Arabia and Some of the Bedouins 23 



calculations possible, the decimal system, 

 was an Arabian invention, brought to 

 the Western world by the Saracenic 

 invasion of Palestine, upper Africa, and 

 Europe, which was an Arabian over- 

 running. 



What is most germane to our present 

 investigation, however, is the fact that 

 this country is the place where the horse 

 has attained his highest perfection ; where 

 he has been bred pure by a careful system 

 of selection adhered to for hundreds of 

 years, a system not departed from in the 

 slightest degree. It has come to be 

 acknowledged by the most intelligent 

 breeders that thorough breeding in horses 

 is chiefly a calculation of the amount of 

 Arab blood they possess, just as gold 

 stands as a measure of value in the cur- 

 rency of a country, the value of a coin 

 consisting of the amount of gold it con- 

 tains. 



The oldest and most exclusive registry 

 in the world — the one at the foundation 

 of all more recent works of the kind is 



