3?A 
COMMON HORSE. 
by fatigue and hunger, and he soon becomes an 
useful domestic animal. 
The usual manner of trying their swiftness, is by 
hunting the ostrich ; the horse is the only animal 
whose speed is comparable to that of this creature, 
which is found in the sandy plains, with which 
those countries abound. The instant the ostrich 
perceives itself aimed at, it makes to the mountains, 
while the horseman pursues with all the swiftness 
possible, and endeavours to cut off its retreat. 
The chase then continues along the plain, while the 
ostrich makes use of both legs and wings to assist 
its motion. However, a horse of the first speed 
is able to out-run it ; so that the poor animal is 
then obliged to have recourse to art to elude the 
hqnter, by frequently turning : at length, finding 
all escape hopeless, it hides it head wherever it 
can, and suffers itself to be tamely taken. If the 
horse, inUt trial of this kind, shows great speed, 
and is not readily tired, his price becomes propor- 
tionably great, and there are some horses valued at 
a thousand dhcats. 
But the horses thus caught, or trained in this 
manner, are at present but very few ; the value 
of Arabian horses, over all the world, has, in a 
great measure, thinned the deserts of the wild 
breed ; and there are very few to be found in 
those countries, except such as are tame. The 
Arabians, as we are told by historians, first be- 
gan the management of, horses in the time of 
Sheque Ismael. Before that, they wandered wild 
along the face of the country, neglected and use- 
less ; but the native then first began to tame their 
fierceness, and to improve their beauty, ; so that 
at present they possess a race of the most beautiful 
horses in the world, w ith which they drive a trade, 
and furnished the stables of princes at immense 
prices. 
