404 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARABIA. 



" selling the mare's belly ;" and in this manner most of the 

 Arabian breeders are held in joint property. Sometimes the 

 dam and her offspring are disposed of in equal shares, or on 

 condition that the booty shall be equally divided between the 

 original owner and the man who rides her. As the Bedouins 

 are ignorant of those frauds by which a European jockej 

 deceives his customers, a stranger may take a horse on their 

 word, at first sight or trial, without much risk of being 

 cheated. Niebuhr alleges that no instance of false testi- 

 mony was ever given in respect to the descent of a horse, — 

 the Arabs, in his days, being persuaded that they and their 

 families would be cursed should they prevaricate in giving 

 an oath on a matter of such consequence ; but the moderns 

 do not scruple to tell falsehoods if they find they can make a 

 better market by it. The affectionate terms in which families 

 live with their horses sometimes occasion extreme regret 

 when they are obliged from necessity to sell them. D'Ar- 

 vieux mentions a Syrian merchant who cried most tenderly 

 while caressing his mare, whose genealogy he could trace 

 for 500 years. Rubbing her with his shirt-sleeves, and wipr 

 incr her forehead with his handkerchief, " Mv eyes," he 

 would say to her, " my heart, must I be so unfortimate as 

 to have thee sold to so many masters, and not to keep thee 

 all myself! I am poor, my antelope j but I have brought 

 thee up like my child : I never beat nor chid thee ; God pre- 

 serve thee, my dearest, from the looks of the envious ; thou 

 art pretty, thou art sweet, thou art lovely." It may be re^ 

 marked, that the Arabs have great faith in certain supersti- 

 tious charms, which they suppose will protect their horses 

 from accidents. They use talismans written on a piece of 

 triangular paper, which are put into a leathern purse of the 

 same shape, and fastened round the anin.al's neck as a 

 defence against witchcraft from unlucky eyes. A couple of 

 boar's tusks, joined at the extremities by a silver ring, is sus- 

 pended from their mane, to keep them from the farcy. 

 Though the Arabs jusiy boast of their horses, it is a common 

 error that supposes them to be very abundant in that cour.' 

 try. In the Sacred Writings, and down to the time of 

 Mohammed, they are seldom mentioned ; camels being 

 mostly used both in their warlike and predatory excursions. 

 The breed is limited to the fertile pasture-grounds, and it is 

 tjiefe pnly that they thrive ; while the Bedouins whg occupy 



