ARABIAN HORSES. 279 
bred. He comes of the same stock which produced 
the English thoroughbred, and he has had the very 
best of training in running away from wolves and in 
hunting his fodder. In other words, with him the 
species is a survival of the fittest. .. Barring his 
attenuated form, which comes from his annual starv- 
ing, he is one of the most astonishing creatures ever 
made.” 
The last touch of romance is added to the Bedouin 
when we learn that he is not in any sense a horse- 
dealer. The town Arab is often a dealer in horses, 
but the Arab of the desert treasures the glorious 
animal for his own sake, and not as a merchantable 
commodity. If he has a mare to sell, there she is, — 
you may take her or leave her; but the owner will 
make no attempt to exaggerate her virtues or to 
apologize for her defects. ‘He knows little of 
showing off a horse, or even of making him stand to 
advantage; but, however anxious he may be to sell 
him, brings him just as he is, dirty and ragged, tired, 
and perhaps broken-kneed. He has a supreme con- 
tempt himself for everything except blood in his 
beast, and he expects everybody else to have the 
same.” The Arabian horse is frequently blemished 
by lance wounds and other injuries, and especially 
from firing with the hot iron. This is the sovereign 
remedy among the Arabs for man and horse, and 
upon both animals it is practised to a cruel and 
ridiculous degree. Mr. Palgrave mentions one case 
where a deep circular wound had been burned upon 
the skull of an insane man, the injury being suffi- 
ciently great to cause the madness which it was 
intended to cure. 
