“Each generous steed to meet the play aspires,
  And seconds, with his own, his master’s fires;
  He neighs, he foams, he paws the ground beneath,
  And smoke and flame his swelling nostrils breathe.”

[17] The fire of the Barbary horse is generally known, but few reflect upon the power of endurance which this animal possesses.  I have known them to go without water for two or three days when crossing the Desert, during which time they will only receive a small measure of corn or a few dates.  On the coast, they are driven hard a long day, sweating, and covered with foam, their sides bleeding from the huge sharp-edged stirrups.  Without the slightest covering, they are left out the whole night, and their only evening meal is a little chopped barley-straw.

Our European horses would perish under such circumstances, and the French have lost the greater part of the horses they imported from France for the cavalry.  But this hard fare keeps down the fiery spirit of these stallion barbs, otherwise they would be unmanageable.  When turned out to grass, they soon become wild.  Crossing a field one day, mounted, I was set upon by a troop of these wild, grazing horses, and was instantly knocked to the ground, where I lay stunned.  A cavalry officer, who was riding with me, had only just time to escape, and saved himself by dismounting, and letting his horse go.

It was some hours before we could rescue the horses of our party from their wild mates, sporting and bounding furiously over the plains.  The barb horses being all stallions (for the Moors consider it a crime to geld so noble an animal), the fiercest and most terrific battles ensue on a stud breaking loose from their pickets.  These battles are always between strangers, for the barb is the most affectionate of horses, and if he is known to another, and become his mate, he will, as the Arabs say, “die to be with him.”

[18] These trained bands of negroes call themselves Abeed-Sidi-Bokhari, from the patron saint whom they adopted on settling in Morocco, the celebrated Sidi-Bokhari, commentator on the Koran, and a native of Bokhara, as his name implies.  His commentary is almost as much venerated as the Koran itself.

[19] The lex talion is frequently enforced in North Africa.

[20] Maroquine Moors drench you with tea! they guzzle sweet tea all day long, as the Affghans gulp down their tea, with butter in it, from morning to night.

[21] Native Jews manage most of the business of the interior, and farm the greater part of the monopolies.  But the Emperor must have some European merchants connected with these Jews to maintain the commercial relations of his country with Europe.  The Jewish High Priest of Mogador is a merchant, it being considered no interference with his sacred functions.

[22] See Appendix at end of Vol.  II.