668 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



When God had created Vdara, he called 

 him by his name, and said to liim : — 

 "Elect between the horse and borakV^ 

 Adam replied: — "The most beautiful 

 of the two is the horse ;" and God respon- 

 ded : 



" Weil, thou hast chosen thy glory and 

 the glor}"" of thy sons : while they exist 

 my blessing shall be with them, because I 

 have not created anything that can be 

 more dear to me than man and the horse." 



God also created the horse before the 

 mare, and I believe the proof of this to be 

 that the male is more noble than the 

 female, and besides, more vigorous and 

 enduring. Even when two may be of one 

 species, t!ie one is more impassionate than 

 the other ; and it is the custom of the Di- 

 vinity to create that which is strongest 

 first. That which the horse desires most is 

 the combat and the race ; for this reason 

 it is preferable for war, because it is flee- 

 ter and more inured to fatigue than the 

 mare; and because it partakes of all the 

 feelings of hate and tenderness of its rider. 

 The same thing does not happen in the 

 case of the mare. Suppose a horse and 

 a mare with similar wounds, such as ouglit 

 to produce death ; the horse will resist 

 until it conducts its master out of the field 

 of battle ; the mare, on the contrary, will 

 fall at the moment on the same spot in 

 which it was wounded. There is no doubt 

 whatever as to this, for it is a fact demon- 

 strated by the Arabs ; I have frequently 

 witnessed these cases in our combats, and 

 I have myself experienced it. 



Admitting this, we ])ass to another thing. 

 Did God create the Arab horses before 

 foreign ones (beradine), or these before the 

 Arabs .? 



As a consequence of my first reasoning, 

 all must believe that he created primarily 

 the Arab horses, inasmuch as they are in- 

 contestibly the most noble. On the other 

 hand, the herradines are nothing but a 

 species of a genus, and the Almighty has 

 never created the species before fhe 

 genus. 



And, well — whence proceed the Arab 

 horses of the present day } 



Many historians relate that from the 



t Borah is the animal wliicli served to carry 

 the baggage of Mahouiet in his journeys across 

 to heaven. It resembles a male, and is neither 

 male nor female. 



time of Adam the horse, as all other ani- 

 mals — the gazelle, the ostrich, the buflalo 

 and the ass — has lived in a wild state. 

 According to those, the first person that, 

 after Adam, mounted the horse, was Ish- 

 mael, the father of the Arabs. He was 

 the son of our lord Abraham, the beloved 

 of God. God taught him to call the horses, 

 and when he did so they all assembled 

 unto him ; he possessed himself of the 

 most beautiful and the most fierce, and he 

 tamed them. 



But later, many of these horses tamed 

 and employed by Ishmael lost their purity 

 with time. Only one race was carefully 

 preserved in all its nobleness by Solomon, 

 the son of David, and it is that which is 

 called zad el rakeb (the gift of the rider), 

 to which all the Arab horses of our epoch 

 ovv'e their orio^in. 



It is believed that some Arabs of the 

 tribe of Azed went to the noble Jerusalem 

 to congratulate Solomon on his marriage 

 with the Queen of Sheba. Their mission 

 being ended, they addressed unto him 

 these words : — 



" Oh, prophet of God ! Our country is 

 very distant, our provisions exhausted : al- 

 though thou art a great king, give unto us 

 sufficient that we may return to the bosom 

 of our family : — 



Solomon caused a magnificent colt of 

 the race of Ishmael to be taken from his 

 stables, and he dismissed them, saying : — 



" Behold the provisions with which you 

 are to be refreshed upon the journey. 

 When you are hungry search for wood, 

 kindle a fire, mount your best rider on this 

 horse, and arm him with a trusty lance. 

 You shall scarcely have collected the wood 

 and enkindled the fire ere you shall see 

 him a})pear with the product of an abun- 

 dant hunt. Go, and may God give you 

 his protection." 



The Arabs set forth upon their journey, 

 and did in their first necessity whatsoever 

 Solomon had instnucted them, and neither 

 zebras, nor gazelles, nor ostriches could 

 escape them. 



Enlightened, then, concerning the value 

 of that animal — the present from the son 

 of David — and being already in their 

 country, they devoted themselves to their 

 reproduction, guarding their matches, and 

 thus they obtained this race, to which in 

 gratitude they gave the name zad-el-rakeb. 



This is the race whose fame was after- 



