Pierce Egan's Book of Sports, and Mirror of Life - Embracing the Turf, the Chase, the Ring, and the Stage; Interspersed With Original Memoirs of Sporting Men, Etc #226691

When the Arab falls from his mare, and is unable to rise, she will immediately stand still, and neigh until assistance arrives. If he lies down to sleep, as fatigue sometimes compels him, in the midst of the desert, she stands watchful over. Him, and neighs and rouses him i-f-either man or beast approaches. An old Arab -had a valuable mare that had carried him for fifteen years, in many a hard-fought battle, and many a rapid, weary march; at length, eighty years old, and unable longer to ride her, he gave her, and a scimitar that had been his father's, to his eldest son, and told him to appreciate their value, and never lie down to rest until he had rubbed them both as bright as a looking-glass. In the first skirmish in which the young man was engaged, he was killed, and the mare fell into the hands of the enemy. When the news reached the old man, he exclaimed that life was no longer worth preserving, for he had lost both his son and his mare, and he grieved for one as much as the other and he immediately sickened and died.