IV] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 447 



" There are sometimes stripes on the grey and bay Katty- 

 wars when first foaled, but they soon fade away^" But we 

 have seen (p. 157) that the horses of all North-western India 

 are a blend of the dun-coloured aboriginal horse of Upper Asia 

 and Arab horses which have been imported in enormous 

 quantities annually into India, and whose blood has saturated 

 the Turcoman horses. 



The fact that the Kattywar horses are dun, rufous-grey, and 

 bay is sufficient proof in the light of our investigations that 

 they are largely mixed with Arab blood, a conclusion strongly 

 corroborated by their slender build, and the fact that " a horse 

 is not considered pure unless he shows stripes " indicates that 

 these stripes are a special characteristic of horses which have 

 the greatest amount of good Arabian, i.e. North African, blood 

 in their veins. 



10. The horses of the Waziri are said to be not uncommonly 

 decorated with stripes on the legs. But, as we have seen above, 

 the horses of Afghanistan and Baluchistan (p. 159) are cross- 

 breds between the Mongolian and the Arab, and there is some 

 evidence for the existence of Arab blood in Afghanistan at 

 least as early as the thirteenth century A.D. For Marco Polo", 

 speaking of Badakshan, says that " it produces numbers of 

 excellent horses remarkable for their speed. They are not 

 shod at all, although constantly used in a mountainous country 

 and on very bad roads. They go at a great pace, even down 

 steep descents, where other horses neither would nor could 

 do the like." And Messer Marco was told that " not long ago 

 they possessed in that province a breed of horses from the 

 strain of Alexander's horse Bucephalus, all of which had from 

 their birth a particular hiark on the forehead. This breed was 

 entirely in the hands of an uncle of the King's ; and in con- 

 sequence of his refusal to let the King have any of them the 

 latter put him to death. The widow then in despite destroyed 

 the whole breed, and it is now extinct." We have already 

 repeatedly seen that a star in the forehead is especially 

 characteristic of the North African horse and its various 



1 Darwin, Variation, etc., Vol. i. p. 61. - Vol. i. p. 156 (Yule). 



