ARABIAN HORSES. 257 



speaks of the reports which reached her party in the 

 desert as to the extraordinarily fine pedigree of a par- 

 ticular horse owned by a certain old man. " ' Maneghi 

 Ibn Sbeyel ' [the title of the horse's family], they kept 

 on repeating in a tone of tenderness, and as if tasting 

 the flavor of each syllable." The travellers made a 

 considerable detour in order to see this famous ani- 

 mal. When they arrived at the tent of his owner, 

 they found that he had gone to borrow a donkey for 

 the purpose of moving the family furniture to a new 

 camp ; for " a horse of the Maneghi's nobility could 

 not, of course, be used for baggage purposes." Pres- 

 ently, however, the old man appeared, riding his 

 high-born steed, which proved to be " a meek-looking 

 little black pony, all mane and tail." 



Mr. Blunt expresses the opinion that the Arabian 

 horse is degenerating through in-breeding, and more 

 especially because animals of the best families, though 

 individually inferior, are preferred to superior indi- 

 viduals, but members of families belonging to an 

 inferior rank. However this may be, it is certain 

 that the extraordinary excellence of the Arabian 

 horse in his present form could never have been de- 

 veloped or maintained had it not been for the ex- 

 treme care which the Bedouins bestow upon equine 

 descent. 



They have no written pedigrees ; it is all an affair 

 of memory and of notoriety in the tribe. Certain 



interesting books, written chiefly by Lady Anne. These are, " The 

 Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates," and " Our Pilgrimage to Nejd." 

 They lived among the Bedouins for some time, and what they re- 

 port about the Arabian horse, his qualities, his descent, and the 

 families in which he is grouped, agrees in all substantial respects 

 with the account, presently to be mentioned, given by Major Upton. 



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