FOR PEACE AND WAR. 19 



" that the number of horses in an army is perfectly inconsider- 

 able when compared with that of camel riders ; and that in 

 Nejed horses are never used excepting in war or parade." 



Burckhardt abundantly confirms this statement, and adds 

 some very interesting particulars. He says (p. 247, Bedouins 

 and Wahahees) — 



" The Aeneze tribes on the frontiers of Syria have from eight to ten 

 thousand horses ; the roving tribes in that neighbourhood probably half as 

 many. To the single tribe of Montefyk, in the Desert, -n-atered by the 

 Euphrates, between Bagdad and Basrah, we may assign 8,000 ; and the tribes 

 of Dhofyr and Beni Shammar are proportionably rich in those noble quadru- 

 peds ; while the province of Nejed, Djebel Shouier and Kasj'm (that is, from 

 the Persian Gulf as far as Mediuah) do not possess 10,000." 



He then affirms '• that the aggregate number of horses in the 

 whole of Arabia, from the Ked Sea to the Persian Gulf, does not 

 exceed 50,0C0." He states in another place (p. 246) " that 

 out of the united armies of all the Wahabee chiefs who attacked 

 Mahomet Ali in 1815, at Byssel, consisting of 25,000 men, there 

 were but 500 horsemen, mostly belonging to the Nejed and the 

 followers of Feysul, one of Saoud's sons," who, at the date of 

 Palgrave's visit, was Sultan of Kiad (the capital of Nejed) and 

 the whole AYahabee country. He states, too, emphatically, that 

 " it is a general, but erroneous opinion, that Arabia is very rich 

 in horses" (p. 246). Now, these statements are amply con- 

 firmed by history. 



"When Mahomet fought his second battle, that of Ohod, with 

 his old enemies from Mecca, his brethren of the tribe of Koresh, 

 he had but 1,000 men, out of which but two were horsemen ; his 

 opponents had 8,000 men, out of which 200 were horsemen 

 (Washington Irving's Life of MaJwmet .) 



This historical fact amply bears out both Burckhardt and 

 Palgrave's statements ; and it is worthy of observation that, 

 although it may sound to the ears of Arab breeders a fine thing 

 to date their thoroughbred ones back to Kabda, Noam a, Wajza, 

 Sabha, and Heyma, the five mares of the Prophet (from which, 

 according to their account, spring the five thoroughbred 

 Nejdean families of horses — viz., the Taueyse, Manekye, 

 Koheyl, Sachlawye, and Djulfe), Mahomet himself usually rode 



