THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 137 



Baumgarten, an early traveller in the East, gives 

 the following account of Mameluke exercises per- 

 formed in presence of the Sultan, who sat in a balcony 

 of the palace overlooking the field : " On the side of 

 the castle, there was a large and plain field, which had 

 been before prepared for this purpose ; about the 

 middle of which, on one side, there were three artifi- 

 cial hillocks of sand, about fifty paces distant from 

 one another ; and on the top of each of them, there 

 was fixed a spear, bearing the mark which the archers 

 were to shoot at ; and the like was on the other side ; 

 so that in the middle betwixt them, there was as much 

 room left, as might serve for six horses to run abreast. 

 In this plain a great number of young men clad in silk, 

 that was richly embroidered, with their usual light 

 arms, mounted their sprightly horses, and began their 

 games in this manner : 



" First : They ran at a full career betwixt the first 

 two of these hillocks, and dexterously shot their arrows 

 at the marks that were fixed to the tops of the spears, 

 both on the right and left hand. 



"Next they rode in the same manner out between the 

 other two, and filled the marks with their arrows. 



" Just so with the same speed they ran through the 

 rest, and shot their arrows so artfully, that not one of 

 them missed his aim. 



"After these young men had performed their parts, and 

 had left none of the marks untouched, every one took 



