Page:Ivanhoe (1820 Volume 1).pdf/72

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IVANHOE.
27

ver collars round their throats, and bracelets of the same metal upon their swarthy legs and arms, of which the former were naked from the elbow, and the latter from mid-leg to ancle. Silk and embroidery distinguished their dresses, and marked the wealth and importance of their master; forming, at the same time, a striking contrast with the martial simplicity of his own attire. They were armed with crooked sabres, having the hilt and baldrick inlaid with gold, and matched with Turkish daggers of yet more costly workmanship. Each of them bore at his saddle-bow a bundle of darts or javelins, about four feet in length, having sharp steel heads, a weapon much in use among the Saracens, and of which the memory is yet preserved in the martial exercise called El Jerrid, still practised in the eastern countries.

The steeds of these attendants were in appearance as foreign as their riders; they were of Saracen origin, and consequently of Arabian descent, and their fine slender limbs, small fetlocks, thin manes and easy springy motion, formed a marked contrast with the large-jointed heavy horses, of which the race was cultivated in Flan-