AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
¢ ¢ When the envoy, returning from his former mission, 
was encamped near Bagdad, an Arab rode a bright bay 
mare of extraordinary shape and beauty before his tent, 
until he attracted his attention. On being asked if he 
would sell her—‘ What will you give me?’ was the reply. 
‘That depends upon her age; I suppose she is past five?’ 
‘Guess again,’ said he. ‘Four?’ ‘Look at her mouth,’ 
said the Arab, with a smile. On examination, she was 
found to be rising three. This, from her size and symme- 
try, greatly enhanced hervalue. The envoy said, ‘I will 
give you fifty tomans,’ (a coin nearly of the value of a 
pound sterling.) ‘A little more, if you please,’ said the 
fellow, apparently entertained. ‘ Kighty—a hundred.’ 
He shook his head, and smiled. The offer at last came to 
two hundred tomans. ‘Well,’ said the Arab, ‘you need 
not tempt me further—it is of no use. You are a rich 
elchee (nobleman.) You have fine horses, camels, and 
mules, and, I am told, you have loads of silver and gold. 
Now,’ added he, ‘you want my mare, but you shall not 
have her for all you have got.’ 
«¢¢ An Arab sheick, or chief, who lived within fifty 
miles of Bussorah, had a favourite breed of Horses. 
He lost one of his best mares, and could not for a long 
while discover whether she was stolen, or had strayed. 
Some time after, a young man of a different tribe, who had 
long wished to marry his daughter, but had always been 
rejected by the sheick, obtained the lady’s consent, and 
eloped with her. The sheick and his followers pursued, 
but the lover and his mistress, mounted on one Horse, 
made a wonderful march, and escaped. The old chief 
swore that the fellow was either mounted upon the devil, 
or the favourite mare he had lost. After his return, he 
found that the latter was the case; that the lover was the 
thief of his mare as well as his daughter; and that he stole 
the one to carry off the other. The chief was quite grati- 
fied to think he had not been beaten by a mare of another 
breed; and was easily reconciled to the young man, in 
order that he might recover the mare, which appeared an 
object about which he was more solicitous than about his 
daughter.’ 
The enterprising traveller, Major Denham, affords us a 
pleasing instance of the attachment with which the docility 
and sagacity of the Horse, may inspire the owner. He thus 
relates the death of his favourite Arabian, in one of the most 
desert spots of Central Africa. His feelings needed no apolo- 
gy. We naturally honour the man in whom true sensibility 
and undaunted courage, exerted for useful purposes, were 
thus united: —‘ There are few situations in a man’s life in 
which losses of this nature are felt most keenly; and this was 
one of them. It was not grief, but it was something very 
nearly approaching to it; and though I felt ashamed of the 
I 
33 
degree of derangement I suffered from it, yet it was seve- 
ral days before I could get over the loss. Let it, however, 
be remembered that the poor animal had been my support 
and comfort,—nay, I may say, my companion, through 
many a dreary day and night;—had endured both hunger 
and thirst in my service; and so docile, that he would 
stand still for hours in the desert while I slept between 
his legs, his body affording me the only shelter that could 
be obtained from the powerful influence of a noon-day 
sun;—he was yet the fleetest of the fleet, and ever fore- 
most in the chase.’ 
‘¢ Our Horses would fare badly on the scanty nourishment 
afforded the Arabian. The mare usually has but one or two 
meals in the twenty-four hours. During the day she is tied 
to the door of the tent, ready for the Bedouin to spring, at 
a moment’s warning, into the saddle; or she is turned 
out before the tent ready saddled, the bridle merely taken 
off, and so trained that she gallops up immediately at her 
master’s call. At night she receives a little water; and 
with her scanty provender of five or six pounds of barley, 
or beans, and sometimes a little straw, she lies down con- 
tent in the midst of her master’s family. She can, how- 
ever, endure great fatigue; she will travel fifty miles with- 
out stopping; she has been pushed, on emergency, one 
hundred and twenty miles; and, occasionally, neither she 
nor her rider has tasted food for three whole days. 
[ Zo be continued. | 
THE LION. 
TuE most interesting object of a menagerie is probably 
its Lion; and there are few persons who are not familiar 
with the general appearance of this most powerful animal. 
To behold, in perfect security, that creature which is the 
terror of all travellers in the regions where he abounds; 
which is said to be able to bear off a buffalo on his back, 
and crush the skull of a horse by a single stroke of his paw 
—this is certainly gratifying to a reasonable curiosity. 
The appearance of dignified self-possession which the Lion 
displays when at rest; his general indifference to slight pro- 
vocations; his haughty growl, when he is roused by the 
importunities of his keepers, or the excitement of the mul- 
titude; his impatient roar when he is expecting his daily 
meal, and his frightful avidity, when he is at length ena- 
bled to seize upon his allotted portion;—these are traits of 
his character in confinement, which are familiar to almost 
every one. 
To comprehend the habits of the Lion, we must not be 
