"You tell us that you are a strong and powerful nation, and that we cannot contend against you. The powerful and the strong are just. And yet you seek to take possession of a country that does not belong to you. Besides, if you are so rich, what do you propose to do among a people who have nothing but powder and shot to give you? Moreover, when it pleases Him, the Master of the world humbles the strong and exalts the feeble. You threaten to burn our crops, or to devour them with your war horses and beasts of burden. How often already have we experienced similar calamities! We have had bad seasons, we have had locusts and drought, but Allah has never forsaken us; for we are Believers, we are Arabs, and privations will not kill an Arab. We will never yield to you. You are the enemies of our religion. It is quite impossible. Nevertheless, if the Almighty, to punish us for our own sins and for those of our forefathers, should be pleased to inflict upon us some day that horrible malady, we confess we should be greatly embarrassed. With us the mark of submission is the presentation of a horse to the victors. We are aware that you care only for horses with short tails, and our mares do not produce such."
Subsequently, however, the Flittas were compelled to give us such horses as their mares did produce; but their resistance was obstinate. Since then they have always been the first to raise the cry of war and rebellion. It was they who slew the brave General Mustapha-ben-Ismaïl.[[40]] It was they who supported Bou-Maza. It was they, in short, who were the last reduced to submission.
After this episode so characteristic of our African campaigns, I cannot better conclude this chapter on the education of the colt than by giving some entirely novel details as to the manner of treating horses in Arabia, which will not be at all out of place and may be interesting to many as showing the part played by woman in the life of that noble animal.
I have often heard it asked whence come the gentleness, the address, the intelligence which, every one is agreed, are to be met with in Arab horses. Are these qualities inherent in the Oriental stock? or are they the result of education? A genial climate is undoubtedly favourable to the development and improvement of the equine race. A rich and noble stock is naturally more apt than any other to yield what is demanded of it, but at the same time something must be done for it in return. The most fruitful soil will produce nothing but briars and thorns if it is not cultivated, and that in a proper manner. Starting from this standing point the Arabs apply themselves with the greatest care and the utmost tenacity to perfect, in their horses, the gifts of nature. A sustained education, daily contact with man, with the other animals, with external objects, that is their grand secret—it is that which makes the Arab horse what he is, an object worthy of our unexceptional admiration. I am aware that this feeling of admiration has not been altogether general. Imperfect knowledge has led many to accuse the Arabs of being ignorant and even of acting like butchers in the matter of horses. They rode them badly, and did not bestow upon them the sort of care so prized in Europe; they abused them from their most tender years, and were constantly drawing blood from the flanks or from the mouth, etc., etc. But truth at length began to dawn, and when it was ascertained that all their horses were intelligent, obedient to the hand and leg, quiet to mount, and inaccessible to fear, there was no choice but to acknowledge that these were great qualities which could only have been produced by a sound and logical education.
Our horses, on the other hand, are nothing more than animals more or less tamed. They bear with man as a conqueror who disposes of them, but they have neither confidence nor affection for those who employ them. Slaves of mankind in general, they do not attach themselves to any one man in particular, because no man especially attaches himself to his horse, which is merely tended and valued like any other agricultural product that is sold as soon as possible, or like an article of commerce, or a piece of furniture that is bartered for profit or exchanged from caprice. Our dogs, it may be, are only attached to us because we do not part with them for a price.
The Arabs desire to find, in their horse, a devoted friend. With them he leads, so to speak, a domesticated life, in which, as in all domestic life, women play a conspicuous part—that, in fact, of preparing by their gentleness, vigilance, and unceasing attention, the solidarity that ought to exist between the man and the animal. On a journey or a campaign, far from the dwelling place, it is the rider who occupies himself with his horse. But at the encampment, under canvas, and in time of repose, it is the wife who directs, superintends, and feeds the noble companion in arms who so frequently augments the reputation of her husband while supplying the wants of her children. In the morning it is the wife who brings him his food, and tends him, and if possible washes his mane and tail. If the ground on which he stands happens to be uneven, broken, or covered with stones, she removes him to a spot more convenient for his repose and the just disposition of his weight. She caresses him, passes her hand gently over his neck and face, and gives him bread, or dates, or kouskoussou, or even meat cooked and dried in the sun. "Eat, O my son!" she says to him in a soft and tender tone. "One day thou shalt save us out of the hand of our enemies and fill our tent with booty."
It is in the morning also that the Arab wife goes forth to the pastures to gather for the animal she cherishes an ample supply of herbs esteemed in the desert for their tonic and nutritive properties. On her return should she see any children, as yet too young to reason, amusing themselves by teasing or ill using the horses tethered in front of the tent, she will cry to them as soon as she can make herself heard: "Children, beat not the horses. Wretches! it is they who nourish you. Do you wish that Allah should curse our tent? If you begin again, I will speak to your father."
On this subject the Arab wife is so intractable that she would not spare her own husband if he took no care of his horse. The horse is his honour, his fortune. She is proud and jealous on those points, and deems herself affected by whatever affects him. If it ever came to pass that her remarks and suggestions were passed over with neglect, she would not hesitate to carry her complaints to the chief of the tribe: "O my lord! you know that our horse is all we have, and yet my husband takes him on idle journeys, ill uses him, overrides him, and taxes him beyond his strength. It would be something if he looked after him when at home; but no, his covering is full of holes, he is never certain of being fed, and even goes in want of water. Scold my husband, I beseech you in the name of Allah. Lead him back into the ways of our forefathers. Above all, do not tell him that it was I who suggested this to you."
The Arab chief, whose interest it is in the course of his adventurous career to be followed only by well mounted horsemen, never fails to make use of the information thus given. He will summon the delinquent before him, reprove him, and warn him that if he does not change his conduct he will take his horse from him and make him walk like a common foot-soldier. At last he will discharge him with these words: "Thou understandest me; go thy way; but bear in mind that in this world honour begins at the stirrup to be completed in the saddle." A lesson of this kind always produces a great effect, not only on the offender but on all who might be tempted to follow his example. And in this manner, sometimes through self-love, sometimes through the fear of punishment, the Arabs apply themselves to inculcate, voluntarily and compulsorily, on all characters and dispositions a love for the horse.
In the afternoon, a little later or a little earlier according to the season, the wife employs herself in leading the horses to water if the fountain be not too distant, and in that case she goes herself to fetch the water in goat-skin bags. When water fails entirely, she gives them ewe's or camel's milk. At this hour the tent of an Arab chief presents a truly singular spectacle. Oftentimes may be seen between the legs of the women and the horses, in presence of a crowd of picturesquely attired children, by the side of falcons beating their wings or greyhounds in a state of excitement, a gazelle, an antelope, or an ostrich, running in and out and jumping about, to beg a drop of that liquid so rare in the desert but which is nevertheless given in abundance to the favourite of the family. Now the evening is at hand. What means that dark speck on the horizon? It is the young men of the douar[[41]] wearily regaining the encampment, mounted on horses with hollow flanks, worn out, and shoe-less. They have been out the whole day hunting, without eating or drinking. Camels loaded with gazelles, hares, bustards, etc., follow behind, but this prize, tempting though it be, will not save them from the storm that awaits them: "Young men," their mothers will exclaim with an angry voice, "it is disgraceful thus to ruin our horses for the sake of a little useless game. You would do far better to spare them for the day when the saliva will dry up in the mouth, for the day when riches will not ransom the head."