march, and must pick up 

 a living as it can, aided only by a little camel's milk when 

 this can be spared. Delightful as is Mesopotamia and the 

 crisp clear air of the desert in the spring, during the protracted 

 summer it is a foundry furnace, the almost perpendicular rays 

 of the sun shooting down upon the brain and spinal column 

 as though concentrated in the focus of a burning-glass. The 

 air is charged with particles of fine sand, scorching as from 

 the blast of an oven ; the parched ground radiates fervent 

 heat. Climatic extremes, free from humidity, however for 

 the winter, at night especially, is bitterly cold and oft the 

 scantiest of scant fare, are conditions calculated to produce a 



