216 HIGH-TYPE HORSES 



The Anazeh mares are claimed by the best judges to be 

 the only royal stock of the eldest branch ; but this infor- 

 mation does one no good ; for by no chance whatsoever 

 does a Frank ever come within a distance of winning such 

 a prize. In America, a long purse will buy a " Sunol" or 

 an " Arion," a " St. Julien " or a " Nancy Hanks ;" but his 

 Imperial Majesty the Sultan himself has neither money nor 

 wit nor power to purchase or take one of the best or even 

 one of the second best Anazeh mares. They are, so far as 

 we are concerned, out of the race. I purpose to tell you of 

 the average Arabian, the horse that a Frank may buy ; 

 one who is of as good lineage as the animal a well-to-do 

 citizen rides in our part of the world. Few of us throw our 

 legs across a pure descendant of " Lexington," or even of 

 " Justin Morgan," and it seems to me that there is more 

 interest in the steed of every day than in the mystery sur- 

 rounding the horse one sees as rarely as we see a Derby 

 winner; a horse we must pursue as one does the ignis 

 fatuus, and who is equally evanescent. 



The true Arab's undoubted love for his steed has kept 

 up, in some few places over the entire area where the Ara- 

 bian horse flourishes, a more or less pure strain of the 

 wonderful old stock. The wealthy or princely have no 

 doubt improved on the original, but not in any great 

 measure ; certainly not by any means as we Anglo-Saxons 

 have done. The heritage of the Arabian or the Barb 

 there is only a difference in nomenclature and habitat be- 

 tween them; they are otherwise, barring some equine 

 points, very nearly the same animal is the power of 

 transmitting his qualities in undiminished measure to his 

 offspring, and the power of extraordinary endurance at 

 speed. What the latter means I can only explain illustra- 

 tively. It is not distance that kills, but speed. Any de- 

 cent horse can go thirty miles a day with a reasonable 



