ARABIAN HORSES. 263 



pastures. This whole region is a plateau, and the 

 atmosphere is dry and bracing. It is under such 

 conditions that horses thrive, and here was the origi- 

 nal home of the Arabian horse. In Flanders, where 

 the air is humid, and the pastures are moist and rank, 

 horses grow large, but they have flat feet, inferior 

 sinews, lymphatic temperaments, and soft hearts. 

 Flemish nags have been imported largely to England 

 for many hundred years, being cheap, big, and showy ; 

 bnt they have always been noted for their lack of 

 endurance. Even among thoroughbreds unsoundness 

 is frequent in the British Isles, due in great part to 

 the moist climate. The English horse, when trans- 

 planted to India or to Australia, becomes much im- 

 proved in the quality of his feet and legs, and this 

 improvement is doubtless the effect chiefly of a drier 

 climate. 



The Anazeh spend their winters in the Nejd, mi- 

 grating in spring as far as the Euphrates, and it is 

 among the wandering tribes of this clan that the 

 Arabian steed in his purity must be studied. The 

 Anazeh, and the Bedouins in general, keep their 

 mares, but sell many of their horses, and it is from 

 the horses thus sold, crossed with inferior mares, 

 that the animal known in Europe and in India as 

 an Arab is bred. The Bedouins call these half-breds 

 "the sons of horses," and they look upon them, as 

 well as upon all other breeds but their own, with 

 the greatest contempt, stigmatizing them as kadishes, 

 or mongrels. The desert is almost surrounded by 

 horse-growing countries, and it is touched here and 

 there by great horse markets. On the west and 

 northwest is Syria, where many of these bastard 



