84 



Chapters on Animals. 



"Never," he wrote afterwards, "never had I seen or 

 imagined so lovely a collection. Their stature was indeed 

 somewhat low: I do not think that any came fully up to 

 fifteen hands ; fourteen appeared to me about their average ; 

 but they were so exquisitely well shaped, that want of 

 greater size seemed hardly, if at all, a defect. Remarkably 

 full in the haunches, with a shoulder of a slope so elegant 



Horses from the Parthenon Frieze. 



as to make one, in the words of an Arab poet, go 'raving 

 mad about it; ' a little, a very little saddle-backed, just the 

 curve which indicates springiness without any weakness; 

 a head, broad above, and tapering down to a nose fine 

 enough to verify the phrase of 'drinking from a pint-pot' 

 — did pint-pots exist in Nejed; a most intelligent and yet a 

 singularly gentle look, full eye, sharp, thorn-like little ear; 

 legs, fore and hind, that seemed as if made of hammered 

 iron, so clean and yet so well twisted with sinew; a neat 



