328 
COMMON HORSE. 
succession, without any diminution either of force 
or beauty.'" 
The race of Arabian horses has spread itself 
into Barbary, among; the Moors, and has even ex- 
tended across that extensive continent to the western 
shores of Africa. Among the negroes of Gambia 
and Senegal, the chiefs of the country are possessed 
of horses ; which, though little, are very beautiful,, 
and extremely manageable. Instead of barley, 
they are fed in those countries with maize, bruised 
and reduced into meal, and mixed up with milk 
when they design to fatten them. These are con- 
sidered as next to the Arabian horses, both for 
swiftness and beauty ; but they are rather still 
smaller than the former. The Italians have a 
peculiar sport, in which horses of this breed run 
against each other. They have no riders, but 
saddles so formed as to flap against the horses' 
sides as they move, and thus to spur them forward. 
They are set to run in a kind of railed walk, about 
a mile long, out of which they never attempt to 
escape ; but, when they once set forward, they 
never stop, although the walk from one end to 
the other is covered with a crowd of spectators, 
which opens and gives way as the horses approach. 
Our horses would scarcely, in this manner, face a 
crowd, and continue their speed, without a rider, 
through the midst of a multitude ; and, indeed, 
it is a little surprising how in such a place, the 
horses ■ find their own \yay. However, what our 
English horses may want in sagacity, they make 
up by their swiftness ; and it has been found upon 
computation, that their speed is nearly one fourth 
greater, even carrying a rider, than that of the 
swiftest barb without one. 
The Arabian breed has been diffused into Egypt 
as well as Barbary, and into Persia also ; where. 
