l66 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE. 



was a mare of great reputation for beauty and swiftness, 

 which a member of another tribe named Daber desired to 

 possess. Having failed to obtain her by offering all he was 

 worth, he sought to effect his object by stratagem. Disguised 

 as a lame beggar he waited by a roadside, knowing that 

 Nabee, the owner of the horse, would shortly pass that way. 

 As soon as Nabee appeared, Daber cried out tp him, begging 

 assistance and pretending to be too weak to rise. Nabee 

 thereupon dismounted from the mare, and helped the beggar 

 to mount her. The moment he was mounted Daber declared 

 himself and made off. Nabee called to him to stop, and on 

 his turning round said to him, "Thou hast my mare, since 

 it pleased God I wish you success but I conjure thee tell no 

 one how thou hast come by her." "Why not?" said Daber. 

 " Lest others should refrain from charity because I have been 

 duped," said Nabee, whereupon Daber dismounted and 

 returned the mare. 



The Domestic The Horse has only to be known to be loved. 

 Horse. and has only to be loved to become the most 

 tractable, patient, and useful of animals. "In the domestic 

 horse," says Colonel Smith, "we behold an animal equally 

 strong and beautiful, endowed with great docility and no less 

 fire; with size and endurance joined to sobriety, speed, and 

 patience; clean, companionable, emulous, even generous; for- 

 bearing, yet impetuous; with faculties susceptible of very 

 considerable education, and perceptions which catch the 

 spirit of man's intentions, lending his powers with the utmost 

 readiness, and restraining them with as ready a compliance : 

 saddled or in harness, labouring willingly, enjoying the sports 

 of the field and exulting in the tumult of the battle; used 

 by mankind in the most laudable and necessary operations, 

 and often the unconscious instrument of the most sanguinary 

 passions ; applauded, cherished, then neglected, and ultimately 

 abandoned to the authority of bipeds who often show little 

 superiority of reason and much less of temper.'' " One who, 



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