Arms bare, legs bare--all were athletes in power,
In form and race each an Apollo seemed;
Yoked to the first were three Nisaean steeds,[14]
Each snowy white, proud stepping, rangy, tall,
Chests broad, legs clean and strong, necks arched and high,
With foreheads broad, and eyes large, full and mild,
A race that oft Olympic prizes won,
And whose descendants far from Iran's plains
Bore armored knights in battle's deadly shock
On many bloody European fields;
Then three of ancient Babylonian stock,[15]
Blood bay and glossy as rich Tyrian silk--
Such horses Israel's sacred prophets saw
Bearing their conquerors in triumph home,
A race for ages kept distinct and pure,
Fabled from Alexander's charger sprung;
Then three from distant desert Tartar steppes,
Ewe-necked, ill-favored creatures, lank and gaunt,
That made the people laugh as they passed by--
Who ceased to laugh when they had run the race--
Such horses bore the mighty Mongol hosts[16]
That with the cyclone's speed swept o'er the earth;
Then three, one gray, one bay, one glossy black,
Descended from four horses long since brought
By love-sick chief from Araby the blest,
Seeking with such rare gifts an Indian bride,
Whose slender, graceful forms, compact and light,
Combined endurance, beauty, strength and speed--
A wondrous breed, whose famed descendants bore
The Moslem hosts that swept from off the earth