DETERIORATION IS FROM THE ARAB 95 



mounted d la gineta — that is, on the Hght jennet of 

 Andalusia, a cross of the Arabian.' These Eastern 

 horses are mostly spoken of as Arabian. The same 

 dictionary also gives the statement that the word 

 'genet' comes from the Berber tribe of Jeneta, who 

 supplied the Moorish Sultans of Grenada with a 

 body of horse on which they placed great reliance. 

 The Moorish Sultans did not value horses for the 

 mere power of half-mile sprinting, nor place great 

 reliance on them for that reason. They wanted 

 war-horses for long and severe wars. 



The 'New English Dictionary' has the same mean- 

 ing and derivation, with several examples, amongst 

 which : ' 1463, item for a genett that my mastyr lent 

 hym in the northe country.' 1674, Milton: 'The 

 Emperor rides in the field with all his nobility on 

 Jennets and Turkey horses.' Prescott : ' Ferdinand 

 Isabella royally attired rode on a Jennet.' Gold- 

 smith's ' Natural History ': ' Next to the Barb 

 travellers generally rank the Spanish Jenet,' which 

 was not unnatural if the travellers were men of 

 experience, because the jennet was almost a Barb 

 or Arab. We must therefore recognise that all 

 the best of the horse-flesh of Enofland throughout 

 the entire history of England is admittedly Arab. 



