212 
THE STUD OF EMIR BESCHIR. 
troduced ten minutes, or a quarter of an hour, if not altogether with 
impunity, yet without the serious compromise of life. In order to 
comprehend the great difference in these cases, we must admit 
that the air acts in a more deleterious way in the human being 
than in animals — a fact that has been very satisfactorily demon- 
strated ; or that the state of exhaustion in which the subjects of the _ 
operation find themselves, whether from pain, or the loss of blood, 
or the re-action of the nervous system, too powerfully seconds the 
injurious effects of the air — a circumstance not very probable — or 
the position in which the subject to be operated on is placed, and 
which may too much favour the determination of the air towards 
the brain. The impression on the mind of the person operated 
upon, at the moment when the air is introduced into the heart, is 
another circumstance not to be overlooked in our inquiry into the 
sudden death which then occurs. 
THE STUD OF EMIR BESCHIR. 
No one can form an idea of the Arabian horse who has not visited the sta- 
bles of Damascus, or those of the Emir Beschir. This superb and graceful 
animal loses its beauty, its gentleness, its picturesque shape when transplanted 
from its native soil and its customary habits to our cold climate, and to the 
shade and solitude of our stables. It must be seen near the tent of the Arab 
of the desert, its head gracefully in action between its legs, shaking its long 
black mane like a moving parasol, and brushing its beautifully polished sides, 
shining like silver, with the turning sweep of its tail, the extremity of which 
is always dyed of a purple colour. It must be seen with its splendid cloths, 
embroidered with gold and pearl ; its head covered with a net of blue or red 
silk, worked with gold or silver lace, terminating in dangling points falling 
upon its nostrils, by which he alternately veils or exposes to view, at each un- 
dulation of the neck, the fiery, proud, broad, intelligent, though gentle ball of 
the protruding eye. It must be seen, as at that moment, mixed in a group 
of two or three hundred ; some lying in the dust, others kept in check by 
iron rings and fastened to long ropes which cross the courts ; others again 
escaping to the sands, and leaping at a bound over the lines of camels which 
impede their course ; others were held in hand by young black slaves, dressed 
in scarlet vests, resting their caressing heads upon the shoulders of these, as 
it were, their children ; others playing together without restraint like colts in 
a field, springing upon each other, rubbing their foreheads, or mutually licking 
their beautifully shining and silvery sides ; their eyes fixed upon us with anx- 
ious curiosity, owing to our European costume and novel accents ; but soon 
growing familiar, and gracefully holding out their necks to our caressing and 
coaxing touch. The intelligence observable in the physiognomy of these 
horses exceeds all belief; their thoughts are depicted in their eyes, and in the 
convulsive motion of their lips and nostrils, in as striking a manner as the ex- 
pression of the soul upon a child’s countenance . — Pilgrimage to the Holy Land , 
by Alphonse de Lamartine, in 1832 and 1833. 
[This is, indeed, painting con amore; but we can forgive a little exuberance 
of imagination on such a subject. — Y.] 
