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. No individual in the Sahara cares to possess ten camels until he has a horse to defend them against those who might assail them. In the Tell most of the Arabs apply their horses to the cultivation of the land. They also make use of them to ride and for any other purpose. They have no particular preference for males because in their eyes the horse is merely an animal to be turned to any employment of which it is capable, and not kept for war alone. For this reason the horse of pure origin bred in the Sahara is preferable to the same horse in the Tell. The former, unlike that of the Tell, is subjected to fatigue, to long journeys, to hunger, and to thirst, which renders him able to achieve whatever is required of him. The Koran calls horses "the especial good." The servant of the Prophet used to say: "With women, what the Prophet loved best was horses." "Aïssa-ben-Meryem (Jesus, the son of Mary),—peace be with him!—went one day to Eblis, the black demon, and said: 'Eblis, I have a question to address to thee: wilt thou tell me the truth?' 'Spirit of God,' answered Eblis, 'question me as seemeth good to thee.'" "I demand of thee," pursued Jesus, "by the Living One who cannot lie, what is it that can reduce thy body to a liquid state and cut thy back in two?" "It is," replied the devil, "the neighing of a horse. Never have I succeeded in entering a house that contained a horse for the cause of the Most High." Being passionately fond of horses, one of the companions of the Prophet asked him if there were any in Paradise. "If Allah causes thee to enter Paradise," replied the Prophet, "thou wilt have a horse of rubies, furnished with two wings, with which he will fly whithersoever thou willest." A poet has said: "Who are they who will weep for me after death? My sword, my Boudaïna lance, and my long-bodied chesnut, trailing the reins to the fountain, after death has deprived him of his rider."