CHAPTER XVIII 



FEATS OF EQUINE ENDURANCE 



Lieutenant Lowry's feat, described in the preceding 

 chapter, sinks into insignificance by comparison with the 

 alleged performances of some Arabs and their horses. 

 Among many extraordinary tales of the powers of endur- 

 ance possessed by these biped and quadruped children of 

 the desert, there is one related of an Arab who did eighty 

 leagues in twenty-four hours on his horse. During that 

 time the animal had no food except the leaves of a dwarf 

 palm, which it nibbled during its one rest of an hour. It 

 was watered but once, and that in the middle of the 

 journey ; and the man who narrated the story to a French 

 officer swore by the beard of the Prophet — the most 

 solemn oath a Mussulman can take — that, had his safety 

 required it, he could, on the following night, have slept at 

 a town forty-five leagues farther on ! 



In considering these stories, one must bear in mind the 

 fact that the finest Arab horses never come into the market 

 — they are absolutely unpurchasable, and it is not safe, 

 therefore, to judge of the powers of the Arab horse by the 

 performances of those with which Europeans are familiar. 

 How reluctant the Arab is to part with his horse, and what 

 priceless value it possesses in his eyes, is illustrated by the 

 following : —The whole estate of an Arab of the desert con- 

 sisted of a mare. The French Consul offered to purchase 

 her to send to the Emperor. The Arab would have re- 

 jected the proposal with indignation, but he was miserably 

 poor ; he had no means of procuring the barest necessities 

 of life. Still he hesitated. He had scarcely a rag to cover 

 him, and his wife and children were starving. The sum 

 offered was great : it would provide him and his family with 



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