294 GOOD AND BAD POINTS 



and which during some months each year had been obliged 

 for centuries in the uplands or in the foot-hills of the Atlas 

 range to turn their tails to the chill blasts of the rainy 

 season. 



The horse came into Egypt with the Hyksos, or Shep- 

 herd Kings, less than seventeen hundred years before our 

 era. Previous to that time asses were the only specimens 

 of the genus equus. ISk> horse figures on the earlier mon- 

 uments of Egypt. The modern horse of Egypt is a dif- 

 ferent animal, of more recent importation, but also from 

 the Shepherd Kings of to-day, the pastoral princes of the 

 desert. This modern breed has a curiously uniform type. 

 You see them of all sizes, from the polo-pony to the heavy 

 wheeler, but the type remains. If mixed, the strong Ara- 

 bian blood predominates in the look of the offspring. In 

 other countries horses vary both in size and type. You 

 have everything, from a Sheltie to a Percheron, each dis- 

 tinct in kind as well as size ; there are several distinct 

 races. In Egypt the type is constant ; there is but one 

 race. The head is small, the face intelligent and mild, 

 but not generally as fine and bony as one anticipates. 

 The perfect head is as rare as the perfect horse. The 

 neck is rather short and full in front, with good crest and 

 distinctly fine throttle ; by no means as clean as the thor- 

 ough-bred's, but much more neatly turned. The crest is 

 full, the withers low, but the shoulders sloping ; the barrel 

 not quite as round as one would like, but well coupled to 

 a nearly perfect haunch. Looked at from front or rear, 

 the horse has not as much breadth as fills the eye, but one 

 sees far fewer weedy -looking horses than west of the 

 desert. The legs and feet are as good as can be. Even 

 the old broken-down hacks have no windgalls. Nor does 

 one often see a lame horse. Infinite stress is, among the 

 Arabs, laid on good legs. As the Arabian legs are uni- 



