ENCOMIUMS Oi\ THE ARAB TAKEN AT RANDOM 171 



Strengthened by the finest of Arabian stalHons 

 brought back by the Crusaders, and was kept up at 

 irregular intervals by many French nobles down to 

 1820. The form and other distinctive marks of the 

 Arab, says Mr. Sanders, were thus stamped upon 

 the Percheron. 



The Arab breed, he says, was also the foundation 

 of the celebrated breed of Orloff trotters established 

 by Count Orloff, who imported a gray stallion named 

 Smetauxa, from Arabia, to whom a Danish mare 

 was bred, from the progeny of which cross the breed 

 was founded. 



And the now equally celebrated breed of American 

 Morgan trotters is also mostly indebted to the Arab 

 blood for its excellence, through Grand Bashaw, a 

 Barb imported into America from Tripoli. In fact, 

 says Mr. J. H. Sanders, this Oriental blood, w^herever 

 introduced, in all nations and all climates, has been 

 a powerful factor in effecting improvement in the 

 equine race. Yet, says Mr. Day, for practical 

 purposes this same noble creature is as extinct as 

 the dodo. O tempora, O viores ! 



Marco Polo noticed the superb qualities of the 

 Arab in a.d. 1260. He says that excellent horses 

 were bred in Yemen and taken to India, and 

 numbers of Arab chargers were despatched from 

 Aden to India, and ' fine horses of great price' were 

 sent to India from Persia. Colonel Yule has a foot- 

 note that these latter horses were probably the same 

 class of ' Gulf Arabs ' that are now sent, which, as 



