28 THE HORSE 



are often vicious, and do not possess the excellent qualities of the other 

 breeds. 



" Sixth comes the * Nejdi,' from the neighbourhood of Bussorah, and if 

 they do not surpass, they at least equal, the ' Dgelfe of Anaze, and Seclaoni.' 

 Horses of this breed are little known at Damascus, and connoisseurs assert 

 that they are incomparable; thus their value is arbitrary, and always 

 exceeds two thousand piastres." 



The first and last of these breeds are those which are most sought after 



O 



by East Indian sportsmen ; and Colonel Bower, who is one of their 

 strongest admirers, tells that he once possessed a three-year-old colt 

 which stood 15 hands 1 inch at that age. He describes him as having 

 " the stereotyped assortment of Eastern beauties : could stick his nose in a 

 tumbler, and looked the gentleman all over ; remarkably muscular, and as 

 stately in his bearing as an autocrat, but his clean flat wiry legs, measuring 

 eight inches round the shank below the knee, had nothing English in their 

 composition. This was a pure Anaze Arab, but his career in the field was 

 cut short by his casting himself in his stall, and dislocating his hip." It 

 will be seen that no mention is here made of the breed which has been so 

 long familiar to those who read our modern histories of the horse as that 

 called " Kochlani " or " Kailhan," descended from the stud of Mahomet, 

 who is supposed by many historians to have laid the foundation of the 

 Arabian pedigrees. There is a tradition that the Prophet, being desirous 

 of selecting mares for his stud, had a number of them which had been used 

 as chargers kept for two days without water. At the end of that time, when 

 mad with thirst, they were set at liberty, and at the moment when they 

 were close to the coveted water, his trumpets sounded a war charge, which 

 had such an effect upon five of them that they abandoned the water, and 

 galloped to the spot where they expected to meet with the still greater 

 excitement of war. These five were therefore selected to form the founda- 

 tion of his stud, and from them it is supposed that the race called 

 " Kochlani " are descended. There is a slight similarity between this name 

 and that of the second in the list enumerated by Ali Bey, and perhaps his 

 " Seclaoni " may be identical with the " Kochlaui " of previous writers. 

 It is asserted by Oriental travellers that pedigrees exist which can be 

 traced five hundred years back, and in the highest breeds there is no doubt 

 that at present great care is taken, and many ceremonies performed at the 

 covering of the mare. After the birth of the foal, a certificate is always 

 duly made out by the local authority, and this must be done within seven 

 days of its being dropped. 



ARABIA is, in great measure, made up of rocky mountains and sandy 

 deserts ; but in Arabia Felix there are numerous valleys of remarkable 

 fertility ; though it is chiefly on the limited oasis surrounding each well or 

 spring of water that the Arab horses are dependent for their food. It is 

 found even in this country that a very luxuriant herbage does not suit the 

 horse, whose frame becomes coarse and heavy if he is reared upon the 

 succulent grasses of rich meadows, and therefore it is probable that much of 

 the wiriness of leg and lightness of frame in the Arab is due to the sandy 

 soil in which the grasses of these oases take their roots. Besides this, the 

 dry air may have something to do with the development of muscle and 

 tendon, while the soft sands of the desert render it unnecessary to protect 



