238 THE TOORKEE RACES. 



ficially stained with small spots of black, orange, or 

 even crimson ; their name may have some connexion 

 with the use they are principally put to, namely, to 

 be ridden in parade to the mosque, &c. 



THE TOORKEE RACES, 



also named Turkoman and Toorkoraan, so far as 

 they are mainly indebted for beauty and speed to 

 the Arabian stock, should be separated from the 

 original unimproved breeds of the nation which 

 extends to the north of the Syr-deriah or Jaxartes 

 and the Sea of Aral ; these waters forming a line of 

 separation from west to east to the Kiptchak moun- 

 tains. On the south of this line we find horses 

 strong and bony, larger than the Persian, standing 

 fifteen or sixteen hands high, capable of immense 

 fatigue and privation. Some are said to have tra- 

 velled nine hundred miles in eleven consecutive 

 days. They cannot, however, be compared in 

 beauty with the southern breeds; their heads are 

 always much larger, they have ewe-necks, a small 

 barrel, and long legs, yet even on the spot a thorough 

 bred specimen will sell for £300 sterling, which 

 is an enormous price, considering the country.* The 



ancients spoke of these horses as inhabitants of the isles in 

 the Red Sea, — probably Bahrein, &.c. on the east coast of 

 Arabia, and near the Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Ery- 

 thraean Sea. 



* Captain Frazer (Journey to Khorasan) says ''• they are 

 deficient in compactness ; their bodies are long in proportioa 



