One of the Prophet's companions as he went out one morning found him wiping with his cloak the head of his horse. "Why, with thy cloak?" "What know'st thou?" replied the Prophet. "It may be that the Angel Gabriel has been angry with me on his account last night." "At least let me give him his food." "Ah!" cried the Prophet, "Thou would'st take for thyself all the rewards, for the Angel Gabriel has told me that every grain of barley eaten by the horse is accounted to me for a good work." The Saharene gives his horse camel's milk to drink which has the particular property of imparting speed, so that a man—according to what is said by reliable persons who guarantee the truth of the statement—if he takes nothing else for a sufficient time, will attain to such a degree of swiftness that he may vie with the camels themselves. In fact, camel's milk strengthens the brain and the tendons, and does away with fat, which produces a relaxation of the muscles. In some parts of the Sahara the chiefs and horsemen of renown never give green food to their war horses. Milk, barley, and the plants known by the names of _shiehh_, _derine_, _bouse_, and _seuliane_ form their sole keep. This diet does not enlarge the belly or fatten like green food, which distends the intestinal canal, partly because of the enormous quantity consumed by the animal before he is satisfied, and partly because of the water it contains. In summer the horses are not watered until three o'clock in the afternoon. In winter they are watered rather earlier—from noon to one. It is the time of day when in the open air the water has lost much of its coldness. These principles are expressed in the following proverb, known to the meanest horseman of the desert:— In the hot season[46] put back the hour of the watering-place And put forward that of the nose-bag; In the cold season put forward the hour of the watering-place, And put back that of the nose-bag. Among the desert tribes, for forty days counting from the month of August, the horses are watered only every other day. The same method is pursued during the last twenty days of December and the first twenty days of January. In cold weather the rich let their horses have as much barley as they can eat, but decrease the ration considerably in hot weather. Milk and _bouse_ may be substituted for barley. It is seldom that any thing to eat is given in the morning. The horse marches upon the food of the previous evening, and not on that of the same day.