MY QUEST OF THE ARAB HORSE 



price on her, he said ten pounds, and that threw 

 the whole thing back into the joke basket. 

 But that night I finally got him. I told him 

 seriously that above all the mares I had seen 

 on the desert, I wanted his Abeyeh Sherrakieh, 

 because of her fine head. So he finally set a 

 price which seemed reasonable, and I offered 

 him ten pounds more and made him take it. I 

 also bought his Hamdanieh Simrieh filly, four 

 years old, a bay, which he himself rode. I 

 think she can outwalk anything in horse flesh 

 I ever saw, and I believe that even in a field of 

 exceptionally fast walking horses, she would 

 be five miles ahead of the lot in an all-day walk. 

 She and her sister, with a broken shoulder, were 

 the only Hamdanieh Simrieh in the northern 

 part of the desert. The Anezeh told me there 

 were some in the Shammar, but only a few. 

 They are the rarest horses in the desert, and 

 the blood is held in higher esteem than any- 

 thing else. 



I hope I have succeeded in impressing the 

 reader with the very fine nobility of character 

 of Akmet Haffez. My friendship with him 

 and my admiration for him began at our first 

 meeting in Aleppo and each day made both 

 stronger. And now I was to come into closer 



[126] 



