6o6 



ASIATIC AND NORTH AFRICAN HORSES. 



which is the largest and most renowned horse in 

 Persia, comes only from the Persian province ol 

 Khorassan and the Russian province of Merv. They 

 usualty stand from 15 to 16 hands high, and are 

 generally bays or greys, although blacks are some- 

 times met with. Turkomans are the typical horses of 

 Central Asia, and they form no breed of ponies. A 

 legend tells us that Bucephalus, the horse of Alexander 



I 



Photo by] 



[J. Demon, Paris 



Fig. 585. — Merv (Turkoman) horse. 



the Great, was of this race. It appears that several 

 attempts have been made to improve this breed, for 

 we read that Tamerlane distributed five thousand Arab 

 mares among the Turkomans ; and Nasr-ed-Din, the 

 late Shah of Persia, sent them five hundred Arab 

 mares for the same purpose. Notwithstanding these 

 innovations, the Turkoman horse of to-day shows little 

 or no trace of Arab blood ; in fact, he is more like 



