178 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. 



much resemble the dismal quadrupeds which in Europe are 

 reserved for the last scene of all. Practically the Ku-hai-kn 

 colours are bay and chestnut, and the numerous different shades 

 of grey and roan. Nobody can pretend to say of any one of 

 these colours that it is more ' typical than another/ There is 

 an Arab saying that the ' kings of horse-kind are those which 

 are of a dark colour.' Another Eastern saying is that ' one 

 should be slow to buy a chestnut horse, and still slower to sell 

 one of that colour which has turned out well.' 



" The Emir Fai-sal of Najd told Col. Kelly that the finest 

 Arabian horses may be of any colour ; that the prevalent colour 

 among the first blood was various shades of grey; that as a rule 

 the foal received its colour from its sire ; that on the whole, 

 colour went for little, height for nothing, and that blood was 

 everything." We shall presently see why the Arabs set a 

 value on white and grey horses quite disproportionate to their 

 real merits. In view of this native opinion Mr Palgrave may 

 well be forgiven for stating that grey is the colour of the 

 horses of Najd. 



General Tweedie 1 gives valuable details respecting the diffe- 

 rent terms for various colours and their shades as well as their 

 distribution among Kuhailan horses and also among Kadishes. 

 He tells us that ah-mar and ku-mait when applied to horses are 

 the same, and remarks that the Arabs use ah-mar to denote a 

 European. Ash-kar denotes chestnut. In ku-mait or ah-mar 

 the mane and tail are black ; in ash-kar they are red or sorrel. 

 Chestnut of a dark copper colour is not very common in Arabian 

 blood horses. Adham, which includes coal-black and dark 

 brown, which might pass for black, is rare in Al Khamseh. 

 Aswad means black, and is synonymous with adham, but horse- 

 men say adham, just as we do not speak of a red horse, but of 

 a bay or a chestnut. The old poets called a dark coloured or 

 pitch-black horse jaun, and this colour was evidently much 

 esteemed. Passing on to the white, grey, and roan, he points 

 out that as-far, ' white,' not only means white with a saffron or 

 sorrel infusion, chiefly apparent in the mane and tail, but also 



1 The Arabian Horse, p. 241. 



