88 ANECDOTE. 



with the trial of the young Arabian. Probably the filly has 

 never before been mounted ; she is led out ; her owner springs 

 on bfir oack, and goads her over the sand and rocks of the desert 

 at full speed for fifty or sixty miles without one moment's respite. 

 She IS then forced, steaming and panting, into water deep enough 

 for her to swim. If, immediately after this, she will eat as if 

 nothing had occurred, her character is established, and she is 

 acknowledged to be a genuine descendant of the Kochlani 

 breed. The Arab is not conscious of the cruelty which he thus 

 inflicts. It is an invariable custom, and custom will induce us 

 to inflict many a pang on those whom, after all, we love. 



The following anecdote of the attachment of an Arab to his 

 mare has olten been told, but it comes home to the bosom 

 of every one possessed of common feeling. " 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 at once 

 with mdignation and scorn ; but he was miserably poor. He 

 had no means of supplying his most urgent wants, or procuring 

 the barest necessaries of life. Still he hesitated ; — he had 

 scarcely a rag to cover him — and his wife and children were 

 starving. The sura ofliered was great, — it would provide him 

 and his family with food for life. At length, and reluctantly, he 

 consented. He brought the mare to the dwelling of the consul, — 

 he dismounted, — he stood leaning upon her ; — he looked now at 

 the gold, and then at his favorite ; he sighed — ^he wept. ' 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.' As he pronounced the last 

 words, he sprung upon her back, and was out of sight in a mo- 

 ment." 



Our horses would fare badly on the scanty nourishment afforded 

 the Arabian. The mare usually has but one or two meals in 

 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 sad- 

 dled, 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 

 content, in the midst of her master's family. She can, however, 

 ■endure great fatigue ; she will travel fifty miles without 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. 



