446 NATURAL HISTORY OP ARABIA. 



customers, a stranger may take a horse on their word, at 

 first sight or trial, without much risk of heing cheated. 

 Niehuhr alleges that no instance of false testimony 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 

 seU them. D'Arvieux mentions a Syrian merchant who 

 cried most tenderly while caressing his mare, whose ge- 

 nealogy he could trace for 500 years. Rubbing her with 

 his shirt-sleeves, and wiping her forehead with his hand- 

 kerchief, " My eyes," he would say to her, "my heart, 

 must I be so unfortunate as to have thee sold to so 

 many masters, and not to keep thee all myself? I am 

 poor, my antelope ; but I have brought thee up like my 

 child : I never beat nor chid thee : God preserve thee, my 

 dearest, from the looks of the envious ; thou art pretty, 

 thou art sweet, thou art lovely." It may be remarked, that 

 the Arabs have great faith in certain superstitious charms, 

 which they suppose will protect their horses from acci- 

 dents. They use talismans written on a piece of trian- 

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

 same shape, and fastened round the animal'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 suspended from their mane, to keep them from the 

 farcy. Though the Arabs justly boast of their horses, 

 it is a common error that supposes them to be very abun- 

 dant in that country. In the Sacred Writings, and down 

 to the times of Mohammed, they are seldom mentioned ; 

 camels being mostly used both in their warlike and pre- 

 datory excursions. The breed is limited to the fertile 

 pasture-grounds, and it is there only that they thrive ; 

 while the Bedouins who occupy arid districts rarely have 

 any. In Nejed, they are not nearly so numerous as in 

 the rich plains of Syria and Mesopotamia. In Hejaz, 

 they become scarcer; and thence towards Yemen they 

 become fewer still, both the climate and pasture there be- 

 ing reckoned injurious to their health. The great heat 

 of Oman is also deemed unfavourable to them. In 



