Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 179 



milk-white, and under this term the Bedouin include all white 

 and light-grey horses. Ash-hah has the same connotation as 

 as-far except that the infusion into the white is blackish, not 

 yellowish. Am-lah means practically silver-grey, and is applied 

 to all the vaguer shades of grey, whilst ash-al has much the same 

 signification, though in Irak it is strictly used of a horse with 

 much white on the face and in the tail. Ki-li means blue- 

 grey (indigo), and is ' opener ' and with less of black than our 

 iron-grey ; the latter is more of a kadish than a kuhailan 

 colour. Az-rak is a lighter variety of the last named, being a 

 blue or blue-grey colour. It is a colour much prized, and is 

 even further from iron-grey than is the ni-li. Dappling is not 

 very common in kuhailans. Of the greys the az-rak perhaps 

 most inclines to a light fleecy-grey. Rum-ma-ni (from rum- 

 man, the pomegranate) means nutmeg-grey, and it is the 7nu- 

 war-rad, or 'rose-colour' of Najd, and it like all the greys admits 

 of different proportions of white, red, and black. The desert 

 contains no vulgar, patchy, or mealy roans; and no flesh-coloured 

 muzzles and pink orifices. The true nutmeg-roan or nutmeg- 

 grey runs the bay colour close for the prize of excellence in the 

 Arabian bred. No matter how white in the course of years a 

 rum-ma-ni turns, his strawberry spots remain. Ah-rash, flea- 

 bitten-grey, is certainly found in Kuhailan, yet it is also common 

 in kadishes. 



The Arabs set great store by the markings, such as white 

 stockings and the height to which they rise on the leg. They 

 also draw presages from the whirls in the hair. Curly places 

 or ' feathers ' of certain shape in certain situations are taken for 

 omens that he who owns or mounts the horse will rue it ; and 

 similar arrangements on other spots for assurances of prosperity. 

 Moreover feathers on a horse's neck or body no more indicate 

 high breeding than a twist in the beard does in man. Horses 

 in whose coats hair thus disports itself are commoner among 

 the Shammar than among the Ae-ni-za (Anazah). " The Arab 

 believes implicitly in blood and holds that generosus nascitur, 

 non Jit. If he sees a colt sulking, he at once considers that he 

 is bad from the egg, and thinks nothing about tuition. But 

 the Najd has plenty of resolution. His admirable self-command 



12—2 



