Note 2 — Chapter I

"The Bedouin (and every other race of Orientals that I am acquainted with seems to possess somewhat the same quality) exhibits a patience towards his horse as remarkable as is the impatience and roughness of the Englishman.... In his (the Oriental's) mental organization some screw is tight which in the English mind is loose; he is sane on a point where the Englishman is slightly cracked, and he rides on serene and contented where the latter would go into a paroxysm of swearing and spurring. I have seen an Arab horse, broken loose at a moment when our camp was thronged with horses brought for sale, turn the whole concern topsy-turvy, and reduce it to one tumult of pawing and snorting and belligerent screeching; and I never yet saw the captor when he finally got hold of the halter show the least trace of anger, or do otherwise than lead the animal back to his picket with perfect calmness. Contrast this with the 'job' in the mouth and the kick in the ribs and the curse that the English groom would bestow under similar circumstances, and you have, in a great measure, the secret of the good temper of the Arab horse in Arab hands."—Blackwood's Magazine, 1859.