that he might recover the mare, which appeared an object about which he was more solicitous than about his daughter."*

The poverty of the Arabs enables them to afford but scanty nourishment to their horses. Besides the dry aromatic herbage they may chance to pick up, the Arabian horse usually has but one or two meals in twenty-four hours. At night it receives a little water; and five or six pounds of barley or beans and a little straw. In Nedjed the horses are regularly fed on dates, and the fragments of any provisions that may be used by the inhabitants; and some writers have even asserted, that flesh, raw as well as boiled, is given them by the wealthy people, a practice in the prevalence of which we are not inclined to place much faith. Very little water is given, as the Arabs conceive (and justly) that much liquid injures the horse's shape and affects

his wind.

The colt is mounted after its second year, when the Arab on all other occasions so kind to his horse, puts it to a cruelly severe trial. The colt, or filly, is led out to be mounted for the first time; its master springs on its back, and rides at full speed for perhaps fifty miles, over sand and rock of the burning desert, without one

* Malcolm's Sketches of Persia, vol 1, p. 45.

moment's respite. He then plunges it into water enough to swim, and if immediately after this, it will eat as if nothing had happened, its purity of blood and staunchness are considered incontrovertible.

Such is the account handed down to us by respectable authorities, who in their turn received it from the Arabs themselves; but some allowance should be made for the proneness to exaggerate for which all eastern nations are remarkable, more especially the Arabians; and glorying as they justly do in the prowess of their beautiful steeds, it is not to be wondered at, if they should sometimes enlarge upon it to foreigners.

The greatest care is exercised in breeding the kohlan, or kailhan, the noble race; much ceremony takes place as well at the union of these animals as at the birth of the foal; and a certificate is made out, and properly authenticated, within seven days after that event. It is generally believed that pedigrees of the noble race of horses exist of not less than five hundred years, with sire and dam distinctly traced. The following pedigree is mentioned by Weston, in his Fragments of Oriental Literature: it was found hanging round the neck of an Arabian horse purchased by Colonel Ainslie, during the last campaign in Egypt against the French.

"In the name of God, the merciful and compassionate, and of Seyd Mohammed, agent of the High God, and of the companions of Mohammed and of Jerusalem. Praised be the Lord, the omnipotent Creator. This is a high bred horse, and its colt's tooth is here in a bag about his neck, with his pedigree, and of undoubted authority, such as no infidel can refuse to believe. He is the son of Rabbaing, out of the dam Lahadah, and equal in power to his sire, of the tribe of Zazhalah. He is finely moulded, and made for running like an ostrich, and great in his stroke, covering much ground. In the honors of relationship he reckons Zaluah, sire of Mahat, sire of Kallack, and the unique Alket, sire of Manasseth, sire of Alshek, father of the race down to the famous horse the sire of Lakalala; and to him be ever abundance of green meat, and corn and water of life, as a reward from the tribe of Zazhalah, for the fire of his cover; and may a thousand branches shade his carcase from the hyena of the tomb, from the howling wolf of the desert; and let the tribe of Zazhalah present him with a festival within an enclosure of walls; and let thousands assemble at the rising of the sun, in troops, hastily, where the tribe holds up, under a canopy of celestial signs, within the walls, the saddle with the name and family of the possessor. Then let them

strike the hands with a loud noise incessantly, and pray God for immunity for the tribe of Zoab, the inspired tribe."

Next to the Arabian blood, we are indebted to the Barb for our present breed of thorough bred horses. This breed is from Barbary, and particularly from Morocco and Fez, and the interior of Tripoli; and remarkable for its beautiful form and graceful action. The barb was very early introduced into this country. The Godolphin Barb, or as he has been improperly called, the "Godolphin Arabian," of whom we have presented our readers with a cut,* was the origin of some of our best racing blood; and others of our most celebrated race horses trace their descent from the African mares imported by Charles II.

* For further particulars of this celebrated horse, vide p. 86.

The climate and soil of the native country of the barb, peculiarly resemble those of Arabia, while the treatment of the horses is very similar in both countries.

Besides these two celebrated breeds, we have imported both Persian, Turkish and East Indian horses.

In Fars

Persia, from the remotest ages, has been celebrated for its horses. Sir John Malcolm observes : "A variety of horses are produced in Persia. The inhabitants of the districts which border on the gulf, still preserve pure those races of animals which their ancestors brought from the opposite shore of Arabia. and Irak they have a mixed breed from the Arabian, which, though stronger, is still a small horse, compared with either the Toorkoman or Khorassan breed, which are most prized by the soldiers of Persia. Both these latter races have also a great proportion of Arabian blood."

The Persian horse and its management is thus described by Sir Robert Ker Porter :

"The Persian horses never exceed fourteen or fourteen and a half hands high; yet certainly, on the whole, are taller than the Arabs. Those of the desert, and country about Hillah, seem very small, but are full of bone, and of good speed. General custom feeds and waters them

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