Part 9

"Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; and he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren."

Ishmael is the personification of the Arab people. He calls the horses to him, selects the best, and trains them for racing, for the chase, and for war. It is by their aid that he will live upon the plunder of the rich caravans that may venture upon his territory, and will make forays from the land of hunger and thirst into the land of abundance. The horse has made him King of the desert, and in return he makes a friend, a companion of his horse. Between them there is only one interest.

Nevertheless, the Arabs, hard pressed to the eastward by the powerful armies of the Kings of Abyssinia, to the northward by the people of Jehovah,—one-half of them absorbed and decimated in these great struggles; and the other half shut in within their arid peninsula and divided by intestine dissensions—the Arabs degenerated, and with them their horses suffered deterioration. It was at Jerusalem the Noble, and according to the legend in the stud of Solomon, that the true type of the race was exclusively preserved. Travellers, perhaps conductors of the caravans which in those days used to arrive in Jerusalem in great numbers, receive as a gift certain horses, of whose value and fine qualities they are ignorant. But under the influence of peace commerce again discovers the long disused road from Central Asia to the seaports of Syria, and the Arabs interested in making common cause with one another reform themselves by mutual alliances between tribes. The horse, on his part, follows this new phase of their fortunes.

At a later period, a fresh degeneracy arises in consequence of the immigration into Arabia of foreigners, Jews and Christians, and from quarrels among the Arabs themselves. Some few noble and powerful tribes, such as the Koreishites, for example, the most powerful and the most noble of all, had preserved a traditional love of the horse as inseparable from their original dignity. But in order that Mohammed's task should have any chance of accomplishment, it was necessary to extend to all and to popularise this exceptional passion of a few, and equally essential was it to condense into one national unity the disunited elements of which the tribes of Arabia then consisted. We have seen with what persistance the Prophet reverts to this necessity, in the Koran, in his conversations, and in his teachings, and how he made the careful tendance of horses an obligation of Mussulman life, and an article of faith in the Believer. In this manner, from the Hidjra to our own times, the condition of the Arab horses has unavoidably gone on improving. Has he not said: "Whoso feeds and tends a horse for the triumph of religion, makes a magnificent loan to Allah"?

I have only one more word to say on the portrait of the thoroughbred horse sketched by Abd-el-Kader. The Emir takes it at one view, and as inseparable one from the other, both the physical and moral qualities. In his opinion physical qualities alone will never constitute a perfect horse. He must also by his intelligence and by his affection for the master who feeds, who tends, who rides him, unite with him as an integral part. To demand such qualities from a horse is simply placing him, in the intellectual order, immediately after man, just as, according to the legend, he has been placed in the order of creation.

The Europeans are, I am aware, far from entertaining such a high opinion of the animal, but may we not err in the opposite degree?

THE BARB.

We have often heard it said that the horse of our African possessions, to whose rare qualities we have endeavoured to do justice, was very inferior to the true Arabian. Notwithstanding a conviction based on a lengthened experience and a grave study of the subject, we have made it our duty to take up and discuss an opinion put forth with an air of authority. We were willing to accept as umpire in this dispute, a man whose intelligence, whose habits, whose whole life, render him a supreme judge in all matters relating to horse-flesh—the Emir Abd-el-Kader. We addressed to that genuine horseman a letter in which we frankly expressed the objections which each of our assertions had encountered. His reply to this letter is given below. It will be seen from this curious document that the Emir does not confine himself to the confirmation of the proposition we advanced, but develops by reflections or by facts the whole of our opinions. According to his statement, the Barbary horse, so far from degenerating from the Arab, is, on the contrary, superior to him. The Berbers, he says, formerly inhabited Palestine, where they reared the animal that has become the type of a perfect war horse. Having emigrated to Africa through the vicissitudes of their life of adventure, they paid the utmost attention to the guest of their tents, the instrument of their hunting expeditions, their comrade in the fight. Their horses thus preserved such eminent qualities, that an Asiatic sovereign engaged in a perilous war, sent for them from the Berbers. The reader will appreciate the value of this historical dissertation which, from whatever point of view it be examined, does not the less possess an interest that cannot be contested. It is quite certain that the Barbary horse is indebted to the climate in which he flourishes, to the education which he receives, to the food that is given to him, to the privations that are familiar to him, for a vigour that enables him to equal, if not to surpass the most vaunted steeds of Persia and Upper Egypt. Supported by the following letter, we hold ourselves justified in repeating that all the horses of Asia and Africa may be blended together under one common denomination. We oppose to the European horse, one identical horse—the horse of the Orient—which, thanks to our conquest of Algeria, we believe will be daily called upon to render to our country services more and more valuable and more and more valued.

This is the letter from the Emir Abd-el-Kader, which he forwarded to me from Broussa:

Praise to the one God! His reign alone is eternal!

May the profoundest peace and the most perfect divine beneficence be extended to the person of General Daumas,—of him who ardently seeks for the solution of the most obscure questions! May Allah conduct and protect him!

To proceed: You have asked us our opinion on Barbary horses, their character, and their origin. To give you satisfaction I am again turning my attention to these subjects, and can do nothing better to-day than send you some extracts taken from the poetical works of the famous Aâmrou-el-Kaïs, who lived a short time before the coming of the Prophet. They refer to the superiority of the horses of the Berbers, and I think you will there find proofs against those who maintain that those admirable animals are of an inferior stamp. The poet remarks, while addressing himself to Cæsar, Emperor of Constantinople, in a long piece of versification:

"And I answer thee, if ever I am reinstated as King, we will ride a race where you shall see the horseman lean forward over his saddle to increase the speed of his courser;

"A race across a space trampled down on all sides, where no higher marks are distinguishable to direct the traveller, than the hump of an aged Nabathæan camel loaded with years and uttering plaintive moanings.

"We shall be borne, I tell thee, on a horse accustomed to nocturnal journeys, a steed of the Barbary race; with slender flanks like a wolf of Gada; a steed that rushes along on his rapid course, and whose flanks are running with sweat.

"When, slackening the bridle, the rider urges him on still faster by striking him with the reins on either side, he quickens his rapid course, bending his head to his flanks and champing the bit.

"And when I say: 'Let us rest;' the horseman stops as by enchantment and begins to sing, remaining in the saddle on this vigorous horse, the muscles of whose thighs are long drawn out and whose tendons are lean and well apart."

Aâmrou-el-Kaïs was one of the ancient Kings of Arabia, who took infinite pains to procure Barbary horses wherewith to combat his enemies. He was doubtful of success if obliged to trust himself to the qualities of Arab horses. It is not possible, in my opinion, to give a more invincible proof of the superiority of the Barb. After testimony like this any one who should dispute it would be quite unable to adduce an allegation of the slightest value.

The Berbers, as stated by El-Massoudi, are descended from the Beni-Ghassan, while other writers affirm that they come from the Beni-Lekhm and the Djouzam. Their native country was Palestine, whence they were expelled by one of the Kings of Persia. They then emigrated to Egypt, but the souvereign of that country refusing them permission to settle here, they crossed the Nile and spread over the regions to the westward of the other side of the river.

Maleck-ben-el-Merahel says that the Berbers form a very numerous population composed of Hymiar, Modher, Copts, Amalkas, and Kanéan, who became amalgamated in the province of Sham (Syria) and took the name of Berbers. Their immigration into the Maghreb, according to this historian with whom El-Massoudi, El-Souheili, and El-Zabari also agree, was owing to their marching under Ifrikesh to the conquest of the African peninsula.

Ibn-el-Kelbi asserts that opinions are divided as to the real name of the chief under whose guidance the Berbers emigrated from Syria towards the Maghreb. Some will have it that it was under the Prophet David, others name Youssha-ben-Enoun, others again Ifrikesh, and yet others certain Kings of the Zobor.

El-Massoudi adds that they did not emigrate until after the death of Goliath and that they established themselves in the province of Barka and in the Maghreb, after having vanquished the Frendj (Franks). They then invaded Sicily, Sardinia, the Balearic Isles, and Spain. Still later it was stipulated between them and the Frendj that the latter should occupy the towns, while the former should fix themselves in the deserts which extend from Alexandria to the Ocean.

Ibn-Abd-el-Berr affirms that the establishment of the Berbers extended from the extremity of Egypt, that is, from the regions situated behind Barka to the Green Sea, and from the sea of Andalusia to the end of the deserts which border on Soudan. On this frontier line a tribe bearing the name of Berbers still exists between the Habeuch (Abyssinians) and the Zendy (Zanzibar). The author of the Kamous (an Arabic Dictionary) makes mention of them, but they are a very insignificant tribe, whose trivial and obscure history records not a single important event.

The essential point here is the extract from the poet Aâmrou-el-Kaïs on the subject of Barbary horses. As for the Berbers themselves, every thing proves that they have been known from time immemorial and that they came from the East to settle in the Maghreb, where we find them at the present day.

Peace be with you, at the end as at the beginning of this letter on the part of your friend.

ABD-EL-KADER-BEN-MAHHIDDIN.

May Allah cover him with His blessings!

Broussa, the 1st of Safer, 1269-1854.