LVII 



When we reach Syria we approach as near the home 

 of the best type of the Arabian horse as the traveller is 

 apt to get. The nomad Bedouins or Kabyle tribes beyond 

 the Jordan, who winter in the Arabian desert and wander 

 northward to escape its summer heat and droughts, prob- 

 ably own the best blood that exists. It is here that the 

 French have found the fine stallions they are using to re- 

 trieve the failing stock of Algeria. These Bedouins are 

 not numerous ; twenty-five thousand souls will cover all 

 the tribes. 



I believe that these Bedouins have kept nearer than 

 any other people to the purest strain of Arabian blood. 

 You must ride for many days, and put up with a good 

 deal of privation, heat, and dirt to reach the habitat of 

 this truly noble beast, but it is worth your while. The 

 Arabs beyond the Jordan are practically not subject to 

 the Turkish rule. They are strictly nomads, and for sub- 

 sistence raise camels, asses, and horses, beeves, sheep, and 

 goats. They come and go at will ; they bulldoze the 

 agricultural peasantry into giving them a large modicum 

 of their crops as tribute, and the poor soil-tillers find it a 

 far safer means of securing quiet than to rely on the Sul- 

 tan's shallow pretence of protection ; they demand back- 

 sheesh even from those who only go down from Jerusa- 

 lem to Jericho, lest they, too, should fall among thieves ; 

 they make war on each other at will ; they are as free as 

 the Sioux of 18-40. The simple trip to the Dead Sea has 



