THE AKABIAN HORSE. 5i5 



strengtli enough to carry more than a liglit weight, and courage that 

 would cause him to die rather than yield. 



Mr. Burckhardt, in a letter to Professor Sewell, says that ' the tribes 

 richest in horses are those who dwell, during the spring of the year at 

 least, in the fertile plains of Mesopotamia ; for, notwithstanding all that is 

 said of the desert horse, plenty of nutiitious food is absolutely requisite 

 for its reaching its full vigour and growth. The numerous tribes on the 

 Red Sea, between Akaba and Mecca, and especially those to the south of 

 Mecca, and as far as Yemen, have very few horses ; but the Cuixles and 

 Bedouins in the east, and especially in Mesopotamia, possess more horses, 

 and more valuable ones, than all of the Arabian Bedouins ; for the rich- 

 ness of their pastures easily nourishes the colts, and fills their studs.* 

 These observations are very important, and are evidently founded on truth. 

 He adds, that ' the m^mber of horses in Arabia is not more than 50,000 ; 

 a number far inferior to that found in any part of Eurojse, or Asia, on an 

 equal extent of ground.' 



' During the Wahabee government, horses became scarcer every year 

 among the Arabs. They were sold by their masters to foreign purchasers, 

 who carried them to Yemen, Syi'ia, and Bassora ; which latter j^lace sup- 

 plies India with Arabian horses, because they were afraid of having them 

 seized upon by their chiefs — it having become the custom, upon every 

 slight pretext of disobedience or crime, to declare the most valuable 

 Bedouin mare forfeit to the pubhc treasury.' 



Syria is the best place to purchase true Arabian blood-horses ; and no 

 district is superior to the ISTaurau, where the horse may be pui'chased from 

 the first hand, and chosen in the very encampments of the Ai-abs themselves, 

 who fill these plains in the spring. The horses bought at Bassora for the 

 Indian markets are purchased second-hand from Bedouin dealers. These 

 procui'e them from the Montifell Arabs, who are not careful in maintain- 

 ing a pure breed. Damascus would be the best residence for a person 

 constantly employed in this trade. 



Wliile the number of horses generally is much smaller than had been 

 supposed, there are comparatively fewer of those of perfect quality and 

 beauty, — perhaps not more than five of six in a whole tribe ; probably not 

 two hundred in the whole desert. Each of these in the desert itself may 

 be worth from one hundred and fifty to two huaidred pounds ; but very 

 few, if any, of these have ever found their way to Enrope. 



There has, however, been much exaggeration with regard to these pedi- 

 grees. Burckhardt says, that in the interior of the desert, tlie Bedouins 

 never make use of any, because, among themselves, they know the 

 genealogy of their horse almost as well as that of their own families ; but 

 if they carry their horses to any distance, as to Bassora, Bagdat, or 

 Damascus, they take care to have a written pedigTee made out, in order to 

 present it to the purchaser. In that case only would a Bedouin be found 

 possessed of his horse's pedigree. He would laugh at it in the desert. 



The Kochlani are principally reared by the Bedouin Ai*abs in the 

 remoter deserts. One of them was sold at Acre for the sum of fifteen 

 thousand piastres. 



It is an error into Avhich almost every writer on the history of the horse 

 has fallen, that the Arabian is bred in the arid deserts, and owes the power 

 of endurance which he possesses in his adult state to the hardships whicli 

 he endui-ed Avhile he was a colt. The real fact is, that the Ai'abs select 

 for their breeding-places some of those delightful spots, known only in 

 countries like these, where, though all may be dry and barren around, 

 there is pasture unrivalled for its succulence and its nutritious or aromatic 

 properties. The powers of the young animal are afterAvards developed, as 



