180 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. 



habitually subdues the fire of his highly nervous tempera- 

 ment ; but if any one would fight him, he will fight. Even the 

 noble mare, which the Arabs compare to the high-born lady, on 

 whom it is meet that all maidens should attend, frequently 

 shows her aversion, when those whom she does not know 

 approach her. The stallion picketed beside the tent is as good 

 as a sentinel. The first sound of an intruder brings him to 

 attention. Generally he will stamp with one fore-foot and 

 challenge, not braying like a ka-dish, but sounding one or two 

 short and sharp notes, to indicate that he will make no terms. 

 On the open plain his strong character is even more exhibited. 

 He seems to increase in size when moved from his standing- 

 place. After a gallop every joint and sinew and useful part 

 stands out, as if made by work and for work. There is very 

 little of the mere 'pet' about him. When his glance is not 

 fixed on some object near him, in which he imagines that there 

 is danger, he is always scanning the horizon. His gentle salu- 

 tations of passing mares are widely different sounds from the 

 bagpipe-like squeals of the I'raki stallion. At the sight of a 

 crowd he neighs out musically like one who is delighted to 

 meet others of his species 1 ." 



Major Upton, in the work already cited, embodies the 

 result of wide and careful observations made on the horses 

 not only of the Anazah tribes of the deserts of central Arabia, 

 but also on those found in Syria, among the Bedouin tribes 

 in the deserts lying south-west and west of the Euphrates, the 

 coast tribes, such as the Mofitsch, who, though chiefly fishermen, 

 yet breed horses, on the shore of the Persian Gulf, the horses 

 of Erack (Irak), as also those of the Shammar tribes, who occupy 

 most of the country between the Euphrates and Tigris north of 

 Erack. 



Upton states 2 that bay is the most general colour of the 

 Anazah horses, and that it is the favourite colour among the 

 Arabs (Fig. 58). "Horses of a very rich dark bay rather than a 

 brown colour are not uncommon. Chestnuts and greys are less 

 numerous, and together would not equal the number of those 



1 The Arabian Horse, pp. 267-8. 2 Op. cit. p. 341. 



