420 UNGULATA. 



An old Arab had a valuable mare that had carried him for fifteen 

 years in many a rapid weary march, and many a hard-fought battle ; at 

 length, eighty years old, and unable longer to ride her, he gave, her and 

 a scimitar that had been his father's to his eldest son, and told him to 

 appreciate their value, and never lie down to rest until he had rubbed 

 them both as bright as a mirror. In the first skirmish in which the 

 young man was engaged, he was killed, and the mare fell into the hands 

 of the enemy. When the news reached the old man, he exclaimed that 

 " life was no longer worth preserving, for he had lost both his son and 

 his mare, and he grieved for one as much as the other." He imme- 

 diately sickened, and soon afterward died. 



The following anecdote of the attachment of an Arab to his mare has 

 often been told : " The whole stock of an Arab of the desert consisted of 

 a mare. The French consul offered to purchase her, in order to send 

 her to his sovereign, Louis XIV. The Arab would have rejected the 

 proposal, but he was miserably poor ; he had scarcely a rag to cover 

 him, and his wife and his children were starving. The sum offered was 

 great — it would provide him and his family with food for life. At 

 length, and reluctantly, he yielded. He brought the mare to the dwell- 

 ing of the consul, dismounted, and stood leaning upon her ; he looked 

 now at the gold, and then at his favorite. ' To whom is it,' said he, ' I 

 am going to yield thee up ? To Europeans, who will tie thee close, who 

 will beat thee, who will render thee miserable. Return with me, my 

 beauty, my jewel, and rejoice the hearts of my children.' Thus speak- 

 ing, he sprang upon her back, and was out of sight in an instant." 



The Arab horse would not be acknowledged by every judge to pos- 

 sess a perfect form. The head, however, is inimitable. The broadness 

 and squareness of forehead, the smalhiess of the ears, the prominence 

 and brilliance of the eye, the shortness and fineness of the muzzle, the 

 width of nostril, the thinness of the lower jaw, and the beautifully devel- 

 oped course of the veins, are always striking characteristics. The body 

 is too light, and the chest too narrow, but the barrel is roomy, the neck 

 is long and arched, and beautifully joined to the chest, the withers are 

 high, the shoulder-blade well sloped, and though covered with plenty of 

 miscle, has no appearance of heaviness. 



The fineness of the legs and the oblique position of the pasterns 

 •light be supposed by the uninitiated to lessen his apparent strength, but 

 >e leg, although small, is deep, and composed of bone of the densest 



