190 
A CRUSADE IN THE EAST. 
seen an American ride better than I did, only the horse was 
not used to being managed in the American fashion. 
“ Eh ! Perhaps you allude to the way I let go the reins, 
and seized him by the mane ?” 
“To that most certainly I do refer,” replied Yusef; “he 
doesn’t understand it; none of the horses in Syria understand 
it.” 
“No,” said I, “very few horses do. None but the best 
riders in America dare to undertake such a thing as that. 
Did you see how I let my feet come out of the stirrups, and 
rode without depending at all upon the saddle ?” 
“ Most truly I did ; and exceedingly marvelous it was to 
me that you were not thrown. Any but a very practiced 
rider would have been flung upon the ground in an instant. 
But wherefore, 0 General, do you ride in that dangerous 
way ?” 
“ Because it lifts the horse from the ground and makes him 
go faster. Besides, when you don’t pull the bridle, of course 
you don’t hurt his mouth or stop his headway.” 
Yusef assented to this, with many exclamations of surprise 
at the various customs that prevail in different parts of the 
world ; maintaining, however, that the Syrian horses not be¬ 
ing used to it, perhaps it would be better for me in view of 
our journey to learn the Syrian way of guiding and controlling 
horses ; which I agreed to do forthwith. We then sat down 
and had some coffee and chiboucks; and while I smoked Yu¬ 
sef enlightened me on all the points of Syrian horsemanship : 
how I was to raise my arms wdien I wanted the horse to go 
on, and hold them up when I wanted him to run, and let 
them down when I wanted him to stop ; how I was to lean a 
little to the right or the left, and by the slightest motion of the 
bridle guide him either way ; how I was to lean back or for¬ 
ward in certain cases, and never to trot at all, as that was a 
most unnatural and barbarous gait, unbecoming both to horse 
and rider. Upon these and a great many other points he 
descanted learnedly, till the boy arrived with my hat; when, 
paying all actual expenses for coffee and chiboucks, we dis¬ 
tributed a small amount of backshish among the boys who 
