THE ARABIAN HORSE.*

THE appearance of General Tweedie's work upon the Arabian horse—the publication of which has been more than once delayed by the author's determination to leave no point insufficiently examined or imperfectly set forth—has been expected with some eagerness by all who take any interest in a subject which has up to this time never perhaps been treated with the care and deliberation which is its due. We have no intention of disparaging, for instance, the work of • The. Arabian Horse : its Country and People. By Major-General W. Tweedie, 8.I. London: Blackwood and Bons. 1894.

Mr. Wilfred Blunt, who has perhaps done more than any living Englishman to bring home to his countrymen's minds the real value of Arab horses, both by his pen and by actual experiment ; but Mr. Blunt is apt to be too much carried away by the enthusiasm of his subject to give the public the full value of his undoubtedly great experience. In speak- ing of Mr. Blunt, we reckon naturally at the same time the voyages of Lady Anne Blunt in Arabia, which have added so much to our knowledge of that little-known peninsula. The works of Major Upton are also of considerable value, and

much knowledge may be gleaned from the Thoroughbred Arab Horse of Signor Guarmani, though the latter did

not write exactly yesterday; nor are the travels of Mr. W. G. Palgrave or the late Sir Lewis Pelly, who made hia way successfully to Ar Riadh—that stronghold of Wahabi fanaticism which Lady Anne Blunt was warned not to attempt to visit—to be forgotten. General Tweedie, however, who has perhaps had better opportunity for the examination of the subject than any of the above-mentioned, from the official position be has occupied as Consul-General at Baghdad, may safely claim to have produced a more elaborate and thorough study than has yet appeared. Of his own qualifications to write he speaks modestly as a man who "has spent the best hours of a long life in the saddle or on the coach-box," and has owned many Arabs. "He has marched on horses of different breeds, from Annesley Bay to Magdala, and from Peshawar to Cabal, as well as over large

parts of India, Persia, and Arabia ; having also for several years been adjutant of a cavalry regiment mounted on Arabs During the same period he has also owned

many English and Australian horses." There are many others, perhaps, who may have done as much as is here stated, but few, we venture to think, who have picked up so much on the way.

It is probable that some objection will be made to the fact that our author has not solely applied himself to the con- sideration of the Arabian horse, but has also engaged in an ex- haustive discussion of the land and people in and among which that horse is to be found. He enters, indeed, into every side- point which can possibly be connected with his subject, in a manner which is occasionally trying. We have no objection to his enlivening his treatise with snatches of Arabian poetry in honour of the horses which form the Arab's chief pride ;

but when there is a mention of hunting in one of these snatches, we could well have gone without the elaborate and erudite

consideration of what was probably the nature of the game.

The account of Arabia itself, may also be considered exces- sively minute by some, especially in view of the space devoted to portions which supply no horses or only very inferior ones, but there is too little known about any part of the Arabian peninsula for us to grudge any portion of our author's elaborate and interesting description. The account of the

Nufildh, or "Daughters of the Desert "—as they are some- times styled in the picturesque imagery of the Arab tongue—

the wide and deep semi-desert valleys which form the natural pasture-land of the horse-breeding Bedouins of Arabia proper, is of special importance. The pasture is scanty and not of a high class; but the horse, as General Tweedie points out, is a pre-eminently adaptable animal, gifted with the power of finding and getting at any kind of provender that the earth can afford, and seems to thrive on the hard fare of the desert as he does on much more luxurious rations, when these are to be had.

The land to which the Arab horse belongs, with its produce and climate, and their influence upon him, is the first thing to be studied on the system of the work before us, under which category we have not only a description of peninsular Arabia itself, but also of the great Shamiya desert, between Syria and Arabia, and of that of Al Jazirah to the east of the Euphrates —the respective habitations, or, to use a new-fangled term, we might rather say, spheres of the two great Bedouin confedera- tions, the Aeniza and Shammar—and the more fertile district of Al Irak, extending to the south and east of Baghdad between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. The land of the horse having been described, the Bedouin who breeds and rides him claims our attention next, for it is our author's favourite maxim that the horseman makes the horse. Here, again, it may be thought that the elaborate chapter on the origin of the Arab race, and its proper place among nations, is rather superfluous ; but there can be no doubt as to the value of the chapters.treating of the Bedouin's use of his horse and his manner of training it.

The principal, if not the only, purpose for which the Bedouin uses his horse is war ; in time of peace he rides upon his equally valued camel, and the horse is led behind, to be hastily mounted in case of attack, while the camel falls to the lot of some person ranking lower than the chivalry of the tribe, who brings his matchlock into play from the eminence to which he is raised. The camels, in fact, become a sort of moving battery of the sole artillery of the desert. The horse, or rather mare, for the Arabs ride mares almost exclusively, is also naturally employed in the ghazu or foray, for which a light, quick-moving animal is specially required. "In the Parthian warfare of the desert," says General Tweedie, " two things make a mare excel,—the one, endurance; and the other, the same gift of turning and twisting which distin- guishes the Arab horse in India with either a running or a charging boar in front of him." Racing being unknown to the Bedouins, mere speed is considered of less value. Other influences tend to mould the Arab horse in various ways ; his docility, for instance, is traced partly to his being put very early to work, instead of being left untrained till he has developed a will of his own, and partly to his friendship with his human surroundings. An Arab is hardly ever cruel to his horse,— not perhaps from principle, but because he considers anger with an animal whom Allah has not endowed with reason as the extreme depth of imbecility. In illustration of which feeling we are told a rather amusing anecdote of an incident which our author witnessed in Baghdad :—

" An awkward groom had tumbled off the back of a playful filly, and left her free to career hither and thither. Among the spectators there was nobody who blamed the filly. A red-bearded Persian, whose bookstall was kicked into the Tigris by her, had the sense to curse the biped and not the quadruped. When she was caught, and the end of her halter-rope put into the groom's hand by a bystander, the man merely jumped on her back and rode quietly away."

The influence of the Bedouin's very simple style of saddlery, and of his slovenly style of riding at any pace but a gallop, which has contributed much to make Arabs in general such bad walkers, is also treated with care and lucidity.

The chapter on the "Typical Arabian" will be read with

the utmost interest. General Tweedie has here reached the very marrow of his subject, and the thoroughness of his examina- tion of the points of the Arabian will compensate the most impatient reader for the apparently foreign matter he may have had to make his way through before. This chapter is copiously illustrated, partly with reproductions from already known prints, published in previous books,—among others the beautiful black Arabian head, which many will remem- ber as figuring in Youatt's book on The Horse,—and partly with coloured portraits of famous horses of the Indian turf. Among these is a picture of a singularly beautiful grey Arab horse, Greyleg,'—no relation, we believe, to the recent winner of the City and Suburban Handicap,—who was the wonder of his day some thirty years ago. Little less interesting is the por- trait of what our author rightly calls "a beautiful illustration of the dwarf Arabian, 'Rex,' a small bay horse, only a little over thirteen hands in height, who, after a very brilliant career on the Indian turf, found an honourable retirement in the stud of the Maharajah of Jodhpore. It is amusing, by the way, to note that while the text expressly tells us that " it is a misnomer to call horses like him ponies," the illustration insists on describ- ing him as an "Arabian pony." A pony, however, he was, of course, in the conventional sense of the term. Another excel- lent illustration represents 'Claverhouse,' a rather plain-look- ing but well-formed animal who won six races for General Tweedie in his time, and who, we are told, is here presented to us "that the reader may see a good game Arab of the class which may fall to the lot of any one."

Treating of the qualities of the Arabian, our author praises him especially for the characteristically gentle temper, to which we have already referred, and for his powers of endurance and fortitude. We might generalise his conclusions in the language of an old child's game, and say he loves his Arabian with an " A," because he is Amiable and Ab- stemious, and hates him because he is Awkward in walking. Abstemiousness, however, is not a term that exactly pleases our author, and he prefers to praise the Arab for his double capacity of " going without" what he naturally enjoys and of " never minding." These are higher qualities than that of refusing good provender when it is to be

had, as does the camel, who stands on a distinctly lower moral and intelleetng fgoting. Similarly, he who enjoya

a glass of good wine, when he can get it, with thank. fulness as a Christian man should, and cheerfully does without it when he cannot, must clearly take rank on a different level from Sir Wilfrid Lawson. Of the "courage, instinct, and sagacity" attributed to Arab horses, General Tweedie merely says that he has found these qualities in different degrees in the same breed, in own brothers and sisters, and even in the same horse at different times,—as is, indeed, usually the case with the inferior animal, man. An amusing story is told to illustrate this of an English horse who was taken out to India, and gave decided proof of the strength of his nerves when he first met the very alarming sight of an elephant with a howdah on his back. " He was so far from showing any signs of alarm, that he actually tucked up a hind leg to keep it out of the elephant's way in passing." Subsequently, the Yorkshire countryman who had come out with him having got leave to go to a race-meeting, Captain White,' as he was named, found himself left in the charge of native syces, who evidently regarded him " as a kind of Sahib," and rising with the occasion, he became fiery and unmanageable, and would let none of these dusky grooms approach him. But pride goes before a fall. The absent Yorkshireman returned, seized him unceremoniously by the tail, and dealt two sounding thwacks upon his ribs, and the gallant Captain' at once sub- sided into a decorous and submissive demeanour. " The next minute any little boy might have put a bridle upon him."

We have no space to discuss many important subjects which are carefully dealt with in the book before us. General Tweedie has no idea of benefits to be derived from introducing an Arab cross into English thoroughbred stock. " The stock of Najd is fast," he tells us, " but the Newmarket breed is incomparably faster." He goes even so far as to say that "never in India, Arabia, or any other country, have we seen an Eastern horse which suggested the idea that he was capable of improving the perfected and established breeds of racehorses, hunters or pleasure-hacks of our islands." An interesting instance is given of a carefully chosen, "closely inbred" Arabian stallion sent to a friend in Australia by our author, whose stock proved " unequalled " as light harness. horses, but who "never sired a racehorse or a really good hack," in spite of the excellent company to which he was introduced. On the possibility of naturalising the Arab horse in Europe, General Tweedie has something to say, as also on the question of what actual resources there are in Arabia, and whether there is any chance of Europeans procuring Arab horses, or still more mares, of the highest class. Some exceedingly valuable hints on the manner of buying Arabs—whether directly from the Bedouins, or in the towns of Arabia, or Al Irak, or through British Consuls, or from dealers in Bombay — together with a learned and purposelike Arabic vocabulary of words used in the text, bring to a close one of the most finished and intelligent studies of a subject of great practical importance in many ways, apart from the natural attraction it possesses for all lovers of horses. The illustrations are good throughout.