Ben Hur

I just finished rereading Ben Hur. It has been a long time since I read it, and I'd forgotten what a great book it is! I tend to really love the style of writing in old classics, they wrote so eloquently and in such an amazingly descriptive way. I guess since they didn't have cameras they had to work on writing so that you could "see" a scene more than we do. Anyway, I thought you guys would like one of the horse related scenes. There are many more parts just as poetic.

"I knew a king who governed millions of men, their perfect master, but could not win the respect of a horse. Mark! I speak not of the dull brutes whose round it is to slave for slaves - the dead in spirit; but of such as mine here - the kings of their kind; of a lineage reaching back to the broods of the first Pharaoh; my comrades and friends, dwellers in tents, whom long association with me has brought up to my plane; who to their instincts have added our wits and to their sense joined our souls, until they fell all we know of ambition, love, hate and contempt. In war, heros; in trust, faithful as women."

(This is the sheik Ilderim speaking. He then brings his horses in to introduce them to Ben Hur, and...)

A head of exquisite turn - with large eyes, soft as a deer's, and half hidden by the dense forelock, and small ears, sharp-pointed and sloped well forward - approached then quite to his chest, the nostrils open, and the upper lip in motion. "Who are you?" it asked, plainly as ever man spoke.


I also had a revelation when reading it - the dam of all four horses Ben Hur used in the race was a mare named... You guessed it, Mira!


That explains the multitude of adorable Arab mares with that name. :-D


Speaking of which, both horses are doing well. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have time to post some really cute pictures I've been getting. Last week was truly incredibly packed... Sigh. I wish this week will be better, but not exactly counting on it.


L