To find the tall grass Which grows in solitudes dangerous to traverse, In solitudes defended by the points of lances, And by the descent of torrents, I have many a time galloped, When the birds were yet asleep in their nests. To hunt the white-skinned zebra, Whose legs are striped like Indian stuffs, Or to overtake the antelope that lives in wild regions, I have ridden horses with flesh hardened by exercise, It was Allah who created them for the happiness of Believers. Many a time, too, have I rested my heart On that of a maid with budding bosoms, And legs adorned with anklets of gold! In our incursions of horsemen, When eye must meet eye, Many a time have I said: Forward! forward! O my beloved courser! Follow up the enemy routed and fleeing! The value of a horse is in his stock. REMARKS BY THE EMIR ABD-EL-KADER. To a King who asked a poet for his horse named _Sakab_, the latter replied: "_Sakab_ is not for sale, nor is he to be exchanged. I would ransom him at the price of my life. My family should die of hunger rather than that he should suffer." An Arab once said: "My countrymen blame me for being in debt, and yet I contracted it for a horse of noble race and well rounded forms, who confers honour upon them and serves as a talisman to my _goum_, and to whom I have given a slave as his attendant." An Arab one day sent his son to buy a horse in the market-place, and he, before setting out, asked his father what qualities the animal should have. The father made answer: "His ears should be ever in motion turning sometimes forward, sometimes behind, as if he were listening to something. His eyes ought to be keen and restless, as if his mind were occupied with something. His limbs must be well set on and well proportioned." "Such a horse," the son rejoined, "will never be sold by his master." Many of the Arabs of Upper Asia have genealogical trees, in which they state and confirm by evidence that would be accepted in a court of justice, the birth and parentage of the colt, so that when a proprietor wishes to sell a horse he has only to produce his genealogical tree to satisfy the purchaser that he is not deceiving him. I have seen among the Annaza, a tribe extending from Bagdad to the confines of Syria, horses so absolutely priceless that it was impossible to buy them, or at least to pay in cash for them. These horses are usually disposed of to great personages or wealthy merchants, who pay a fabulous price for them in thirty to fifty bills, falling due at intervals of twelve months, or else they bind themselves to pay an annual sum for ever to the vendor and his descendants.