Part 13

Covered with djellals which make our flowers look pale, They march like Sultanas attired for a fête, A negro of Kora tends them, Gives them pure barley, and milk to drink, And leads them to the bath. Allah preserve them from the evil eye!

For his much loved mares My uncle demanded Mebrouk in marriage, And I said to him: No; Mebrouk is my support, I wish to keep him Proud, full of health, dexterous and fleet. Time turns on itself and returns; There may be no dispute to-day, but to-morrow, perhaps, we shall see The hour of strife approach with rapid strides. For a skin full of blood, my uncle replied, Thou hast made my face yellow before all my children. The earth is vast: adieu.

Mebrouk, why this neighing night and day? Thou betrayest my ambush and warnest my enemies, Thy thoughts wander too much to the daughters of our coursers,

I will marry thee, o my son! But where shall I find my friends Whose mares are so noble, and their she-camels such treasures? Their tidings are buried in the earth; Where are their spacious tents so pleasant to the eye? In them were spread the carpet and the mat; In them was offered the hospitality of Allah, And the poor man filled his belly. They are vanished! The scout viewed the hillocks, The brave marched in the front rank, The shepherds drove the flocks after them, And the hunters, on the track of their sharp greyhounds, Chased the gazelle.

Have you heard speak of the tribe of my brethren? No! Well, come with me and count their numerous horses: There are colours which will please you. Behold those horses white as snow that falls in its proper season; Those black as the slave carried off from Soudan; Those others green as the reed that grows on the banks of rivers; Those, again, red as blood that spirts first from a wound, And those blue as a pigeon when it flies beneath the sky. Where are those rifles so straight, quicker than the winking of an eye? That powder from Tunis, and those balls turned out in moulds, Which pierced the bones, tore the liver, And made the stricken perish with mouth wide open?

When I cease to sing, I am still transported thither by my heart; For it burns for my brethren with a fire that consumes my interior. Nowhere have I seen such warriors. O Allah! strike with blindness those who bear them envy! Have they not spacious tents well provided with carpets, Mats, cushions, saddles, and rich arms? The traveller and the orphan are they not always received there By these words of our sires: "You are welcome!" Their wives, bright as the corn-poppy, Are they not borne on camels, Those ships of the earth, That march with the noble gait of the ostrich?

Are they not covered with veils Which trailing far behind them fill even the marabouts with despair! Are they not adorned with ornaments, gems enriched with coral, And the blue tattoo on their arms, was it not pleasant to behold? Every thing about them charmed the heart of the believers in Allah; You would say they were bean-flowers created by the Eternal.

You have plunged into the southern desert, And the days seem unto me very long! Behold! it is well nigh a year that nailed to this wearisome Tell, I have seen no more of you than the traces of your encampments. O my cherished dove Who wearest trousers that reach to thy feet; Who wearest a burnous that sits so well on your shoulders; Whose wings are variegated, and who knowest the country; O thou who cooest! Away, fly beneath the clouds, they will serve thee for a covering; Go, find my friends, give them this letter to read, Tell them that it proceeds from a sincere heart, Come back quickly and inform me if they are happy or unhappy, They who make me sigh.

You will see Sherifa: a haughty damsel; She is haughty, she is noble, I have seen it in writing; Her long hair falls with grace On her white and ample shoulders; You would say it was the sable plumes of the ostrich That dwells in the desert and sings beside its brood.

Her eyelids are bows brought from the negro-land; And her eye-lashes, you would swear that it was the beard of an ear of corn Ripened by the eye of light towards the end of summer; Her eyes are the eyes of the gazelle Troubled about her little ones, Or, rather, it is the flash that precedes the thunder In the middle of the night. Her mouth is admirable, Her breath sugar and honey, And her fine set of teeth resemble the hailstones

Which the winter in its fury sows over our land. Her neck is as the standard which our warriors plant in the ground To defy the enemy and rally the runaways, And her faultless body outvies the marble Which is used for building the pillars of our mosques.

Fair as the moon around which gathers the night, She shines like a star undimmed by a cloud. Tell her that she has wounded her lover With two thrusts of a poniard, one in the eyes, the other in the heart. Love is no light burden. I ask of the Almighty to give unto us water; We are in the springtime And the rain has tarried too long for the people of flocks. I am hungry, I am fasting like a Ramadan moon.

They are at Askoura, praise be to Allah! Bring me my horse! And you there, strike the tents! I go to seek my uncle; He will forgive the son of his brother; We shall be reconciled to one another, And by the head of the Prophet, I will give a feast in which the young men shall appear With shining stirrups and saddles richly embroidered; Powder shall be burnt to the sound of the flute and the tabour; I will marry Mebrouk And his offspring shall be called the offspring of well tended mares.

O tribes of the Sahara! You claim to possess camels; But camels, you are aware, Care only for those who can defend them; And those who can defend them are my brethren, Because they know in the fight how to crush bones of the rebellious.

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.

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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."

In all times, among the Arabs, the horse has been the object of the greatest solicitude, and this solicitude the Prophet lost no opportunity of keeping up, developing and augmenting by introducing the religious sentiment.

We find in the collection of his conversations the following precepts: