rcest heat,
and, day after day, pursue marches of incredible toil through the
burning sands of the wilderness.

"The mare usually has but one or two meals in twenty-four hours. During
the day, she is tied to the door of the tent, ready for the Bedouin to
spring, at a moment's warning, into the saddle; or she is turned out
before the tent ready saddled, the bridle merely taken off, and so
trained that she gallops up immediately upon hearing the call of her
master.

"At night, she receives a little water, and with her scanty provender of
five or six pounds of barley or beans, and sometimes a little straw, she
lies down content in the midst of her master's family. She can, however,
endure great fatigue. She will travel fifty miles without stopping, and
on an emergency, one hundred and twenty; and occasionally neither she
nor her rider has tasted food for three whole days."

"O, father, how dreadful! I should think she would sink down and die."

"No doubt, my dear, both she and her master endured much suffering. But
notwithstanding the Arab lives with, and loves his horse beyond any
other treasure, the young filly, when about to be trained, is treated
with a cruelty scarcely to be believed. Take one who has never before
been mounted. She is led out, her owner springs on her back, and goads
her over the sand and rocks of the desert at full speed for sixty miles,
without one moment's respite. She is then forced, steaming and panting,
into water deep enough for her to swim. If, immediately after this, she
will eat as if nothing had occurred, her character is well established
forever afterwards.

"The master does not seem to be conscious of the cruelty which he thus
inflicts. It is the custom of the country, and custom will induce us to
inflict many a pang on those whom, after all, we love."

Minnie sighed.

"I remember," added her father, affectionately patting her head, "an
anecdote which proves the strong affection of the Arabian horse for home
and friends.

"One of these animals was taken by the Persians in an attack made by an
Arab tribe on a party of the royal family of Persia. The chief heading
the party was killed, and his horse, running into the Persian lines, was
taken. A ransom--enormous for so poor a tribe--was offered by the Arabs
for their noble charger, but refused; and he was taken to England by Sir
John McNeil, who was at that time the British resident at the court of
Persia.

"When his portrait was