BLOOD SIRES. 195 



of its worth, and sometimes more. Nearly all the Nedjdi Arab horses 

 introduced into Europe are those considered imperfect by their owners. 

 It is said that 4,000 was offered by an aide-de-camp of the Emperor 

 of Russia for the celebrated ' White Hamdani,' and refused. This 

 horse, now in the breeding yard of St. Cloud, near Paris, had, ac- 

 cording to the words of Mohammed Agha and the attendants, who 

 brought him over, three or four unlucky signs, on which account he 

 had been rejected from the stables of the Pacha of Egypt. These 

 marks, which we should consider merely as a simple freak of nature, 

 would inspire a Mussulman either with a superstitious prejudice 

 against the horse, or an incredible longing to mount him ; each mark 

 bearing a particular signification according to the place it occupies, 

 and the size and softness of the hair." 



An Arab horse has, in fact, forty recognised marks, 

 twenty-eight of which are negative, and the other 

 twelve have an influence for happiness or misery on 

 the owner. The mark between the ears shows swift- 

 ness, that on the girths increases the flocks, while 

 that on the breast fills the tent with plunder ; and it 

 is especially unlucky for the hair to curl on the legs. 

 The rival tribes are as jealous among themselves of 

 the pure caste of their horses as the great short-horn 

 breeders were wont to be, in the days when a baronet 

 rather despised the herds of an earl, from a belief 

 that their muzzles had a slight dark tinge, which be- 

 spoke a distant relationship to the Scotch ox or the 

 Chillingham rangers. 



Judging from his portraits, we should be disposed 

 to side with those who considered that Lord Godol- 

 phin's celebrated horse was more of a Barb than 

 an Arab. Hence, if this point is conceded at Gog- 

 magog, we have the Godolphin Barb, the Byerley 

 Turk, and the Darley Arabian, standing boldly out 

 from the croud of Hemsley Turks, Sedley Arabians, 

 Curwen Barbs, &c. (the importation of which was 

 supposed to lay counties under a deathless obligation 

 to their great families), as the three honoured foun- 

 ders the Shem, Ham, and Japhet, as they have 

 been styled of English blood stock. It was not 

 until seventy years after the Byerley Turk had borne 



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