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BELIEVE MAGIC WAS USED Uzbeks Chieftain Doubtful Over OverRiding Riding Trick of Englishman Englishmanin in a Desert Race After riding about three days through Khivan territory ke came once more to the desert writes Ikbal AH Shah in Asia Maga ¬ zine By and by we found the country more fertile but we were not reassured by the occasional glimpses of raiding parties of Uzbeks The Uzbeks are descendants of Tur ¬ kish tribes They subsist to a great extent on horseflesh and mares milk Many of their tribal customs are connected with horses which they breed in herds herdsOur Our horses were rather indffercnt animals They greatly amused the Uzbeks ardent connoiseurs of horseflesh I had reason to know however that the beast I rode belied its looks and had a good deal of speed So one day when I was being mildly chaffed by an Uzbek chieftain regarding my mount I offered to wager him my horse against his that I would outdistance him in a race raceBeside Beside his wellgroomed steed with its arched neck and fine fetlocks mine looked a sorry hack enough We jumped into our saddles a Uzbek fired his rifle into the air and we were oft We had agreed to race to a stunted tree about half a mile away which formed one of the few landmarks on the broad steppe to go around this and re ¬ turn to the starting point At first I could not get more than a trot out of my animal but I remembered I had seen English jockeys sit far upon the withers of the animal From the moment I tried it this stratagem proved successful We slowly began to overtake tho chieftain who in the usual Tartar fashion was guiding his horse wth his feet and waving his arms He rode like a centaur but I felt that my seat in the saddle was by far the more scientific one When I passed him at the stunted tree he uttered a loud exclamation of surprise After that he never had a chance I feared my old Rosi nantes wind would not hold out long enough but we came in an easy first firstThen Then the chieftain arrived A number of his people had collected and he was dis ¬ tinctly annoyed He called me aside and for a moment said nothing biting his lip and looking at me out of his little slant eyes eyesI I must have your horse he said at last I cannot afford to let it go What price do you want for it itI I will be quite content I said to ex ¬ change him for a horse fit to carry me to Krasnovodsk The horse you were riding just now will in fact suit me admirably admirablyFirst First of all he said will you answer me as man to man have you used any magic on that horse horseAt At this I laughed aloud aloudYou You laugh said the chieftain irritably but you were afraid to sit upon its back and actually bestrode its neck I then explained to him the English and American system of riding in horse races but could scarcely disabuse him of the idea that there was magic in what I had done
