INTRODUCTION.
The horsemen of Numidia were famous even in the time of the Romans. The Arab horsemen are in no way inferior to their predecessors. The horse has continued down to these our days to be the chief instrument of war among those martial tribes. A dissertation on the horses of Algeria, which still retain the typical characteristics of both the Barb and the Arab stock, is not only of interest for the lovers of horse-flesh, but also for those who are responsible for the maintenance of our power in Algeria. The greatest merit of a study of this kind is its perfect accuracy as to facts. I will therefore mention the sources whence I have derived my information.
In the course of the sixteen years which I have passed in Africa, I have been intrusted with missions or have exercised functions which brought me into constant intercourse with the Arabs, a people hitherto so little known, but whom we are bound to study if we would learn how to govern them.
From 1837 to 1839 I was the French Consul at Mascara accredited to the Emir Abd-el-Kader; after that, head of the Arab Office in the province of Oran, in which at thattime General Lamoricière held the chief military command; and finally Central Director of the Arab Office of Algeria under the government of Marshal the Duke of Isly. These different posts brought me into close contact with the native chiefs and the first families of the country. I acquired their language and it was through their assistance that I was enabled to publish, one after the other, my books on the Algerian Sahara, the Great Desert, Great Kabylia, and on the Manners and Customs of Algeria, works which may perchance have rendered some service to French interests by throwing light upon important questions of war, commerce and government.
The study of the Arab horse, which had long been the subject of my most careful researches, seemed to me to form the natural complement of my previous labours. Indeed, this question, full of uncertainty and contradictions, was as it still is, of the most thrilling interest. In the event of a European war must we always have recourse to foreign countries, or cannot Algeria come to our aid in supplying remounts for our light cavalry? Such was the national question I set before myself, and the reply to which I founded on patient and minute inquiries throughout my long residence in Algeria.
Besides, according to some authorities, the Arabs are the first horsemen in the world, while according to others they butcher their horses. The former give them credit for whatever is good in the systems pursued by ourselves or our neighbours; while the latter insist that they know nothing whatever about riding, or about the veterinary art, or about breeding. How much of truth is there in all this? What is the real value of Arab horses? What is the nature of the service they are capableof rendering? This I was determined to find out, not by hearsay, but through the evidence of my own eyes—not from books, but from men. What I am now about to place before the reader is consequently the result both of my own personal observations, and also of conversations with Arabs of every grade of life, from the tented chief down to the simple horseman, who, as he himself would say in his picturesque idiom, has no other profession than to "live by his spurs." In other words, I made my inquiries of those who had large possessions, and of those who had very little; of those who bred horses, and of those who only knew how to ride them: in short, of every body. Thus the opinions which I am about to commit to paper do not emanate from the head of a single individual—they are gathered separately from the members of a powerful tribe. My only merit is that of having collected and arranged many documents widely scattered and difficult to obtain.
In fact, a Christian has need to employ both tact and patience to extract from Mussulmans information insignificant perhaps in itself, but which a gloomy fanaticism makes them regard as of great importance, or as perilous to their religion. Nevertheless, I have one reservation to make. I am not at all prepared to say: "This is right," or "That is wrong." I say simply: "Right or wrong, this is what the Arabs do."
REMARKS OF THE EMIR ABD-EL-KADER.
REMARKS OF THE EMIR ABD-EL-KADER.
REMARKS OF THE EMIR ABD-EL-KADER.
Learned Mussulmans have written upon horses a great number of books in which they discourse at considerablelength upon their qualities, their colours, upon all that is esteemed beneficial or injurious, their maladies and the right mode of treatment. One of them, Abou-Obeïda, a contemporary of the son of Haroun-al-Raschid, composed no fewer than fifty volumes on the horse. This Abou-Obeïda met with a little misadventure, which shows that it is not the author of the most ponderous and numerous volumes who imparts the soundest information, and that not the worst plan is to consult men themselves.
"How many books hast thou written upon the horse?" asked one day of a celebrated Arab poet the vizir of Mamoun, son of Haroun-al-Raschid. "Only one." Then turning to Abou-Obeïda he put to him the same question. "Fifty," replied he. "Rise, then," said the vizir, "go up to that horse and repeat the name of every part of his frame, taking care to point out the position of each." "I am not a veterinary surgeon," answered Abou-Obeïda. "And thou?" said the vizir to the poet.
"Upon that"—it is the poet himself who relates the anecdote—"I rose from my seat, and taking the animal by the forelock, I began to name one part after the other, placing my hand upon each to indicate its position, and at the same time recited all the poetic allusions, all the sayings and proverbs of the Arabs referring to it. When I had finished, the vizir said to me: "Take the horse." I took it, and if ever I wished to annoy Abou-Obeïda, I rode this animal on my way to visit him."