THE HORSE OF BARBARV. 423 



form this distance. Nevertheless, the horse which has accomplished this 

 distance ought to be spared the next day." He then describes one of 

 his own forays: "We completed our excursion thither and back, in 

 twenty or twenty-five days. During this interval our horses had no 

 barley to eat except what their riders could carry, eight feeds apiece 

 Our horses went without drinking one day or two, and on one occasion 

 three days. The horses of the derert do much more than this." The 

 Arabs commence to educate their foals early. In the first year, con- 

 tinues the Emir, they teach the horse to be led with the rescun, a sort of 

 bridle ; they call him djcda, and begin to tie him up. When he is two 

 years old he is ridden for a mile, then for two, then for a parasang 

 (nearly four miles). The Arabs have a proverb, " In the first year tie 

 him up, for fear of accident; in the second, ride him till his back bends; 

 in the third, tie him up again." Respecting the feeding of the horse, he 

 writes : " Offer it to the horse saddled and bridled, as the proverb says: 

 ' Water with the bridle, barley with the saddle.' ' To give drink at sun- 

 rise makes a horse lean ; in the evening, fat ; in the middle of the day, it 

 keeps him in condition.' In the great heats they give water only ever) 

 other day." Abd-el-Kader concludes with a string of proverbs: 

 "Horses are birds without wings." "For horses, nothing is distant." 

 " He who forgets the beauty of horses for the beauty of women will 

 never prosper"- and finally drops into poetry: 



" Love horses, care for ihem, 

 Spire no trouble for them, 

 By them comes beaut)', by them honor." 



He repeatedly insists on the necessity of keeping the horse free from 

 nil servile employment, and relates the following story : " A man was 

 riding on a horse of pure race. He was met by his enemy, also mounted 

 on a noble courser. One pursued the other ; he who gave chase was 

 distanced by him who fled. The former shouted, 'I ask you, in the 

 name of God, has your horse ever worked on the land?' 'He has 

 worked for four days.' ' Mine has never worked ! By the head of the 

 Prophet, I am sure of catching you.' Toward the end of the day the 

 pursuer began to gain. He soon succeeded in fighting with the man 

 whom he had given up all hopes of reaching." 



While the horse of Arabia has only become famous recently, the 

 horse of Barbary has been famed since the light Numidian cavalry of 



