1 88 The Post and the Paddock. 



is said that 4000/. was offered by an aide-de-camp of the Emperor of 

 Russia for the celebrated ' White Hamdani,' and refused. This horse, 

 now in the breeding yard of St. Cloud, near Paris, had, according to 

 the woi-ds of Mohammed Agha and the attendants, who brought him 

 over, three or four imlucky signs, on which account he had been re- 

 jected from the stables of the Pacha of Egypt. These marks, which we 

 should consider merely as a simple freak of nature, would inspire a 

 Mussulman either with a superstitious prejudice against the horse, or an 

 incredible longing to mount him ; each mark bearing a particular signi- 

 fication according to the place it occupies, and the size and softness of 

 the hair." 



An Arab horse has, in fact, forty recognised marks, 

 twenty-eight of which are negative, and the other 

 twelve have an influence for happiness or misery on 

 the owner. The mark between the ears shows swift- 

 ness, that on the girths increases the flocks, while 

 that on the breast fills the tent with plunder ; and it 

 is especially unlucky for the hair to curl on the legs. 

 The rival tribes are as jealous among themselves of 

 the pure caste of their horses as the great short-horn 

 breeders were wont to be, in the days when a baronet 

 rather despised the herds of an earl, from a belief that 

 their muzzles had a slight dark tinge, which bespoke 

 a distant relationship to the Scotch ox or the Chilling- 

 ham rangers. 



Judging from his portraits, we should be disposed 

 to side with those who considered that Lord Godol- 

 phin's celebrated horse was more of a Barb than an 

 Arab. Hence, if this point is conceded at Gogmagog, 

 we have the Godolphin Barb, the Byerley Turk, and 

 the Darley Arabian, standing boldly out from the 

 croud of Hemsley Turks, Sedley Arabians, Curwen 

 Barbs, &c. (the importation of which was supposed to 

 lay counties under a deathless obligation to their 

 great families), as the three honoured founders — the 

 Shem, Ham, and Japhet, as they have been styled — 

 of English blood stock. It was not until seventy years 

 after the Byerley Turk had borne his owner at the 

 Battle of the Boyne that his memory was made fa- 

 mous by King Herod. This sire of Highflyer was 



