Arab horse.'is among its brethren, the high-bred and
superlative beauty of the race.. The skin is as sleek
as satin, of a colour difficult to describe, as. it varies
between the lightest mauve and yellowish brown ; the
belly is snow-white; the legs,.from the knee downwards,
are also white, and are as fine as though carved
from ivory; the hoof is beautifully shaped, and tapers
to a, sharp point; the head of the buck is ornamented
by gracefully-curved annulated horns, perfectly black,
and generally from nine to twelve inches long in the
bend; the eye is the well-known perfection—the full,
large, soft, and jet-black eye of the gazelle. Although
the desert appears incapable of supporting animal life,
there are in the undulating surface numerous shallow
sandy ravines, in which are tufts of a herbage so
coarse that, as a source of nourishment, it would be
valueless to a domestic animal: nevertheless, upon this
dry and wiry substance the delicate gazelles subsist;
and, although they never fatten, they are exceedingly
fleshy and in excellent condition. Entirely free
from fat, and nevertheless a mass of muscle and
sinew, the gazelle is the fastest of the antelope tribe.
Proud of its strength, and confident in its agility, it
will generaflyjbound perpendicularly four or five feet
from the ground several times before it starts at- full
speed, as though to test the quality of its sinews
before the race. The Arabs course them with greyhounds,
and sometimes they are caught by running
several dogs at the same time; but this result is from
the folly of the gazelle, who at first distances his