"On their backs are mounted fierce lions."
DIET.
If in the Sahara ewe's or camel's milk is frequently given to horses, it must not be supposed that that is their only drink. It is more generally a substitute for barley, which is a scarce commodity, than for water, which is not usually difficult to find. The Arabs are convinced that milk maintains health and strengthens the fibre, without increasing the fat. It is needless to add that the rich who possess many she-camels are less sparing of milk than the poor, who have hardly enough to satisfy the wants of their families. The latter dilute it with water when they can. In the spring time they make use of ewe's milk, to which at other seasons they add camel's milk.
At Souf, Tougourt, Ouargla, Metlili, Gueleâa, and in the Touat, where there are more camels than horses and where grain is scarcer than in the first zone of the desert, dates oftentimes take the place of barley. When they are dry they are given in a nosebag. In eating them the horse, of himself, rejects the stones with considerable address. In certain districts the stones are taken out and crushed in a mortar, and are then mixed with the dates, which are likewise slightly bruised. Dates are also given to horses before they are perfectly ripe, and are eaten stones and all—being quite soft they do no harm. When it is desired to mix the dates with the drink, the Arabs proceed after this fashion. After the fruit is gathered they take three or four pounds of fresh dates, and manipulate them in a large vase full of water until the pulp of the date has become a sort of liquid paste. The skins and stones are removed and the mixture after being well shaken is presented to the animal. The date regimen makes fat, but does not harden the fibre.
In the first zone of the Sahara the ordinary diet of the horse is as follows for each season:—In the spring the shoes are generally removed, and the animals are turned out on the pastures, which at that period of the year abound with a succulent and fragrant herbage known under the generic name of el âacheub. They are clogged. Care is taken to avoid the districts where the ledena is met with, a velvety plant the leaves of which resemble a rat's ear. It grows close to the ground and is usually covered up and hidden in the sand. It brings on colics that for the most part terminate fatally. Persons of distinction who keep many servants, and experienced horsemen, never give green food to their war horses. Rich or poor, no one gives barley, which is replaced by ewe's milk, which in this season is very abundant, and preserves the horse in perfect condition. The animals are watered only once a day, at two in the afternoon.
In summer the Saharenes proceed to the Tell to lay in their provision of grain. They are surrounded by unfriendly strangers, and sometimes by enemies. They do not, therefore, care to send their horses out to graze, as they would run the risk of being stolen. Nor are they sorry to have them close at hand in case of any of the numerous accidents happening which so often occur. Barley and barley straw are purchased from their hosts: it is the period of the year when the animals fare most liberally. I mention barley straw, because no Arab would ever consent to feed his horses on fresh wheaten straw. They fancy it produces jaundice if used before the winter. If, perchance, any thing should prevent them from going to buy grain in the Tell, as the plains afford no herbage but what is dried up by the sun, they make for the mountains of the Sahara, where there is a better chance of coming across rivers, or ponds, or at least marshes. If this resource fails them, they encamp in the neighbourhood of the Kuesours[[43]] where straw can be had for money or in the way of barter. In either case the mares alone are sent out to graze, the horses being fastened in front of the tents. Whatever be the temperature, the Arabs never give their horses that mixture of bran, barley meal, and water which we call a mash, and of which we make such a mistaken use. They accuse it of relaxing the tissues and of weakening the system, while favouring the growth of fat, an evil they dread above all things. When their horses are over heated they lessen their work, and if they can procure it they give them green barley straw, and if that is not to be had they have recourse to cooling baths. As to the barley, they like it heavy, without any bad smell, and free from the dirt which gets mixed with it in the "silos," as well as from the black, withered, and blighted grains which have been struck by the South wind.
In autumn the horses are again turned out into the pastures, where they find the shiehh, that invaluable resource of the Sahara, so that it is said in praise of a man who is as capable as he is modest:
So-and-so is like the shiehh:
He has parts, but is no prattler.