ON THE ORIGIN OF THE ARAB HORSE.
In all times the horse has been regarded by peoples and Governments as one of the most potent elements of their strength and prosperity. At the present day there is no question relating either to rural economy or to the art of war, more canvassed than that touching the amelioration of the charger. The highest authorities of the State, learned societies, agriculturists, the army, every body, in short, is taken up with it in France, and yet we are very far from being agreed upon it. For my own part, I have never wearied of studying that noble animal, from taste quite as much as from patriotism or professional necessity. I have consulted the most esteemed authors and men of great erudition, but I confess that it is among the Arabs I have met with the most just and practical appreciations of the subject. To obtain the best possible information, I have frequently applied to the Emir Abd-el-Kader, that illustrious chief who, by reason of his exalted position in Mussulman society, his science, and his skill as a horseman, was of all men the most competent to remove the misgivings which still troubled me. The following is the last letter that he wrote to me in reply to certain questions I had proposed to him as to the origin of the Arab horse. It seems to me to contain some very remarkable suggestions, even from a zoological point of view. In any case it is sufficiently curious to justify my expectation that it will prove acceptable to all who, whether at home or abroad, feel an interest in the equine race.
LETTER OF THE EMIR ABD-EL-KADER.
Praise be to the one God!
To him who remains ever the same amidst the revolutions of this world:
To our friend, General Daumas.
Peace be with you, through the mercy and blessing of Allah, on the part of the writer of this letter, on that of his mother, his children, their mother, of all the members of his family and of all his associates.
To proceed: I have read your questions, I address to you my answers.
You ask me for information as to the origin of the Arab horse. You are like unto a fissure in a land dried up by the sun, and which no amount of rain, however abundant, will ever be able to satisfy.
Nevertheless, to quench, if possible, your thirst (for knowledge) I will this time go back to the very head of the fountain. The stream is there always the freshest and most pure.
Know then that among us it is admitted that Allah created the horse out of the wind, as he created Adam out of mud.
This cannot be questioned. Several prophets—peace be with them!—have proclaimed what follows:
When Allah willed to create the horse, He said to the south wind:
"I will that a creature should proceed from thee—condense thyself!"—and the wind condensed itself. Then came the Angel Gabriel, and he took a handful of this matter and presented it to Allah, who formed of it a dark bay or a dark chestnut horse, (koummite—red mingled with black) saying:
"I have called thee horse (frass); I have created thee Arab, and I have bestowed upon thee the colour koummite. I have attached good fortune to the hair that falls between thy eyes. Thou shalt be the lord (sid) of all other animals. Men shall follow thee wheresoever thou goest. Good for pursuit as for flight, thou shalt fly without wings. Upon thy back shall riches repose, and through thy means shall wealth come."
Then He signed him with the sign of glory and of good fortune (ghora, a star in the middle of the forehead).
Do you now wish to know if Allah created the horse before man, or if He created man before the horse? Listen:
Allah created the horse before man, and the proof is that man being the superior creature, Allah would naturally give unto him all that he would require before creating himself.
The wisdom of Allah points out that He made all that is upon the earth for Adam and his posterity.
Here is another testimony to that:
When Allah had created Adam, He called him by his name and said unto him:
"Choose between the horse and Borak."[[1]]
Adam answered: "The fairest of the two is the horse," and Allah replied:
"It is well; thou hast chosen thy glory and the eternal glory of thy children; so long as they shall exist, my blessing shall be upon them, for I have created nothing that is more dear to me than man and the horse."
Likewise Allah created the horse before the mare. My proof is that the male is more noble than the female, and he is, besides more vigourous and potent. Though they are both of the very same species, the one is more impassioned than the other, and the Divine Power is wont to create the stronger of the two the first. What the horse most yearns after is the combat and the race. He is also preferable to the mare for the purposes of war because he is more fleet and patient of fatigue, and because he shares his rider's emotions of hatred or tenderness. It is not so with the mare. Let a horse and a mare receive exactly the same sort of wound, and one that is sure to be fatal, the horse will bear up against it until he has succeeded in carrying his master far from the field of battle; while the mare, on the contrary, will sink at once upon the spot, without any force of resistance. There is not a doubt on the subject—it is a fact known by proof among the Arabs. I have seen frequent instances of it in our combats, and have experienced it myself.
This being granted, let us pass on to another point. Did Allah create the Arab horse before the foreign horse, or did he create the foreign horse before the Arab?
As a consequence of my former argument every thing leads us to believe that He created the Arab before all others, because he is without dispute the most noble. Besides, the foreign horse is only a species of a genus, and the Almighty has in no case created the species before the genus.
Now whence come the Arab horses of the present day?
It is related by many historians that after the time of Adam, the horse—like all other animals, such as the gazelle, the ostrich, the buffalo, and the ass—lived in a wild state. According to these writers the first man who, after Adam, mounted the horse was Ishmael, the father of the Arabs. He was the son of our lord Abraham, beloved of Allah. Allah taught him to call the horses, and when he did so, they all came galloping up to him. He then took possession of the finest and most spirited, and broke them in.
But after a while many of the animals trained and employed by Ishmael lost something of their purity. One single stock was preserved in all its nobleness by Solomon, the son of David, and it is that which is called Zad-el-Rakeb (the gift, the support of the horseman), whence all real Arabs derive their origin in this manner.
There is a tradition that some Arabs of the Azed tribe went up to Jerusalem the Noble to congratulate Solomon on his marriage with the Queen of Saba. Having fulfilled their mission they addressed him as follows:
"O Prophet of Allah! our country is far distant, and our provisions are exhausted: thou art a great king; bestow upon us wherewithal to take us home."
Solomon thereupon gave orders to bring from his stables a magnificent stallion descended from the Ishmael stock, and then dismissed them with these words:
"Behold the provisions which I bestow upon you for your journey. When hunger assails you, gather fuel, light a fire, place your best rider on this horse and arm him with a stout lance. Hardly will you have collected your wood and kindled a flame, when you will see him return with the produce of a successful chase. Go and may Allah cover you with his blessing."
The Azed took their departure. At their first halt they did as Solomon had prescribed, and neither zebra, nor gazelle, nor ostrich could escape them. Thus enlightened as to the value of the animal presented to them by the son of David, these Arabs on their return home devoted him to foal-getting, and carefully selecting the dams, at length obtained the breed to which out of gratitude they gave the name of Zad-el-Rakeb.
This is the stock whose high renown spread at a later period through the whole world.[[2]]
In fact it was propagated both in the East and the West in the train of the Arabs who subsequently penetrated to the limits of the habitable globe. Long previous to Islam, Hamir-Aben-Melouk and his descendants reigned for a hundred years over the West. It was he who founded Medina and Saklia.
Shedad-Eben-Aâd made himself master of the whole country to the borders of Moghreb, and built cities and constructed sea ports.
Afrikes, who gave his name to Africa, extended his conquests as far as Tandja (Tangiers), while his son Shamar overran the East as far as China, forced his way into the city of Sad, and destroyed it. On that account that place has ever since been called Shamar-Kenda,—because kenda in Persian signifies "he has destroyed",—which the Arabs have corrupted into Samar-Kand.
Since the introduction of Islamism, new Mussulman invasions extended the fame of Arab horses to Italy, Spain, and even to France, where, without doubt, they have left traces of their blood. But the event which more than any other filled Africa with Arab horses, was the invasion of Sidi-Okba, and still later the successive invasions of the fifth, and sixth centuries after the Hijra. Under Sidi-Okba the Arabs merely encamped in Africa, whereas in the fifth and sixth centuries they arrived as colonists with the intention of settling there with their wives and families, their horses and mares. It was these latter invasions which established Arab tribes on the soil of Algeria, particularly the Mehall, the Djendel, the Oulad-Mahdi, the Douaouda, etc., who spread themselves in all directions and founded the true nobility of the country. These same invasions transplanted the Arab horse into the Soudan, and justify our asserting the oneness of the Arab stock, whether in Algeria or in the East.
Thus, the history of the Arab horse may be divided into four great epochs: 1st from Adam to Ishmael; 2nd from Ishmael to Solomon; 3rd from Solomon to Mohammed; 4th from Mohammed to our own times.
It is to be clearly understood, however, that the race of the principal epoch, that of Solomon, having been forcibly divided into several branches, different varieties have been formed partly from the change of climate, and partly from the greater or less degree of care bestowed upon them, precisely as is the case with mankind. The colour of the coat has also varied under the influence of the same circumstances. Experience has satisfied the Arabs that in districts where the ground is stony, the usual colour is gray, and in those where the ground is chalky (Ard Beda), white is the prevalent hue. I have myself frequently verified these observations.
There remains now only one question to settle with you. You ask by what outward signs the Arabs recognize a horse to be noble, a drinker of air. Here is my answer:
The horse of pure descent is distinguished among us by the thinness of its lips and of the interior cartilage of the nose, by the dilation of its nostrils, by the leanness of the flesh encircling the veins of the head, by the graceful manner the neck is attached, by the softness of its coat, its mane, and the hairs of its tail, by its breadth of chest, the largeness of its joints, and the leanness of the extremities. According, however, to the traditions of our ancestors the thoroughbred is still better known by its moral characteristics than its physical peculiarities. The outward signs will enable you to guess at the race, but it is by the moral qualities alone you will receive full confirmation of the extreme care displayed in coupling the sires and dams, and of the pains taken to prohibit all misalliances.
Thoroughbred horses have no vice. A horse is the most beautiful of all animals, but his moral qualities, as we think, must correspond with his physical, or he will be regarded as degenerate. The Arabs are so convinced of this that if a horse, or a mare, have given indisputable proof of extraordinary speed, of remarkable endurance of hunger and thirst, of rare intelligence, or of grateful affection for the hand that feeds them, they will make every imaginable sacrifice to get their progeny, under the persuasion that the points by which they were themselves distinguished will reappear in their offspring.
We allow, then, that a horse is really noble when in addition to a fine configuration, he unites courage with fire, and bears himself proudly in midst of battle and danger.
Such a horse will love his master, and as a rule will suffer no other person to mount him.
He will not yield to the wants of nature so long as his master is on his back.
He will refuse to touch what another horse has left.
He will take pleasure in troubling with his feet whatever limpid water he may meet with.
By the senses of hearing, of sight, and of smell, as well as by his address and intelligence, he will know how to save his master from the thousand accidents that may befall him in war or at the chase.
Finally, sharing the emotions of pain or pleasure experienced by his rider, he will aid him in the combat by combating also, and every where without hesitation will make common cause with him (ikatel-ma-Rakebhou). Such are the tokens which evidence purity of race.
We possess numerous works on the characteristics of the horse, whence it appears that, after man, he is the most noble, the most patient, the most useful of created beings. He is content with little, and if considered simply with regard to strength, he is still superior to other animals. An ox of great strength will carry a hundred-weight, but if you place it on his back he will move only with an effort and be quite incapable of running. On the other hand, the horse carries a full grown man, a robust cavalier, with standard, arms, and ammunition, besides food for both, and will go at speed for a whole day and more, without eating or drinking. It is by his means that the Arab holds whatever he possesses, rushes on his enemy, tracks him down or flees from him, and defends his family and his freedom. Let him be enriched with the possession of all that sweetens life, his horse alone is his protector.
Do you now understand the boundless affection the Arabs feel for their horses! It is only equalled by the services rendered by the latter. To their horses they owe their joys, their triumphs, and therefore are they prefered to gold and precious stones. In the days of paganism they loved the animal from motives of interest and merely because it procured them glory and wealth; but when the Prophet spoke of it in terms of the highest praise, this instinctive love was transfigured into a religious duty; some of the first words he uttered on the subject of horses are those ascribed to him by tradition, on the occasion of the arrival of several tribes from Yemen with a view to accept his doctrines and to present him, in token of submission, with five magnificent mares belonging to the five different races of which Arabia then boasted. It is said that Mohammed went forth from his tent to receive the noble animals that had been sent to him, and caressing them with his hand, expressed himself in these words:
"Blessed be ye, O Daughters of the wind!"
Afterward the Messenger of Allah (Rassoul Allah) said in addition:
"Whosoever keeps and trains a horse for the cause of Allah is counted among those who give alms day and night, publicly or in secret. He shall have his reward. All his sins shall be remitted to him and never shall fear dishonour his heart."
Now I pray unto Allah to grant you a happiness that shall never pass away. Cherish your friendship for me. The wise men among the Arabs have said:
Riches may be lost:
Honours are but a shadow that fades away:
But true friends are a treasure that remains.
He who hath written these lines with a hand which shall one day be withered in death, is your friend, the pauper in the presence of Allah.
SID-EL-HADJ, ABD-EL-KADER, BEN-MAHHYEDDIN.
Damascus, end of Deul-Kada 1274 (end of August 1857).
P. S. For the better understanding of our correspondence, permit me to instruct you on one point. The word ferass is not exclusively applied to the female of the horse, as is customary in Algeria—it indicates the male as well as the female. If a mare be particularly alluded to, it is necessary to say a female ferass; and in like manner if the allusion be to a horse, a male ferass is the proper phrase. Such is the way with the true Arabs (Arabes-es-sahh); strictly speaking, the mare is called hadjra and the horse hossan.
The reader of this curious document will doubtless have remarked the singular admixture of legendary anecdotes with snatches of natural history sometimes true, sometimes fabulous after the manner of Pliny and Aristotle, and all of it under the dominion of a religious sentiment. It is history as written by Orientals and likewise by the Western Arabs; for both the one and the other, until now outlawed as it were from progress by their forced or voluntary exclusion from the intellectual movement going on in Europe, are still, so far as science and literature are concerned, no farther advanced than their ancestors of Bagdad or Granada.
Now, it is a remarkable fact that the more learned an Arab may be, the more are his writings imbued with that fancifulness which, for a reader accustomed to the preciseness of our European style, needs to be cleared of its poetical mysteriousness and constructed afresh, before it can be reduced to the character of a document possessed of any historical or scientific worth in the sense we usually give to those words. Thus, at first sight, the letter we have just perused is nothing more than a fragment detached from an Oriental tale. There are, nevertheless, lurking within it incontestable truths, and from beneath the exaggerations and symbols of tradition may be gathered information of a kind not wisely to be despised. Here especially is it the letter that killeth while the spirit giveth life—let us then seek for the spirit beneath the letter.
God created the horse out of the wind, symbol of fleetness, which, in the eyes of an Arab, is the first quality of a courser. The poets of Greece were inspired by the same idea. It was the wind that impregnated the mares of Thessaly, the swiftest of ancient times; and it may be that those mares were introduced into Greece from Syria, or Arabia, together with the fabulous pedigree assigned to them by the poets of both countries. If this were the case, and here history is in accord with tradition, the Arabian horses must have been, what they still are on their native soil, the fleetest and best in the world.
The Arabs, who neither understand nor practice our system of fighting in compact and serried masses, at times immovable, but who charge without any semblance of order and see nothing disgraceful in a headlong flight, are naturally disposed to love and to vaunt above all others the drinker of air. "The air-drinker," say they, "is the first in the combat to rush at the enemy; and the first after victory to fly at the booty, and in case of defeat the first to escape from danger."
A poet has said: "There are things which an intelligent King should never neglect. The first is a horse, that by its swiftness shall be able to rescue him from the enemy he has failed to overcome."
The favourite steed of the Prophet was named Ouskoub, "the torrent," from the word sakab, "quickly flowing water." The intervention of the Angel Gabriel in the creation of the horse commends that animal to the good offices of the true Believers, for the Angel Gabriel is the constant medium of communication between the Deity and the Prophets, especially Mohammed. Now it was by means and with the assistance of the horse alone that the Mussulman tribes succeeded in accomplishing that immense system of emigration, that propaganda war, as far as China to the eastward, and westward to the Ocean, which was in the mind of Mohammed to impose upon them. It was indispensable, therefore, that the horse should be looked upon in the light of a sacred animal, a providential instrument of war, created by the Deity for a special purpose, and of a nobler essence than that with which He fashioned the other animals. To produce the horse in a manner beyond the common law of creation, to envelop his origin in a symbolism that wanders abroad from natural history to lose itself in mysterious legends, to place him thus beneath the safeguard of religious reverence, evinced, as the result has proved, a thorough knowledge of the spirit of the people upon whom Mohammed purposed and was about to operate.
The Koran in speaking of horses calls them El-Kheir, "the especial treasure," and from this simple word the commentators of the Sura, sad, have arrived at the conclusion that "an Arab ought to love horses as a part of his own heart, and to sacrifice for their keep the very food of his own children." A volume might be composed of phrases detached from the sacred book, or from the hadites of the Prophet (his conversations as handed down by tradition), and of the commentaries upon them, which under the form of maxims and precepts, prescribe to Mussulmans, as a religious duty, the love of horses. I shall quote only a few of them.
"Blessings, good fortune, and a rich booty shall be attached to the forelock of horses until the day of the resurrection." "Whoso keeps a horse for the holy war in the way of the Most High, increases the number of his good works. The hunger and thirst of such a steed, the water he drinks, the food he eats, every one of his hairs, each step he takes, and every function of nature, shall all weigh in the balance at the day of the last judgment."
"The horse prays thrice a day. In the morning he says: 'O Allah! make me beloved of my master.' At noon: 'Do well by my master, that he may do well by me.' In the evening: 'Grant that he may enter into paradise upon my back!'"
It was doubtless under the impression of these last words that El-Doumayry wrote in his history of animals, Hayat-el-hayouan: "The horse is the animal that by his intelligence approaches nearest to man." While on this subject I cannot help remarking that the Arabs, when they advanced this proposition, were well acquainted with the animals which pass with us as being the most intelligent such as the elephant, the dog, etc. How is it then? May it not be that the Arabs, by living on such intimate terms with the horse, have succeeded in developing faculties the very existence of which is unknown to us, who accord to that animal only the instinct of memory? With them, in fact, the horse is a friend of the family. With us, on the contrary, it is no more than an article of luxury or an instrument of labour, which we are ever ready to change through interest or caprice; as witness the common saying: "One does not marry one's horse!" But the Arab does marry his horse. Be this as it may, the maxims quoted above all tend to the same end, to identify man with the horse. Let it not be supposed, however, that that is all. It was necessary that the horse should be the companion of the Believer alone, to the exclusion of all infidels,—a dogma the political hearing of which will be readily appreciated. Allah hath said: "The horse shall be cherished by all my servants, but he shall be the despair of all those who do not follow my laws, and none will I place on his back save those who know me and who worship me."
It is needless to add that the Mussulman princes have availed themselves of this dogma to prohibit in the name of Allah the sale of Arab horses to Christians, under pain of sin and damnation. These commands, though of divine origin have, I am well aware, been disobeyed in some countries. The Arab loves money, it is true; but for all that we may rest assured that for the most part the animals sold to us are of an inferior order, and that the horses or mares whose noble and precious qualities have been ascertained by proof, whether as regards speed or as breeders, are never parted with to foreigners for any price. Even if the owner were willing to let them go, the whole tribe in the name of their common interest would oppose it. This is the real truth, and probably explains the disrepute into which Arabians appear to have fallen in Europe. One seldom there meets with any except such as the Arabs have no desire to keep. But enough on that head: let us now turn to another topic.
The Emir Abd-el-Kader asserts that the horse was created koummite, red mixed with black, that is to say, dark bay or dark chesnut. Desengaged from the cloudiness of fancy, this assertion will at least go far to prove that these colours have in all ages been esteemed by the Arabs as the index to superior qualities. It is a fixed idea with this observing people. It is constantly turning up. The Prophet said:
"If after having collected all the horses of the Arabs I were to make them race against one another, it is the euchegueur meglouk, the dark chesnut, that would outstrip the rest." Moussa, the celebrated conqueror of Africa and Spain, is reported to have said: "Of all the horses of all my armies the one that has best borne the fatigues and privations of war is the true bay, hameur somm."
And the Prophet further remarked: "If thou hast a dark chesnut, conduct him to the combat, and if thou hast only a sorry chesnut, conduct him all the same to the combat."
From all this it is abundantly apparent that legendary traditions and experience are in perfect harmony in according a decided superiority to coats of deep and decided hues. Coats of a light pale colour are held in no esteem whatever. The horse's coat, therefore, must be an index to his character. The long experience of Mohammed the Prophet and of Moussa the Conqueror must have placed them in a position to speak with full knowledge of the subject, and their opinion confirmed by that of all the Arabs, the best horsemen in the world and the most interested in studying the animal, upon whom indeed depend their honour and their life, is certainly entitled to be regarded with some respect. It is beyond all question that the koummite—red mingled with black, chesnut or bay—is preferred by the Arabs to all others. If I might be allowed to quote my own personal experience, I should have no hesitation in saying that, if there be any prejudice in the matter, I share it with them. Besides, must it necessarily be a prejudice because it may seem to be one? No one will deny that all the individuals of the same species are, in their wild state, identical in colour and endowed with common instinctive qualities inherent in the race. These colours and these qualities undergo no alteration or admixture except in a state of servitude and under its influences, so that if any of these individuals, by a return to their natural condition more easily proved than explained, happen to recover the colour of their first ancestors, they will be equally distinguished by more broadly defined natural qualities. The canine race may be taken as an illustration. Whence it follows that a certain number of domesticated individuals being given, their coats alike and with dominant qualities, it may be fairly concluded that this coat and these qualities were those of the race in its wild state. In the case, then, of the Arab horse, if it be true that those whose coat is red shaded with black are endowed with superior speed, are we not justified in inferring that such was the uniform colour, such the natural qualities, of the sires of the race? I submit with all humility these observations to men of science.
Abd-el-Kader assures us, moreover, that it is ascertained by the Arabs that horses change colour according to the soil on which they are bred. Is it not possible, in fact, that under the influence of an atmosphere more or less light, of water more or less fresh, of a nurture more or less rich according as the soil on which it is raised is more or less impregnated with certain elements, the skin of the horse may be sensibly affected? Every one knows that with any coat, the colour changes in tone and shade according to the locality where the animal lives, the state of its health, the quality of the water it drinks, and of the food it eats, and the care that is bestowed upon it. There is perchance in all this a lesson in natural history not to be despised, for if the circumstances in which a horse lives act upon his skin, they must inevitably act also in the long run upon his form and qualities.
This point being dismissed, the last proposition in the letter of the Emir Abd-el-Kader is that which classes the history of Arab horses in four epochs: 1st, from Adam to Ishmael; 2nd, from Ishmael to Solomon; 3rd, from Solomon to Mohammed; 4th, from Mohammed to our own times.
This is the history of the Arabs themselves, so completely have they identified themselves with the horse, their necessary and indispensable companion. Between Adam and Abraham the Arabs did not exist—it was the age of a pastoral population. No wars, at least of a serious character, no pillaging. The horse appears in it only on the day of creation. He has no part to play except as a head of cattle among the flocks and herds, peacefully employed in domestic service. But on the second epoch with Ishmael, his part changes altogether. Ishmael is a bastard, disinherited, abandoned in the desert. His life is to be a struggle. He must be at open war with all mankind because he must live somehow upon the soil to which he has been banished, without taking into consideration the fact that this necessity of fighting in order to live, at the same time gratifies the resentment he entertains towards his brothers, heirs, to his prejudice, of the paternal fields. We read in the Bible, that when Hagar, in Arabic Hadjira, fled into the wilderness an angel appeared to her and said:
"I will multiply thy seed exceedingly that it shall not be numbered for multitude.
"Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; and he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren."
Ishmael is the personification of the Arab people. He calls the horses to him, selects the best, and trains them for racing, for the chase, and for war. It is by their aid that he will live upon the plunder of the rich caravans that may venture upon his territory, and will make forays from the land of hunger and thirst into the land of abundance. The horse has made him King of the desert, and in return he makes a friend, a companion of his horse. Between them there is only one interest.
Nevertheless, the Arabs, hard pressed to the eastward by the powerful armies of the Kings of Abyssinia, to the northward by the people of Jehovah,—one-half of them absorbed and decimated in these great struggles; and the other half shut in within their arid peninsula and divided by intestine dissensions—the Arabs degenerated, and with them their horses suffered deterioration. It was at Jerusalem the Noble, and according to the legend in the stud of Solomon, that the true type of the race was exclusively preserved. Travellers, perhaps conductors of the caravans which in those days used to arrive in Jerusalem in great numbers, receive as a gift certain horses, of whose value and fine qualities they are ignorant. But under the influence of peace commerce again discovers the long disused road from Central Asia to the seaports of Syria, and the Arabs interested in making common cause with one another reform themselves by mutual alliances between tribes. The horse, on his part, follows this new phase of their fortunes.
At a later period, a fresh degeneracy arises in consequence of the immigration into Arabia of foreigners, Jews and Christians, and from quarrels among the Arabs themselves. Some few noble and powerful tribes, such as the Koreishites, for example, the most powerful and the most noble of all, had preserved a traditional love of the horse as inseparable from their original dignity. But in order that Mohammed's task should have any chance of accomplishment, it was necessary to extend to all and to popularise this exceptional passion of a few, and equally essential was it to condense into one national unity the disunited elements of which the tribes of Arabia then consisted. We have seen with what persistance the Prophet reverts to this necessity, in the Koran, in his conversations, and in his teachings, and how he made the careful tendance of horses an obligation of Mussulman life, and an article of faith in the Believer. In this manner, from the Hidjra to our own times, the condition of the Arab horses has unavoidably gone on improving. Has he not said: "Whoso feeds and tends a horse for the triumph of religion, makes a magnificent loan to Allah"?
I have only one more word to say on the portrait of the thoroughbred horse sketched by Abd-el-Kader. The Emir takes it at one view, and as inseparable one from the other, both the physical and moral qualities. In his opinion physical qualities alone will never constitute a perfect horse. He must also by his intelligence and by his affection for the master who feeds, who tends, who rides him, unite with him as an integral part. To demand such qualities from a horse is simply placing him, in the intellectual order, immediately after man, just as, according to the legend, he has been placed in the order of creation.
The Europeans are, I am aware, far from entertaining such a high opinion of the animal, but may we not err in the opposite degree?