PREFACE 



The journey thus was undertaken also for 

 my own education and that it was so successful 

 (if I may be permitted to say so) is largely 

 due to aid received from several influential 

 quarters. I carried with me, for instance, let- 

 ters from President Roosevelt, who, as a horse- 

 man, ranks with his standing as a man, and 

 without which my errand would have been 

 fruitless. From His Imperial Majesty, the 

 Sultan of Turkey, I received an Irade, to- 

 gether with the courtesies of the Sublime Porte. 

 In Aleppo I had the extreme good fortune to 

 form a bond of true friendship with the ven- 

 erable Achmet Hafez, himself the Prince of 

 all the Bedouins. By him personally I was 

 taken to the desert and personally he interested 

 himself in my purchases of horses. Without 

 him it would have been an accident if I had 

 been able to purchase a single animal of abso- 

 lute purity of blood. It was these unusual 

 courtesies that brought success to the under- 

 taking and to all that extended them a sincere 

 and hearty acknowledgment is here made. 



Thanks also are due and are here expressed 

 to Charles Arthur Moore, Jr., and to the late 

 John Henry Thompson, Jr., who were my 

 companions on the trip and whose hearty co- 



[xiv] 



