210 THE ARABIAN RACE. 



of northern latitude, and from the fifth to the sixtieth 

 of east longitude, where the thermometer is seldom 

 below 50 in the night, or 80 in the day, though 

 often as high as 120 of Fahrenheit. This stock has 

 a black or slate-coloured hide, darkest in the white 

 or grey varieties ; the ears are small, the forehead 

 broad and flat, the limbs always light, and the mane 

 and tail not superabundant. Its ancient history we 

 have already sufficiently noticed to the period of the 

 Arabian conquests, and now have to enter more par- 

 ticularly on a few details on the present condition of 



THE ARABIAN RACE. 

 PLATE Vlir. 



It is the most artificial, the first of hiorh-bred 

 horses, and the parent of the noblest breeds in every 

 part of the world : a race of great intermixture, but 

 for ages in the care of attentive and skilful breeders, 

 and under the influence of circumstances favourable 

 to the attainment of the greatest perfection. Al- 

 though the bay colour, of all others, seems the most 

 inclined to pass into albinism, yet there are traces 

 that the white or rather grey race was early and 

 largely mixed with it ; for it is in those two that 

 the dappled or pommeled marks peculiar to horses 

 are alone perceptible ; and admitting the high irri- 

 tability of their intellectual instincts, wliich clearly 

 affect the markings upon horses, it does not appear 

 that real changes of colour can be ascribed to a dif- 

 ferent cause than what results from inter-union with 



