The Horses of the Sahara 19

The Horses of the Sahara 19

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.

 

Looking at two horses, one from the Tell and the other from the Sahara,

a man who has not studied the subject will always prefer the former,

which he will find handsome, heavy, sleek, and fat, while he will

despise the second, fool that he is, and abuse the very points which

constitute his worth—that is, the fine, dry extremities, the tightened

belly, and the bare ribs. And yet this horse of the desert that has

never been accustomed to barley, green food, or straw, but only

_shiehh_, _bouse_, and _seuliane_, that has never had any thing but milk

to drink and from his earliest years has served at the chace and in war,

will have the swiftness of the gazelle and the patience of the dog,

while the other will never be any thing but an ox by his side.

 

The greatest enemies of the horse are repose and fat.

 

 

 

 

GROOMING, HYGIENE, PROPORTIONS.

 

 

Grooming is unknown in the Sahara. The horses are merely wiped down with

woollen rags, and covered with very good _djellale_, or rugs that

envelop both the croup and the chest. In truth, labour of this sort is

little wanted, the horses being habitually placed in a healthy spot, on

raised ground, and sheltered from draughts. Arabs who have observed us

grooming our horses morning and evening with elaborate carefulness,

pretend that this continual rubbing of the epidermis, especially with

the curry-comb, injures their health, and renders them delicate and

impressionable, and consequently incapable of supporting the fatigues of

war, or at all events more liable to disease.

 

When the weather is hot and facilities exist for the purpose, the horses

are washed morning and evening. Frequently in winter time they are

fastened up inside the tents, which are very roomy, to shelter them from

the sun and rain. The great thing is to keep them clean. One day a horse

was led up to the Prophet who examined it, rose up, and without saying a

word, wiped his face, eyes, and nostrils with the sleeves of his

under-garment. "What! with your own garments!" exclaimed the bystanders.

"Certainly," replied he; "the Angel Gabriel has more than once rebuked

me, and has commanded me to act thus."

 

In winter the covering is kept on day and night; and in summer until

three o'clock when it is taken off, but put on again at eight for the

whole night, to preserve the animal from cold and dew, which are all the

more dangerous, say the Arabs, because the skin has been heated

throughout the day by a burning sun. The following proverb expresses

their dread of the cold of summer nights:—

 

The cold of summer

Is worse than a sabre cut.

 

If the Arabs do not, like ourselves, attach much importance to grooming,

they are, on the other hand, very careful and particular in their choice

of the food, and above all of the water, they give to their horses. Many

a time during the early days of the conquest, while on an expedition,

after long marches in an intolerable heat, with a south wind blowing

that choked us and drove the dust and sand into our faces, when horse

and foot alike panting, exhausted, without power of motion, we delivered

ourselves up, worn out as we were, to a fatiguing sleep often

interrupted by the alerts caused by the enemy prowling around us—at such

a time I have seen the natives go a league from the bivouac in order to

water their horses at some pure spring known to themselves. They

preferred to risk their own lives to experiencing the pain of watering

their horses at the scanty rivulets in the encampment, quickly converted

into filthy drains by the trampling of men and beasts of burden.

 

It can hardly be necessary for me to dilate any farther on the hygiene

of the horse among the Arabs. Indeed, I could only repeat what I have

already said. It seems to me preferable to refer the reader to the

various details scattered through the preceding pages, and particularly

to the principles enunciated in the chapter on the education of the

colt. If I have made myself at all understood, I have shown how every

owner of a horse among the Arabs is an active, vigilant, I had almost

said devoted, master who watches and directs the progress, corrects the

defects, and perfects the qualities of his pupil from the very first

day. This education embraces every thing, including what I may fairly

call the moral faculties; and it augments, modifies, and improves the

physical qualities. Every thing is weighed and foreseen. The drink, the

diet, the exercise, the position in rest, the whole is graduated and

proportioned to age, place, and season; it is all the object of

incessant and sustained solicitude. Moreover, the grand principle, and I

myself think it a good one, seems to be to avoid, on one hand, excessive

fatness which is opposed to all energetic work, and, on the other, any

check to perspiration which is the cause of the greater number of

diseases. Once more, the question is not: is all this care well founded?

are they wrong, or are we mistaken? But after having propounded the

formula, that in the life of an Arab his most absorbing and almost

exclusive occupation is the rearing and training of his horse, I have

shown that the Arab is not guided by mere chance, that his is not a

blind, inconsiderate passion, as is supposed by those who see him from

afar and bestow only a glance on him. Any one who will study him

perseveringly, who will examine him, as it were, under the microscope,

and analyse his daily acts and doings, will be forced to the conclusion

that he is guided by traditional and logical motives. In a word, this

education, this careful bringing up, of the horse is based upon fixed

and constant principles having for their aim to endow the animal with

spirit, bottom, and health. And what is this but hygiene?

 

The Arabs, says Ben-el-Ouardy, have always preferred good horses to

their own children, and they love so much to show them off on occasions

of rejoicing that they would deprive themselves of all nourishment

rather than see them suffer from hunger and thirst. In the arduous and

critical circumstances of life, especially in years of famine, they go

so far as to give them the preference over their own persons and

families. This is proved both by faithful narratives, and by the chaunts

composed by their poets. Witness the verses addressed by the learned

Ben-Sassa to the great tribe of the Beni-Aâmer.[47]

 

Beni-Aâmer, why do I behold your horses

Blemished and changed by misery?

Such a condition cannot be right for them.

Though death has an hour that no man can put back,

Horses are your safeguard:

Give them the good things you yourselves like best;

With pure barley fill their nose-bags,

And with iron furnish their hoofs.

Love horses, and take care of them;

In them alone lie honour and beauty.

In taking care of them, you take care of yourselves,

The Arab who has not a good horse can never aim at renown.

For my part, on this earth, I know no other happiness.

 

And had I hundreds of gold _soulthanis_.[48]

I should enjoy them only by sharing them with him.

I would also support my family with them,

And when they came to fail me,

I would humble my pride

Even to beg alms proudly for my friend.

All the treasures of Karoun,[49] without a horse,

Would not make me happy.

 

Does the north wind begin to b