CHAPTER III 



Early History and Families of Arab 

 Horses 



npPIE Bedouins of Arabia are a pas- 

 "*• toral people who have lived for 

 centuries from their flocks of sheep and 

 herds of camels, and have bred their horses 

 on well established lines from time imme- 

 morial. They have always been indepen- 

 dent, acknowledging no rulers but their 

 own Sheiks; jealous of interference by 

 outsiders. Job was a Bedouin, and the 

 place of his origin, Ur of Chaldea, was 

 visited by the Blunts on their first 

 journey in Arabia. 



All the Bedouins are descendants of 

 Ishmael, and they have genealogies dat- 

 ing from the earliest antiquity. It will 

 be remembered that Abraham himself 

 was a nomad, who came from Chaldea, 

 the country east of the Euphrates 



37 



