20 FOREIGN BREEDS OF HORSES. 



generally broken in in a far severer way, and much earlier than he ought to 

 be, and therefore he usually becomes unfit for service long before the Arabian. 

 The usual food of the barb is barley and chopped straw, and grass while it is 

 to be found, but of the provision for winter food in the form of hay they are 

 altogether ignorant. 



Captain Brown, in his Biographical Sketches of Horses, gives the following 

 interesting account of a barb and his rider, at the Cape of 'Good Hope : — In one 

 of the violent storms which often occur there, a vessel in the road dragged her 

 anchors, and was forced on the rocks, and beaten to pieces. The greater part 

 of the crew perished immediately, but some few were seen from the shore cling- 

 ing to different pieces of the wreck. No boat could venture to their assistance. 

 Meanwhile a planter came from his farm to see the shipwreck, and perceiving 

 no other chance of escape for the survivors, and knowing the spirit of his horse 

 and his excellence as a swimmer, he determined to make one desperate effort 

 for their deliverance, and pushed into the midst of the breakers. At first both 

 disappeared, but they were soon seen on the surface. Nearing the wreck, he 

 induced two of the poor fellows to quit their hold and to cling to his hoots, and 

 so he brought them safe ashore. He repeated this perilous expedition seven 

 times, and saved fourteen lives ; but on his return, the eighth time, his horse 

 being much fatigued, and meeting with a formidable wave, the rider lost his 

 balance and was overwhelmed in a moment. The horse swam safely to land, 

 but his gallant rider was seen no more. The Cape was then a colony of the 

 Dutch. The Directors christened one of their new vessels after him, and ordered 

 a pillar to be erected to his memory, but the local authorities refused to the 

 son a trifling place which his father filled *. 



The barb improves towards the Western coast of Africa, both in his form 

 and graceful action. 



Deep in the Sahara Desert is a noble breed of barbs, known by the name of 

 the " Wind-sucker or the Desert- horse." Jackson says of him that the Desert- 

 horse is to the common Barbary horse what the Desert-camel is to the usual 

 camel of burden ; but that he can only be induced to eat barley or wheat — oats 

 are never given to horses in Africa ; but that, supplied with a little camel's 

 milk, he will travel almost incredible distances across the Desert. He is prin- 

 cipally employed in hunting the antelope and the ostrich. 



There is some little exaggeration, however, about this, for when he is brought 

 towards the coast, and can no longer get his camel's milk, he will eat the barley 

 and the straw which are given to him, and will thrive and get fat upon them. 

 If he chances to die, it is from being suffered to gorge too much of his new 

 food ; or if he loses a portion of his speed and wind, it is because he has been 

 taken out of his exercise, and permitted to accumulate flesh and fat too fast. 



More in the centre of Africa, in the kingdom of Bournou, is a breed, which 

 Mr. Tully, in his almost romantic history of Tripoli, reckons superior even 

 to those of Arabia or Barbary ; it possesses, according to him, the best qualities 

 of both those breeds, being as serviceable as that of Arabia, and as beautiful as 

 that of Barbary. 



On the south of the Great Sahara Desert we find again the Arabian or the 

 Barbary horse in the possession of some of the chiefs of the Foulahs and the 

 Jalofs ; but the general character of the animal is in those torrid regions much 

 deteriorated. These horses are small, weak, unsafe, and untractable. The 

 Foulahs, however, can bring into the field no fewer than 16,000 cavalry. Some 

 writers have asserted, that in the kingdom of Benin a much larger number 

 could be collected. 



In the country lying between that of the Foulahs and the kingdom of Benin 

 • De Page's Travels Round the World, and Sharman's Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope. 



