2nd. You ask me what distance a horse can accomplish in a day. I cannot tell you very precisely, but it ought to be about fifty parasangs, or the distance from Tlemcen to Mascara. However, an animal that has performed such a journey ought to be carefully ridden on the following day, and allowed to do only a very much shorter distance. Most of our horses used to go from Oran to Mascara in a single day, and could repeat the journey for two or three consecutive days. On one occasion we started from Saïda about eight in the morning to fall upon the Arbâa, who were encamped at Aaïn-Toukria, among the Oulad-Aïad near Taza, and we came up with them at break of day.
3rd. You ask for examples of the temperance of the Arab horse, and for proofs of his power of enduring hunger and thirst. Know that when we were established at the mouth of the Melouïa, we used to make razzias into the Djebel-Amour, following the route of the Sahara, and on the day of attack pushing forward at the gallop for five or six hours at a stretch—the entire expedition, going and returning, being completed in twenty to twenty-five days at the outside. During this space of time our horses had no barley except what they carried with them, about enough for eight ordinary feeds. Nor did they find straw, or anything except the alfa and shiehh, and grass in the spring time. And yet, on rejoining our people, we performed the fantasia on our horses, and some among us burnt powder. Many, too, who were not fresh enough for the latter exercise, were quite able to go upon an expedition. Our horses would go a day or two without water, and once they found none for three days. The horses of the Sahara do far more than that, for they go three months without touching a grain of barley. Straw they meet with only when they go to the Tell to buy grain, and for the most part feed on the alfa, the shiehh, and sometimes the guetof. The shiehh is better than the alfa, but not so good as the guetof. The Arabs say:
The alfa is good for marching,
The shiehh is good for fighting,
And the guetof is superior to barley.
In certain years the horses of the Sahara have gone the whole twelve months without a grain of barley to eat, especially when the tribes have not been suffered to enter the Tell. At such times the Arabs give dates to their horses, which is a fattening food, and keeps them in condition for marching or fighting.
4th. You ask why, seeing the French do not mount their horses before they are four years old, the Arabs mount theirs at a very early age. Know that the Arabs say that horses, like men, are more easily taught when quite young. They have a proverb:
The lessons of infancy are engraved upon stone,
The lessons of ripe age pass away like birds' nests.
They likewise say: