The Horses of the Sahara and the Manners of the Desert

by E.‏ Daumas

GROOMING, HYGIENE, PROPORTIONS.

Grooming is unknown in the Sahara. The horses are merely wiped down with woollen rags, and covered with very good djellale, or rugs that envelop both the croup and the chest. In truth, labour of this sort is little wanted, the horses being habitually placed in a healthy spot, on raised ground, and sheltered from draughts. Arabs who have observed us grooming our horses morning and evening with elaborate carefulness, pretend that this continual rubbing of the epidermis, especially with the curry-comb, injures their health, and renders them delicate and impressionable, and consequently incapable of supporting the fatigues of war, or at all events more liable to disease.

When the weather is hot and facilities exist for the purpose, the horses are washed morning and evening. Frequently in winter time they are fastened up inside the tents, which are very roomy, to shelter them from the sun and rain. The great thing is to keep them clean. One day a horse was led up to the Prophet who examined it, rose up, and without saying a word, wiped his face, eyes, and nostrils with the sleeves of his under-garment. "What! with your own garments!" exclaimed the bystanders. "Certainly," replied he; "the Angel Gabriel has more than once rebuked me, and has commanded me to act thus."

In winter the covering is kept on day and night; and in summer until three o'clock when it is taken off, but put on again at eight for the whole night, to preserve the animal from cold and dew, which are all the more dangerous, say the Arabs, because the skin has been heated throughout the day by a burning sun. The following proverb expresses their dread of the cold of summer nights:—

The cold of summer

Is worse than a sabre cut.

If the Arabs do not, like ourselves, attach much importance to grooming, they are, on the other hand, very careful and particular in their choice of the food, and above all of the water, they give to their horses. Many a time during the early days of the conquest, while on an expedition, after long marches in an intolerable heat, with a south wind blowing that choked us and drove the dust and sand into our faces, when horse and foot alike panting, exhausted, without power of motion, we delivered ourselves up, worn out as we were, to a fatiguing sleep often interrupted by the alerts caused by the enemy prowling around us—at such a time I have seen the natives go a league from the bivouac in order to water their horses at some pure spring known to themselves. They preferred to risk their own lives to experiencing the pain of watering their horses at the scanty rivulets in the encampment, quickly converted into filthy drains by the trampling of men and beasts of burden.

It can hardly be necessary for me to dilate any farther on the hygiene of the horse among the Arabs. Indeed, I could only repeat what I have already said. It seems to me preferable to refer the reader to the various details scattered through the preceding pages, and particularly to the principles enunciated in the chapter on the education of the colt. If I have made myself at all understood, I have shown how every owner of a horse among the Arabs is an active, vigilant, I had almost said devoted, master who watches and directs the progress, corrects the defects, and perfects the qualities of his pupil from the very first day. This education embraces every thing, including what I may fairly call the moral faculties; and it augments, modifies, and improves the physical qualities. Every thing is weighed and foreseen. The drink, the diet, the exercise, the position in rest, the whole is graduated and proportioned to age, place, and season; it is all the object of incessant and sustained solicitude. Moreover, the grand principle, and I myself think it a good one, seems to be to avoid, on one hand, excessive fatness which is opposed to all energetic work, and, on the other, any check to perspiration which is the cause of the greater number of diseases. Once more, the question is not: is all this care well founded? are they wrong, or are we mistaken? But after having propounded the formula, that in the life of an Arab his most absorbing and almost exclusive occupation is the rearing and training of his horse, I have shown that the Arab is not guided by mere chance, that his is not a blind, inconsiderate passion, as is supposed by those who see him from afar and bestow only a glance on him. Any one who will study him perseveringly, who will examine him, as it were, under the microscope, and analyse his daily acts and doings, will be forced to the conclusion that he is guided by traditional and logical motives. In a word, this education, this careful bringing up, of the horse is based upon fixed and constant principles having for their aim to endow the animal with spirit, bottom, and health. And what is this but hygiene?

The Arabs, says Ben-el-Ouardy, have always preferred good horses to their own children, and they love so much to show them off on occasions of rejoicing that they would deprive themselves of all nourishment rather than see them suffer from hunger and thirst. In the arduous and critical circumstances of life, especially in years of famine, they go so far as to give them the preference over their own persons and families. This is proved both by faithful narratives, and by the chaunts composed by their poets. Witness the verses addressed by the learned Ben-Sassa to the great tribe of the Beni-Aâmer.[^[47]]

Beni-Aâmer, why do I behold your horses

Blemished and changed by misery?

Such a condition cannot be right for them.

Though death has an hour that no man can put back,

Horses are your safeguard:

Give them the good things you yourselves like best;

With pure barley fill their nose-bags,

And with iron furnish their hoofs.

Love horses, and take care of them;

In them alone lie honour and beauty.

In taking care of them, you take care of yourselves,

The Arab who has not a good horse can never aim at renown.

For my part, on this earth, I know no other happiness.

And had I hundreds of gold soulthanis.[^[48]]

I should enjoy them only by sharing them with him.

I would also support my family with them,

And when they came to fail me,

I would humble my pride

Even to beg alms proudly for my friend.

All the treasures of Karoun,[^[49]] without a horse,

Would not make me happy.

Does the north wind begin to blow,

Do the heavens open upon the earth,

Secure your horses from the cold rain.

Keep them warm, they deserve these attentions.

For sports, for war,

Adorn them with your richest saddles,

With bridles embroidered with gold, with superb garments,

And the Prophet will love you.

Sympathise, too, with, the mares of your poor dependents,

When in spite of all their efforts

They have not sufficed for their wants;

Bestow upon them a generous hospitality,

Share with them your ordinary food;

Associate them with your own families,

Many sins will be forgiven you.

The sabres are drawn,

The warriors are in their ranks,

The horse is about to become more precious than a wife.

The fire of battle is kindled,

I guide him into the midst of perils,

He protects me with his head, and his croup,

And makes my enemies to flee.

May Allah preserve this well-maned horse,

Whose eyes flash fire!

Love horses, take care of them,

In them alone lie honour and beauty.

In the Sahara, then, the horse is the noblest creature after man. The most honourable occupation is to rear him, the most delightful pastime is to mount him, the best of all actions is to tend him well.

The Arabs assert that they can tell beforehand, by certain methods, what will be a colt's stature and character when he becomes a horse. These methods vary in different localities, but those most generally adopted are the following:—For the height, they take a cord, and passing it behind the ears and the nape of the neck, they bring the two ends together on the upper lip just below the nostrils. Having established this measure, they apply it to the distance from the foot to the withers. It is an article of belief that the colt will grow as high as this last measurement out-tops the withers.

When it is desired to ascertain the value of a horse by his proportions, they measure with the hand from the extremity of the dock to the middle of the withers, and take note of the number of palms. They then begin again from the middle of the withers to the extremity of the upper lip, passing between the ears. If in the two cases the number of palms is equal, the horse will be good, but of ordinary speed. If the number of palms behind is greater than in front, the horse will have no "go" in him. But if the number of palms between the withers and the extremity of the upper lip is more considerable than in measuring from the tail to the withers, rest assured the animal will have great qualities. The more the number differs to the advantage of the forepart, the greater will be the value of the horse. With such an animal, say the Arabs, they can "strike afar"—go a long distance—thus expressing the pace and bottom promised by such proportions. With a little practice they easily come to judge by the eye so as to have no occasion to measure. While a horse is passing they compare rapidly, starting from the withers, the hindpart with the forepart, and without going into details the animal is judged.

REMARKS BY THE EMIR ABD-EL-KADER.

Passing before a horse the Prophet began to rub his face with his sleeve, saying: "Allah has been wrathful with me because of horses." "Felicity is attached to the forelocks of horses." And it is on their account that their owners can reckon on the aid of Allah. Therefore it is your duty to wipe their forelocks with your hands. A wise man has said:—"The noble labours with his hands without a blush, in three cases; for his horse, for his father, and for his guest."

One mode of judging of a horse is to measure him from the root of the mane close to the withers and descend to the end of the upper lip between the nostrils. They then measure from the root of the mane to the end of the tail-bone, and if the forepart is longer than the hindpart there is no doubt the horse will have excellent qualities. To ascertain if a young horse will grow any more or not, the Arabs measure first from the knee to the highest point situated in the prolongation of the limb above the withers, then from the knee downwards to the beginning of the hair above the coronet (to the crust of the hoof): if these two measures are to one another as two-thirds to one-third, the horse will grow no more. If this proportion does not exist, the animal has not done growing, for it is absolutely necessary that the height from the knee to the withers should represent in a full grown horse exactly double the length of the leg from the knee to the hoof.

In the desert the curry-comb is never used, the horses are cleaned with the nose-bag, which is made of horse hair, and are frequently washed if the weather is favourable. Milk is their ordinary drink. Should it happen to run short, the Arabs do not hesitate to go a considerable distance to find clear and pure water for them. The barley ought to be heavy, very clean, without any bad smell, and completely clear of the impurities which are unavoidably mixed with it in the "silos." The horses are covered with good djellale, which fully protect the loins, the belly, and the chest. They are manufactured in the tribe. Those that are made with care are water proof.

There are some coats which must be preserved with equal attention from cold and from heat. Experience has demonstrated that this is necessary for all horses of a light colour, beginning with the white, the fineness of whose skin makes him very susceptible.

In the sun he melts like butter:

In the rain he melts like salt.

Coats of a dark colour do not need so many precautions. When it is very hot or very cold, the horses are brought inside the tent. In the Sahara the nights are always cool; in summer, as in winter, the animals must be covered. Nothing is overlooked that may avert checked perspiration. After a long journey the saddle is not removed until the horse is dry. Nor do they give him any thing to eat until he has recovered the regularity of his breathing, and for the most part they give him water to drink with the bridle on. Lastly, the encamping grounds are studiously selected. What is preferred is a dry ground, cleared of the stones that might encumber it, on which the horse is placed so that the forequarters shall be a little higher than the hind quarters, and facing as much as possible the master of the tent, who watches him night and day like one of his own children. To place a horse with his forequarters lower than the hind quarters is to ruin his shoulders. Particular care should always be taken of the djellale. A horseman is little respected by the Arabs when it can be said of him:

His horse drinks troubled water,

And his covering is full of holes.