I40 THE ARAB HORSE 



Bay with their native stock, the Arabs tried to 

 preserve the purity of the desert breed. Even 

 at this time eighty-five per cent, of high caste 

 Arabian horses are Bays ; and there is only 

 one strain of any importance, the Hamdani so 

 crossed with Russian Tarpans as to be white or 

 grey. It must be remembered, how^ever, that 

 the demand of the Indian and European 

 markets for gre3"s and for heav}^ cross-breds has 

 led the Arabs to breed extensively from their 

 low caste strains. Moreover, the neighbouring 

 regions of Syria and Mesopotamia sell cross- 

 bred horses as " Arabian " regardless of colour, 

 and of honesty. The Bay mares of the real 

 Arabian aristocracy are never sold, and of the 

 horses very few reach the market as compared 

 with the numbers of low caste animals forming 

 the ruck of the trade. 



Down to the seventh century a.d. the Arabs 

 were busy breeding from a very few imported 

 Bays their meagre supply of horses. So far as 

 the possession of horses went the}^ would not 

 have attracted much attention but for the 

 coming to Arabia of steel weapons. 



From prehistoric times the Swedes had been 

 mining iron, and their trade routes led by 

 river, to Novgorod, where lived a trading 

 family the Romanovs, from whom descend 



