Aquiline, a. Resembling an eagle; when applied to the nose, hooked.
Arab, s. or Arabian. A horse bred in Arabia.
The Arabian.—Of all the countries in the world where the horse runs wild, Arabia produces the most beautiful breed—the most generous, swift, and persevering. They are found, though not in great numbers, in the deserts of that country, and the natives use every stratagem to take them. Although they are active and beautiful, yet they are not so large as those bred up tame. They are of a brown colour, their mane and tail very short, and the hair black and tufted. Their swiftness is incredible; the attempt to pursue them in the usual manner of the chace, with dogs, would be entirely fruitless: such is the rapidity of their flight, that they are instantly out of view, and the dogs themselves give up the vain pursuit. The only method, therefore, of taking them is by traps hidden in the sand, which entangling their feet, the hunter at length comes up, and either kills them or carries them home alive. If the horse be young, he is considered among the Arabians as a very great delicacy, and they feast upon him while any part is found remaining; but if from his shape or vigour he promises to be serviceable in his more noble capacity, they take the usual methods of taming him by fatigue and hunger, and he soon becomes a useful domestic animal. But the horses thus caught, or trained in this manner, are at present very few; the value of Arabian horses all over the world has, in a great measure, thinned the deserts of the wild breed, and there are few to be found in those countries, except such as are tame.
The Arabian breed has been diffused into Barbary as well as Egypt, and into Persia also. Those from the former country are usually denominated “Barbs.”
Let the Arab be ever so poor, he has horses: they usually ride on the mares, experience having taught them that they bear fatigue, hunger, and thirst, better than horses; they also are less vicious, more gentle, and will remain, left to themselves, in great numbers, for days together, without doing the least injury to each other. The Turks, on the contrary, do not like mares, and the Arabians sell them the horses which they do not keep for stallions.
The Arabs have no houses, but constantly live in tents, which serve them also for stables, so that the husband, the wife, and the children, lie promiscuously with the mare and foal. The little children are often seen upon the body or the neck of the mare, while these continue inoffensive and harmless, permitting them thus to play with and caress them without injury.
The Arabs never beat their horses; they treat them gently; they speak to them, and seem to hold a discourse; they use them as friends; they never attempt to increase their speed by the whip, nor spur them, but in cases of necessity;—however, when this happens they set off with amazing swiftness, they leap over obstacles with as much agility as a buck, and if the rider happens to fall, they are so manageable that they stand still in the midst of their most rapid career.
The Arabian horses are of a middle size, easy in their motions, and rather inclined to leanness than fat. They are regularly dressed every morning and evening, and with such care, that the smallest roughness is not left upon their skins. They wash the legs, the mane, and the tail; the two latter they never cut, and very seldom comb, lest they should thin the hair.
They give them nothing to eat during the day; they only give them to drink once or twice, and at sunset they hang a bag to their heads, in which there is about half a bushel of clean barley: they continue eating the whole night, and the bag is again taken away the next morning. They are turned out to pasture in the beginning of March, when the grass is pretty high. When the spring is past they take them again from pasture, and then they get neither grass nor hay during the rest of the year; barley is their only food, except now and then a little straw. The mane of the foal is always clipped when about a year or eighteen months old, in order to make it stronger and thicker; they begin to break them at two years old, or two years and a half at farthest; they never saddle or bridle them till at that age, and then they are always kept ready saddled at the door of the tent, from morning till sunset, in order to be prepared against any surprise. They at present seem sensible of the great advantage their horses are to the country; there is a law, therefore, that prohibits the exportation of the mares, and such stallions as are brought into England are generally purchased on the eastern shores of Africa, and come round to us by the Cape of Good Hope.
The Arabs preserve the pedigree of their horses with great care, and for several ages back. They distinguish the races by different names, and divide them into three classes; the first is that of the nobles, the ancient breed, and unadulterated on either side; the second, that of the horses of the ancient race, but adulterated; and the third the common and inferior kind: the last they sell at a low price, but those of the first class, and even of the second, amongst which are found horses of equal value to the former, are sold extremely dear. They know, by long experience, the race of a horse by his appearance; they can tell the name, the surname, the colour, and the marks properly belonging to each. When the mare has produced the foal, witnesses are called, and an attestation signed, in which are described the marks of the foal, and the day noted when it was brought forth. These attestations increase the value of the horse, and are given to the person who buys him. The most ordinary mare of this race sells for five hundred crowns; there are many that sell for a thousand, and some of the very finest kinds for fourteen or fifteen hundred pounds.