62 THE HOKSE OF AMEKICA. 



the mare as true. The thief knew just what Mr. Blunt wanted 

 and he shaped the pedigree and tracing to suit the purchaser. 

 Mr. Blunt had no knowledge of this mare's breeding, nor where 

 she came from; still, her blood was to become one of the great 

 influences in renovating the English race horse. This incident is 

 of no importance, in itself, except as it illustrates the universal 

 conditions under which amateurs buy horses in the Orient. 



Upon leaving Aleppo, the party traveled eastward till they 

 struck the Euphrates and then down the right bank of that river. 

 The first town of any importance was Deyr, on the river, and just 

 across was ancient Mesopotamia. They were still in the border 

 land between the productive north and the desert south, with 

 the Syrian desert between them and the Arabian desert. All 

 this region is occupied with a mixture of races, employed in 

 varied pursuits, with but a feeble trace of tribal authority, as all 

 are under the direct government of the Sultan of Turkey. 



" Deyr is well-known," Mr. Blunt says, " as a horse market, and is, perhaps, 

 the only town north of the Jebel Shammar where the inhabitants have any 

 general knowledge of the blood and breeding of the beasts they possess. The 

 townsmen, indeed, are but a single step removed from the Bedouins, their un- 

 doubted ancestors. They usually purchase t eir colts as yearlings either from 

 the Gomussa, or some of the Sabaa tribes, and having broken them thoroughly, 

 sell them at three years old to the Aleppo merchants. They occasionally, too, 

 have mares left with them, in partnership, by the Anazah, and from these they 

 breed according to the strictest desert rules. It is, therefore, for a stranger, 

 by far the best market for thoroughbreds in Asia, and you may get some of 

 the best blood at Deyr that can be found anywhere, besides having a 

 guarantee of its authenticity, impossible, under ordinary circumstances, to get 

 at Damascus or Aleppo. There are, I may say, no horses at Deyr but thorough- 

 breds " 



He made some purchases at Deyr and then they pursued their 

 journey down the river, and at the most convenient point he 

 crossed over to Bagdad, on the Tigris. Here he inspected the stud 

 of the Turkish pasha, but the prices were high and he seemed to 

 lack confidence in the purity of their breeding. Whatever the 

 cause, he made no purchases, and soon started on his journey 

 up the Tigris. Upon reaching Sherghat on the Tigris, he turned 

 westward, and crossing ancient Mesopotamia, he was again at 

 Deyr, where he seems to have made more purchases, and then 

 started, in a southwesterly direction, with eighteen mares and two 

 stallions for Damascus and the coast. This closed the search of 

 Arabia for Arabian horses of the highest caste and purest blood, 



