ARAB HORSES. 



347 



at present, however, the number is greatly re- 

 duced. They require as much nursing as Euro- 

 pean dogs : in the morning they must be pick- 

 eted in the courtyard to 6 smell the air ' ; during 

 the day they must take shelter from the sun 

 under a long cajan-roofed shed ; they must at 

 all times be defended from rain and dew; and 

 they must be fed with dry fodder — here, as in 

 Paraguay, the belief is that the indigenous 

 green meat becomes fatal to imported beasts. We 

 found the treatment very rough. The animals 

 were ungroomed, and mostly they had puffed 

 legs, the result of being kept standing night and 

 day upon a slope of hard boarding. Amongst 

 them I was shown a curious Xejdi, which re- 

 minded me of Lady Hester Stanhope's pam- 

 pered beasts ; the coat was silver-white, the 

 shoulders were pinkish, and the saddle-back 

 amounted almost to a deformity. The favourite 

 charger of the late Sayyid is a little bay with 

 black points, standing about 14 hands 2 inches : 

 its straight fetlocks are well fitted for stony 

 ground, it wears the mane almost upon the 

 withers, and the shoulder is well thrown back, 

 barely leaving room for the saddle. The hind- 

 quarter, that weak point in the Arab, is firmly 

 and strongly made, and the tail is thin, switch- 



