THE ARABIAN RACE. 211 



different and other forms or races. * In this view 

 the Arabian blood is much mixed, for we find reck- 

 oned in the colours of the race : ahmar, or clear 

 bay ; ad/iem, brown bay ; ashekwar^ sorrel ; aliad, 

 white; azrek, pure grey; raklha, mottle grey; 

 akdar, blue grey; udhem, black brown; ulmar 

 muruk, dark chestnut; and Mohammed himself 

 mentions aswad, or black, which, however, is not 

 recognised, nor ashebad, light chestnut, as real Ara- 

 bian colours. Green, indeed, occurs in the national 

 writers, which seems to denote what we call sallow, 

 but it does not appear that there is any breed of 

 the kind, or it is an occasional kadeschi. It is evi- 

 dent the whole of the true Arabian horses are refer- 

 rible to the bay and the grey, with perhaps a slight 

 addition of a Toorkee black race. The perfection of 

 the bay blood is no doubt due to the Arabs, and 

 particularly to the period when their princes, in 

 the career of conquest, became more enlightened, 

 sagacious, and wealthy than they could have been 

 while they were the mere tenants of their tents. 

 Even now, when for some centuries they have con- 

 tinued to breed, nearly without exception, from 

 their own perfected studs, they produce horses un- 

 equalled in form, with fine bone, firm horny legs, 

 limbs small yet hard, muscle sinewy and elastic, 

 and all the parts free from vascular superabundance 

 and unnecessary weight ; though the breast may be 

 deemed narrow, the barrel expands, the head, small 



* Albinism would produce white, or flea-bitten, or sorrel 

 horses, but does not afford the round dapples and black legs. 



