250 Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates, [rn. xxvm. 



sidered a great point of breeding that a horse should 

 look abont him to right and left as he walks ; and 

 this, combined with the great length of his pasterns, 

 makes him liable to trip on even ground, if there are 

 slight inequalities in his road. I have never how- 

 ever seen Inm even in dano-er of fallino-. The horse 

 is too sure of his footing to be careful, except on 

 rough ground, and then he never makes a false step. 

 The broken knees one comes across are almost al- 

 ways the result of galloping colts before they arc 

 strong enough over rocky ground, and, though a 

 fearful disfigurement in our eyes, are thought nothing 

 of by the Bedouins. The reputation, so often given to 

 the Arabian, of being a slow walker, is the reverse of 

 true. Though less fast than the Barb, he walks 

 Avell beyond the average pace of our own horses. 

 His gallop, as I have said, is long and low, and faster 

 in proi^ortion to his Itaiyht, than that of any other 

 breed. If one could conceive an Arabian seventeen 

 hands high, he could not fail to leave the best horse 

 in England behind him. As it is, he is too small 

 to keep stride with our race-horses. 



The Arabian is a bold jumper, indeed the boldest 

 in the world. Though in their own country they 

 had had absolutely no knowledge of fences, not one 

 of the mares we brouoht home Avith us has made 

 any difficulty about going at the fences we tried 

 them at. One of them, the evening of her arrival 

 in England, on being let loose in the park, cleared 

 tlie fence which is five feet six inches high. We 



