Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 183 



Median stocks, all passing under the general designation of 

 Arabs. We shall soon make clear the origin of these last-named 

 breeds. "In the district between Euphrates and Tigris there 

 are many breeds of horses," which vary much in class and 

 appearance, "and passed into India are called high or low 

 caste 1 ." The Indian dealers obtain their supply from agents 

 at Bassorah and Koweit, who get them from people who live 

 near the coast 2 . Most of the horses supplied by these settled 

 people near the coast they breed themselves. " The wandering 

 tribes of the interior of Erack are said to have a great many 

 Persian, Turcoman, and Barb horses and mares, and they sell 

 these spurious mares to those people near the coast who supply 

 the Indian dealer with horses 3 ." Upton saw on one occasion* 

 over thirty horses collected by the Pasha of Bagdad and with 

 very few exceptions they were grey. 



Elsewhere he observes that " in Turkish Arabia grey horses 

 appear to be so numerous that grey might be said to be the 

 usual colour 5 ." 



Upton had never visited the Shammar tribes who live in 

 the region between the Euphrates and Tigris north of Erack, 

 but he had many opportunities of seeing horses bred by them. 

 "They present to the eye a somewhat different appearance to 

 those of the Anazah ; they are less bloodlike, and to some 

 extent present a heavier and more beefy appearance. The 

 Shammar are the hereditary foes of the Anazah tribes, but 

 possess Anazah blood in their horses from animals captured 

 in war. The Shammar horses are not much or generally 

 esteemed by the other Bedouin. The Arabs between Syria 

 and the Euphrates do not appear to use Shammar horses, 

 although to many they were close at hand ; yet these tribes 

 will always get Anazah horses as stallions if they can. Above 

 all Anazah are prized by the Shammar, but no Anazah will 

 have a Shammar horse 6 ." The Shammar also appear to have 

 some strains of blood unknown to the Anazah tribes. A famous 

 Shammar mare which could outstrip every horse or mare among 



1 Op. cit. p. 361. 2 Ibid. p. 362. 



3 Ibid. p. 364. 4 Ibid . p . 3 6 o. 



5 Ibid. p. 341. Ibid. p. 356. 



