54 MY horse; my love. 



head of six thousand men to chastise Osman Digma, 

 the Egyptian, he did it effectually, but it was the 

 reckless charges of the Arabs, horse and man, which 

 helped to win the day, and to insure Osman's crush- 

 ing defeat. Then, too. General Gordon, so greatly 

 lamented, showed that the Egyptians could not be 

 made to face the Arabs ; as two thousand of them, 

 armed with Remingtons, were put to ignominious 

 flight by only sixty fierce horsemen of the desert, 

 mounted on the famous Nedj racers, " swift as the 

 wind and tireless as the wolf. 



" The English found the little Arabs most useful 

 in Egypt, too, for they alone could stand the work 

 and the long marches without water, and with scanty 

 food, and carrying immense weights." 



It is in such emergencies that they show their 

 perfection of physical strength, I have no doubt. 

 They are very delightful to ride, are they not? 



"Any one accustomed to riding a pure bred 

 Arabian will never ride any other, for there is all 

 the difference between the ordinary English hackney 

 and the Arab, that there is betwen a cart without 

 springs and a rocking-chair." 



Do they not make fine hunters? 



" In hunting they surpass every other breed ; for 

 they go well to hounds, are natural jumpers, bold 

 fencers, requiring neither whip nor spur. Then 

 they have good tempers, good mouths, easy paces, 

 are fast walkers, trotters, or runners, have undoubted 

 soundness of wind and limb, and can travel scores of 

 miles without fatigue. " 



