STATUS OF THE ARAB HORSE 



horses ever brought to America. He said they 

 were captured with great difficulty and 

 brought to New York by a special permit of 

 the Sultan ; that they were of the family known 

 in history as the Eagle Feather Horses, so 

 much prized in the Queen of Sheba's daj^s ; that 

 they were snow white with black spots. I had 

 but a few years before told my circus friend 

 where he could find one of these alleged eagle- 

 spotted Arab horses, at Albany, Oregon, at 

 which place, I believe, he purchased it. 



How the tradition arose that the Arab horse 

 is spotted, is difficult to imagine. The pure 

 Arab is never spotted. That color only comes 

 from the crossing of different breeds and that is 

 a thing which is never done in the desert. 

 Among the Anezeh, bay is the most common 

 color, and white horses, though very fashion- 

 able in the desert, are very rare. During our 

 entire travels I only saw one pure white mare, 

 a Maneghieh Sbeyel, which I purchased. The 

 skin round her eves and nostrils was of a dark 

 blackish blue, and her head was of extreme 

 beauty. Out of a hundred mares among the 

 Anezeh, you would find thirty-five bays, thirty 

 grays, fifteen chestnuts, and the rest brown. 



I saw only one that I would call a black 



[257]^ 



