You claim to possess camels;[[19]]
But camels, you are aware,
Care only for those who can defend them;
And those who can defend them are my brethren,
Because they know in the fight how to crush bones of the rebellious.
Thus it is seen that among the Arabs every thing concurs to develop the love of horses. Religion makes a duty of it, while the agitated life, the incessant conflicts, and the distances to be traversed in a country
absolutely devoid of means of rapid communication, make it a necessity. An Arab can only live a double life, his own and his horse's.
REMARKS BY THE EMIR ABD-EL-KADER.
The best horses are chiefly to be found in the Sahara, where the number of bad horses is very small. In fact, the tribes that inhabit it and those who border on it only employ their horses to make war, or to contend in trials of swiftness. Accordingly, they never use them for agricultural purposes, or exercise them in any other way than in battle. On this account their horses are nearly all excellent.