Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 175 



very small; the forehead large. The tail is carried high (Fig. 58) 

 both in walking and galloping, and this point is much looked 

 to as a sign of breeding. There is among English people a 

 general idea that grey, especially flea-bitten grey, is the com- 

 monest Arabian colour. But this is not so among the Anazah, 

 Bay is still more common, and white horses, though fashionable 

 in the desert, are rare. Our white Hamdani mare Sherifa, 

 which came from Nejd, was immensely admired amongst the 

 Gomoussa for the sake of her colour almost as much as for her 

 head. Perhaps out of a hundred mares among the Auazah one 

 would see thirty-five bay, thirty grey, fifteen chestnut, and the 

 rest brown or black. Roans, piebalds, duns and yellows are not 

 found among the pure-bred Arabians, though the last two are 

 occasionally among Barbs. The bays often have black points, 

 and generally a white foot, or two or three white feet, and a 

 snip or blaze down the face. The chestnuts vary from the 

 brightest to the dullest shades, and I once saw a mottled 

 brown. With very few exceptions all the handsomest mares we 

 saw were bay, which is without doubt by far the best colour in 

 Arabia, as it is in England ; the chestnuts, as with us, are hot- 

 tempered, even violent ; black is a rare colour, and I never 

 saw in the desert a black mare which I fancied. In choosing 

 Arabians I should take none but bays, and, if possible, bays 

 with black points. 



" Among the Shammar we saw only two first-class mares, 

 among the Fedaan perhaps half a dozen, and among the Roala, 

 once the leading tribe, none. The Gomoussa alone of all the 

 Anazah have any large number of really fine mares. I doubt 

 if there are two hundred really first-class m.ares in the whole of 

 northern Arabia. The Shammar have not now a single speci- 

 men of the Seglawi Jedran breed for which they were formerly 

 famous. The Montefik in the S(juth, once celebrated for their 

 horses, have allowed the purity of their breed to be tampered 

 with, for the sake of increased size, so necessary for the Indian 

 market, which they supply. It was found that a cross-bred 

 animal of mixed Persian and Arabian blood would pass muster 

 among the English in India as pure Arabian, and would 

 command a better price for his extra height. The Persian or 



