THE MODERI ARAB. . 37 



stitute the dai^ allowance of corn, which is about the weight of 

 half a peck of good oats, and would be considered poor feed by 

 our English horses, unless the proportion of beans is very large. 



The colors of the Arabian horses are mostly bay. chestnut, 

 and gray, but occasionally black. The skin itself of the gray 

 horses is of a deep slate color, and the manes and tails are darker 

 than the rest of the body. 



The speed of the Arabs, which have recently been brought 

 over to this country, is undoubtedly not nearly equal to that of 

 our thorough-bred horses for courses of moderate length, that is, 

 not exceeding two miles ; and there is no reason to believe that at 

 longer distances there would be an essential difference in the result. 

 In the Goodwood Cup an allowance is made them of a stone, yet 

 no Arab has ever had a chance of winning, and as far as this test 

 goes they are proved to be inferior to the French and American 

 horses. In India a difference of weight, varying from 1 stone to 

 1 stone 7 pounds, is made in favor of Arabs as against imported 

 English horses, " in order to bring the two together" in racing 

 parlance, yet even then few Arabs can compete with the second- 

 rate horses which are imported from this country. Colonel Bower 

 tells us that "in India the weights range from 7i stone to 10 

 stone, and no uncommon timing for Arabs is 2 minutes and 54 

 seconds the mile and a half; 8 minutes and 52 seconds the 2 

 miles — it has been done in 3 minutes and 48 seconds, and the Arab 

 that did it was once my property, and his name was the Child of 

 the Islands. He was a daisy-cutter, and yet I have ridden him 

 over the roughest ground, and never detected him in a trip. A 

 pleasanter, safer hack could not be, and a fleeter Arab the world 

 never saw. He stood 14 hands 2 inches, bay with black points, 

 wiry limbs, very muscular all over, and measured 7f inches round 

 a fore leg of the finest bone and flattest sinew." This time is as 

 good as that of the average of our Derbys, but the test is a very 

 fallacious one, and unless the time is taken over the same "course, 

 and that in the same running condition, no comparison can pos- 

 sibly be drawn. 



Captain Shakspear, in his recently published work on the 

 *• Wild Sports of India," gives the following most minute descrip- 

 tion of the Arab, a^ he is now met with in India. As it differs in 

 some particulars from the accounts of other observers, I extract it 

 entire. The price of a good Arab, he says, varies from 150/. to 

 200/., and there is plenty of choice in the Bombay and Bengal 

 markets. 



'• The points of the highest caste Arab horse, as compared with 

 the English thorough-bred, are as fdlow : the head is more beauti- 

 fully formed, and more intelligent; the forehead broader; the 

 muzzle finer; the eye more prominent, more sleepy-looking in 

 4 



