ANIMALS. i?? 



pens to fall, they are so manageable that they stand still in the 

 midst of their most rapid career. The Arabian horses are of a 

 middle size, easy in their motions, and rather inclined to leanness 

 thaii fat They are regularly dressed every morning and even- 

 ing, and with such care that the smallest roughness is not left 

 upon their skins. They wash the legs, the mane, and the tail, 

 which they never cut ; and which they seldom comb, lest they 

 should thin the hair. They give them nothing to eat during the 

 day ; they only give them to drink once or twice ; and at sun-set 

 they hang a bag to their heads in which there is about half a 

 bushel of clean barley. They continue eating the whole night, and 

 the bag is again taken away the next morning. They are tiu-ned 

 out to pasture in the beginning of March, when the grass is 

 pretty high, and at which time the mares are given to the stal- 

 lion. When the spring is past, they take them again from pas- 

 ture, and they get neither grass nor hay during the rest of the 

 year; barley is their only food, except now and then a little 

 straw. The mane of the foal is clipped when about a year or 

 eighteen months old, in order to make it stronger and thicker. 

 They begin to break them at two years old, or two years and 

 a half at farthest ; they never saddle nor bridle them till at that 

 age ; and then they are always kept ready saddled at the door of 

 the tent, from morning till sun.set, in order to be prepared against 

 any surprise. They at present seem sensible of the great advan- 

 tage their horses are to the country; there is a law, therefore, that 

 prohibits the exportation of the mares ; and such stallions as are 

 brought into England are generally purchased on the eastern 

 shores of Africa, and come round to us by the Cape of Good 

 Hope. They are in general less in stature than our own, being 

 not above fourteen, or fourteen hands and a half high : their mo- 

 tions are much more graceful and swifter than of our own 

 horses ; but nevertheless, their speed is far from being equal ; 

 they run higher from the ground ; their stroke is not so long 

 and close ; and they are far inferior in bottom. Still, however, 

 they must be considered as the first and finest breed in the world, 

 and that from which all others have derived their principal quali- 

 fications. It is even probable that Arabia is the original coun- 

 try of horses ; since there, instead of crossing the breed, they 

 take every precaution to keep it entire. In other countries they 

 must continually change the races, or their horses would soon 



