The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1853-11-17
The Horses of sahara.

of affairs in Algeria, has just published
an interesting and original work on the
Horses of the African desert, in which he
gives all the experiences of the Abd-el-
Kader and other Arab chiefs as well as
his own. The Journal des Debats con-
tains u summary of this work, from which
the following passages are translated:
The horse of the true breed (hoor)
has his position amongst the Arabs of the
desert like the date free. According to
his age he bears different name, and is
even more famed for his exploits than for
his genealogy. The horse is of the true
rare, which after long journey shakes
himself, paws the ground, neighs when a
feed of barley is offered to him, which he
begins to eat eagerly after smelling three
or four times 1t is of the horse of this
kind that the Arabs, say, "Give him bar
lev and abuse him. If horse neighs
with Joy at the sight of an oasis and
seeems to salute, with graceful move
ments of his head, the green trees and
the flowing water; if he never drinks with
out disturbing the water, and always drinks
without bending his knee, and so as to
mark, by an undulating line from the
Group to the head, the flexible curve Of
his body; if his nostrils dilate continual
ly: if his eyes are always in movement;
ii his ears rise and fall alternately; if, at
the least noise, he quivers without chang
ing place, he is of noble blood. He can
bear thirst, hunger, and fatigue. Give
him barley and abuse him.
But if the Tell, the region of grain, is
closed against the horse OF the Sahara, he
is able to pass the whole year without bar
ley; and yet, to perform Journeys of 80
leagues day, without any other nourish-
ment than dates and the coarse herbage
of the desert-the alta which makes him
travel, the guetof which makes him fight,
and the guetoof which is even better than
barley. 1t was thus that Abd-el-Kader,
driven from the Tell, passed like flash
of lightning from one extremity to the 9th
er of Moghreb, without making single
halt, and often at the head of thousand
: horsemen.
L Add -Kader himself, in his letter to
! General Dumas, gives examples of the
: powers of endurance of the desert horses
which would be incredible, if he had not
proved them to be true at our expense
He speaks, amongst others, Of gallop Of
five or six hours day, continued for 25
: successive days, which suppose distance
5 of 25 leagues (75 miles traversed every
f day. This is not all, adds the Emir: A
S horse travelling every day, and which eats
f as much barley as it pleases, can continue
} this for three Or four months, without rest
ing a single day.
AS to the swiftness of the Barbary
} horse, a fact is cited by General Dumas
l which will give an approximate idea of it.
2 A French general, suddenly arrested at
Oran, required to see certain papers which
7 he had left at Tlemccn. Tlemcen is 81
leagues (105 miles from Oran, and tie
5 route which separates them is cut up by
} mountains and rayines. The arrested
r general confded his barb to an Arab mes
senger, who promised to return on the
: following day. He arrived, in fact, at
2 the same hour the following day with the
/ documents in the question. The horse
} had travelled 70 leagues (21o miles, :
through difficult country, having halted
, only once and been fed once.
AS some mention is often made of the
: greater or smaller difference which exists
between the Barbary and the Arab horse,
let us speak, in passing, Of the manner in
: which the breed or horses is tried in the
two countries. The nejdih (the horse OF
Arabio) is tried by being made to gallop
seven leagues (2l miles in certain time
and then to eat measure of barley. In
Algeria the trial is the same in result, but
different in the manner. The horse un-
der trial must race with three relays OF
fresh horses, over distances of three
leagues each, and arrive first at the goal
each time. If he is successful, and after
that eats barley, his master is reputed a
fortunate man throughout the whole
Sahara, and the horses renown is without
: rival
1t is curious to compare, in point OF
view of the locomotion gained by means
of the horse, the habits of the South
? American horsemen with those of the
Arab. Here we have, in place of the
a desert of sand, the Sahara, the desert of
grass, the Pampas. The Pampas are
800 leagues across, and in these almost
limitless plains live, in an almost wild
state, innumerable heards of horses. The
: Guacho, in the midst of the wilderness,
, selects the horse which he determines to
? ride, throws the lasso over it, drags the
/ horse thus caught to him, saddles it, and
= gallops along. After three or four hours
of furious riding the horse falls, and The
, rider continues his course on another
caught in the same Way. Thus the Qua