ly, however, to return and secure a straggling foal,
to whose rescue the mother comes, and herself perishes. When this is
found out, a terrible battle ensues; the foals are placed in the centre,
the mares encircle them, charging the wolves in front; tearing them
with their teeth, and trampling them with their fore-feet, always using
the latter, and not the hind feet; the stallions rush about, and often
kill a wolf with one blow; they then pick up the body with their teeth,
and throw it to the mares, who trample upon it till its original form is
utterly destroyed. If eight or ten hungry wolves should pull down a
stallion, the whole herd will revenge him, and almost always destroy the
wolves; who, however, generally try to avoid these great battles, and
chase a mare or foal separated from the rest, creep up to them,
imitating a watchdog, and wagging their tails, spring at the throat of
the mare; and then the foal is carried off. Even this will not always
succeed, and if the mare give alarm, the wolf is pursued by herd and
keeper, and his only chance of escape is to throw himself head-foremost
down the steep sides of a ravine.

"The horses suffer more from thirst in summer than from famine in
winter; the heat is intolerable, there is no shade, and each horse tries
to protect itself by its neighbour's body. In the autumn the owners of
the herd call them in to thresh corn; the turf is removed, the ground
beaten till it is very hard, and a railing placed round it; the corn is
spread, and five hundred horses at a time are driven into the enclosure;
they are terrified by the crackling straw and the noise of the whip over
their heads, and the more frantic they are the sooner is the corn
threshed."

The attachment of Arabs to their horses, the extreme beauty of these
animals, which form part of the family, and are sometimes more precious
to their owners than wives or children, have become proverbial. They are
managed by kindness; and nothing can exceed the indignation of the
owners when they behold any attempt to manage a horse of any kind by
means of the whip. It is the Arabian which, imported through Spain, or
direct to England, has produced so much improvement in the European
stock. An Arab mare of pure descent, had, by means of the Moors, found
her way to the north western coast of Africa, where she was purchased by
an English officer. At first I was a little disappointed in her
appearance, for she was thin; but as her foal