1837] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



203 



the district of Djibel Shiimar many encampmonis 

 were, seen ot" lute witlioiit a siiiirle horse, and it 

 was known that the Arabs JNIofpyr, between 

 Meiinich and Kasyin, hail reduc(Hl tho^r liorsrs 

 ■within a lew years Irom two thousand to one 

 thousand two hnndrod. The late siierilf nl' 

 JNIekUa kept an excellent stud of horses. Tiie 

 best stallions ol' INledjed were carried to Mekka 

 for sale, and iL was become a lasldon among Be- 

 douin women, <roinir a pilgrimaire to INIekka, to 

 bring the sherilt' the siallions of their husbands as 

 a present, liir which they took in return presents ol' 

 silk, ear-rings, &c. 



"As far as my knowledge goes, Syria is the 

 best place to purchase true Arabian blood horses, 

 and no dis'rict is more convenient tl)r that purpose 

 than the Nauran, where the horse may be pur- 

 chased ti-om the first hand, and be chosen in the 

 encampments themselves of the Arabs who fill 

 these plains in spriiiir time. The horses bought 

 up at Bassora lijrthe Indian market are purchased 

 second-handed Iron Bedouin dealers, and an Arab 

 wiil seldom undertake to send a irood horse far off 

 to the market with the uncertainty of selling it. 

 True blood horses of the Ivhomziia, as I am credi- 

 bly infornied, seldom find therelbre their way to 

 Bassora, and most of the horses purchased there 

 for the [ndian market are belonging to the Mon- 

 telek Arabs, who are not careful in maintaining a 

 pure breed. It might perhaps be worth while for 

 the great European powers to keep persons, on 

 purpose, constantly employed in Syria in purchas- 

 ing horses tor them, as the best means to cross 

 and improve their own stud. Damascus would 

 be the best position for such persons to reside in. 

 I fancy that very few true Arabians of the best 

 breeds, and still Jess any first-rare horses of them, 

 have ever been imported info England, alfhouirh 

 many Syiian, Barbary, and Egyptian horses, have 

 gon<^ hy that name.* 



"The Bedouins say that the Egyptian mare, if 

 coupled yvith a blood Arabian, produced a good 

 breed, much better than the indigenate Syrian 

 mares, whose breed is not worth any thin<i even 

 if crossed with the Koheyl. The Bedouins of 

 Nedjau are in the habit of purchasinix mares from 

 the Eiryptian pilirrim caravans, which they cover 

 by gooii stallions, and which they sell alterwanls 

 the fillies to the xA.rabs of Yemen. In Egypt it- 



* "I have never met with any g;p]clin5;s in the inte- 

 rior of the desert. It would be erroneous to suppose 

 that the horses of the Rhouse, or nobl.^ breed, are all of 

 very perfect and distino;uished quality and bpaiity. 

 Amongst the descendants of Eclipse may be tbund 

 mere hacks, and thus 1 have seen many Kohevs that 

 have little more than this name to recommend them. 

 althou>?|i the strenijth of bearin? fatigue seems to be 

 common to all the desprt race. The fin^ horses, how- 

 ever, of the Rliouse are in far Ejrpater numbpr fjan the 

 common horsps belon<j;in^ to the same breed; but 

 amongst these fine horses few only are found that may 

 be called firsf-rate horses, in either bone, beauty, or 

 action; amona: a whole tribe, five or six only, arid in 

 the Syrian desert, there are perhaps not more than two 

 hundred of that description, each of which mav be 

 ■worth in the desert itself from £150 to £200; of these 

 latter very fpw, if any, have evpr found their -way to 

 Europe, aIthou2:h it is throu2;h them alone that suc- 

 cessful attempts could be made to ennoble the Etiropean 

 race, while the usually imported horses are all of a se- 

 cond or third quality." 



self, on the borders of the Nile, no particular breed 

 of horses is distinguished; (he best horsf>s in this 

 country are produced in those parts where the best 

 clover grows, which is in Upper Egypt about 

 Tahsa, Arniimia, and Tarrivoust, and in Lower 

 Eirypt, in the district of Meuzahdi. E.xtremely 

 \'e\w blood horsei! come to Eirypt, which is less to 

 be wondered at, as this eminent quality of bear- 

 ing fiiiiirue is little wanted in the fertile Nile bor- 

 ders, 'i'he Etryplian horse is ugly, of coarse shape, 

 and looking more like a coach horse than a racer; 

 thin legs and knees, short and thick neck, are their 

 greatest delr-cts. The head is sometimes fine, but 

 I never saw fine legs in an Egy[)tian horse. They 

 are not able to bear anj- great liuigue, but when fed 

 their action is nujch more brilliant than that of the 

 Arabian; their impetuosity renders them peculiarly 

 desirable for heavy cavalrj', ami it is upon this qual- 

 ity of the horse which the celebrity of Egyptian 

 cavalry has ever been founded. In their first onset 

 it is much superior to the Arabian, but where long 

 marches become necessary, and the duties of light 

 horses are required, the Egyptian yields infinitely 

 to the Koheyl. The Lybian Bedouins draw their 

 supply of horses fiom their own breeds aa Avell as 

 from Egypt. In the interior of the desert and to- 

 wards Barbary they are said to have conserved the 

 ancient races of Arabian horses, but this is not the 

 case in the vicinity of Egypt, where they distin- 

 guish as litiie any peculiar races as the Egyptians 



do. * # * # * * # #'5 



"The Arabs of Naazy and Noteyn, Upper 

 Egypt, in the desert between the Nile and the 

 Red Sea, have continued the breed of the Rhouse 

 among them. As in Arabia, horses are possessed 

 by them in partnership; they divide each horse into 

 twenty-four shares or kerats (according to the di- 

 vision of landed property in Eijypt. which is al- 

 ways divided into kerats,) and such a one buys 

 three or four or eight kerets of the mare, and 

 shares in proportion in the benefits arisinir fiom 

 the sale of the. young breed. So little is known in 

 Egypt, among the soldiers, of the true breed, that 

 when in 1812, Ibrahim Pasha's troops took ten 

 Koheyl horses belonging to Noteyn, the soldiers 

 sold Uiem, among themselves^ like common Egyp- 

 tian horses, while their fijrmer owners valued them 

 at least three times that price. For one hundred 

 Spanish dollars a good cavalry horse can, at all 

 limes, be got in Egypt; the highest prices paid for 

 an Egyptian horse is three hundred dollars, a Be- 

 douin would never give filty dollars for the same. 

 The Mamelukes formerly esteemed the Koheyl of 

 the desert, and went to considerable expense in 

 |)ropagating their breed in Egypt, The present 

 ir.-asters of this country have not the same passion 

 lor fine horses as their predecessors, who had, in 

 many respects, adopted Arab notions, and had 

 made it a fashion anaong them to acquire a com- 



* "Aboe.t the pedi£:ree of Arabian horses, I must 

 here add, that in the interior of the desert the Bedou- 

 ins never made use of any, as among themselves they 

 as well know the {jenealogy of their horses as they do 

 that of tneir masti-rs; but, if they carry their horses to 

 market to any town, as Bassora, Bagdat, Aleppo, Da- 

 ma=cus, Medina, Mekka, they then take care to have 

 a pedigree written out, in order to present it to the 

 buyer, and only in that case will a Bedouin be found 

 possessed of his horse's pedigree; while on the other 

 hand, in the interior itself, he would laugh at being 

 asked for his mare's pedigree." 



