Their beauty is not They seldom exceed

children to pull about and play with them. remarkable—at least to an English eye. fourteen and a half, or at most fifteen, hands in height; they have not good barrels, their chest is narrow, the pastern too mich bent, and their quarters are seldom well turned. I only speak of these as defects in what would be considered symmetry in Europe; experience has proved to me that they argue no defec in Asia. The head is beautiful: the expansive forehead, the brilliant, prominent eye, and the delicately-shaped ear, would testfy to nobleness in any animal; the high withers, and the shoulder well thrown back, the fine, clean limbs, with their bunches of starting muscle, and the silken skin, beneath which all the veins are visible, shew proofs of blood that never can deceive

The choicest horses come from the remoter parts of the desert, and cannot be said to have a price, as nothing but the direst necessity wll induce their owners to part with them. There are three great lasses recognised: the Kochlani, the Kadischi, and the Attescli. The first are said to derive their blood from Solomon's stables, the second are of a mixed race, and the third have no claim to gentle breeding.

The Lochlani are, as may be supposed, extremely scarce, but a great deal of their blood is distributed among the nameless breeds; and I never saw an exception to docility, high spirit, and endurance even among the hacks of Beyrout and Jerusalem. A friend of mine rode his horse from Cairo to Suez, eighty-five miles, in twelve hours, and, resting for twelve more, returned within the following twelve; during these journeys, the horse had no refreshment, except a gulp of water once to cool the bit. I have been on the same horse for twenty-fours on one occasion, and for upwards of thirty on another, without any rest or refreshment, except once, for half an hour, when a few handfuls of barle were the only food. In both these instances, the horses never tasted water throughout their journeys.

Some of my young naval friends used to ride the same horse ata gallop almost the whole distance to Djoun and back, about sity miles, over roads that would appear impossible to an English hose to climb to. I only mention these instances as of daily oc

currence. The horse of the true Nedjed breed will gallop, they say, one hundred and twenty miles without drawing a thick breath.

Nedjed is a mountainous country in the Hedjaz, not far from Mecca, which possesses the horse in the most perfect form known. The pedigrees of these animals are sometimes worn round their necks, but on such I should be inclined to look with suspicion; for in the more remote regions of the desert, where alone the pure blood is to be found, writing is unknown. Oral pedigrees, well borne out by the hieroglyphics of noble blood that may be read in the outward structure, so eloquent of the power within-these are the pedigrees most to be relied on. The mare is far more valued than the horse, as the Bedouin believe that the mother gives character to the race, and deduce the descent of the horse through the female line. The mare is also supposed to be capa ble of enduring greater fatigue, and to require less sustenance.

In all the Arab tales, the horse figures largely in connexion with the human heroes. Thus, Achmed was accounted the most generous man of his time, and it was said that he could refuse nothing to the veriest stranger, except a celebrated horse, which shared his tent and his bread. The Sultan, hearing such report of this generosity, sent one of his officers in disguise to test its truth. Arrived at Achmed's encampment, the stranger was received with all hospitality; and though it was said that the generous Arab had become impoverished, a splendid banquet of horse-flesh was served up. The next morning, as the guest was departing, his host inquired if there were any means by which he could compensate him for the honour he had conferred upon his tent by accepting its hospitality. "Alas!" said the stranger, "I have but one request, and that I shrink from asking: my wife is ill; she sickens with desire to possess that noble horse of which all Damascus has heard so much." "Wretched man that I am!" exclaimed the Arab, "I had nothing else to regale you with last night, and I slew him for your repast."

A French officer, who was ambassador to a Syrian Pasha, oserved a very beautiful horse, ridden by a Bedouin, and offered a large sum of money to its poor proprietor: his offer was refused, and the Pasha sent to the Arab to say that the horse must be

given to the Frank, his friend. With tears in his eyes, the poor man dismounted from his loved companion, and kissed him on the forehead then, suddenly exclaiming, "Thou hast been the friend of the free, thou shalt never be the servant of the slave!" he shot him dead.

"WHEREVER We have a Jew on the surface of the earth, there we have a man whose testimony and whose conduct connect the present with the beginning of all time."* In whatever point of view this chosen race is considered, it is by far the most remarkable of all those that inhabit earth. Their completeness, and wonderfully preserved individuality; their unequalled persecutions; their undying hope, and their proud confidence that they shall be yet a great people-all these are characteristics peculiar to themselves.

They are scattered over every region of earth's wide surface; yet not only their physical but their moral traits are unchanged from the days in which their nation gathered round the Temple.t Living illustrations of prophecy as they are, they refuse to believe. in those which are fulfilled even in themselves, while they cling eagerly to those that yet continue in suspense. They have had

Bishop Watson.

"I am the Lord-I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.'—Mal. iii. 6. If this was a marvel when Malachi prophecied, how much more is it a wonder now!"-Alexander.

their temple twice, their city six times, destroyed, yet they are as confident in their restoration as that the morrow's sun will rise. Prophecy seems to speak boldly and unambiguously upon this theme: "the Lord will yet have mercy upon Jacob, and yet will choose Israel, and set them in their own land." In the tenth chapter of Ezekiel, God declares plainly that he will take the Ten tribes, and the Two tribes, and unite them in his hand: that he will gather together the children of Israel from among the heathen on every side, and bring them into their land, and will make them a nation on the mountains of Israel.

The place where the ten tribes have lain concealed for 2,500 years is still a mere matter of conjecture. Now we hear of them along the shores of the Caspian Sea; then among the American Indians; now among the warriors of Cochin,* and the fierce tribes of Affghanistan. It has been affirmed that numbers of these lost tribes appeared in Jerusalem in the days of Augustus Cæsar, and thus incurred the responsibility of hearing the Messiah's voice, and of rejecting him as their Saviour and their King.t

Wherever the lost tribes may dwell, or whenever they may return to Jerusalem, they are to be preceded by the tribes of Judah.‡ And surely when their summons is heard and answered by this widely scattered people, it will resemble that great and varied picture of the resurrection: with turbaned brow and floating

* There are two races of Jews settled along the coast of Malabar: the black, and the white, as they are called. The former is the oldest, and is supposed to have wandered thus far East long before the destruction of Jerusalem: the latter, according to their own tradition, settled there soon after that catastrophe, and obtained various privileges from the native princes. They never were an independent nation: like the Christians of the neighbouring mountains, (said to be converts of St. Thomas) they had their own rulers, although they were tributary to the protecting states. Benjamin, of Tudela, speaks of a powerful tribe of Jews in the twelfth century, as living in the "Mountains of Nishor, whence flows the river Gozen. They make warre upon the children of Chus, and travell in warfare through the desarts;" Lord Lindsay, Buchanan's Christian Researches and Travels in Hindostan : Purchas's Pilgrims, ii., 2,

1457.

+ Jahn.

Zechariah,, xii. 7.