522 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



was introduced here at the Saracen conqueft, and have been 

 preferved unmixed to this day. They feem to be a diftindt 

 animal from the Arabian horfe, fuch as I have fcen in the. 

 plains of Arabia Deferta, fouth of Palmyra and Damafcus, 

 where I take the mod excellent of the Arabian breed to be, 

 in the tribe of Mowalli and Annecy, which is about lat. 36° ; 

 whilft Dongola and the dry country near it feems to be the 

 center of excellence for this nobler animal, fo that the 

 bounds within which the horfe is in its greateft perfection 

 feems to be between the degrees of lat. 20°, and ^6°^ and 

 between long. 30° eaft from the meridian of Greenwich to 

 the banks of the Euphrates. For this extent Fahrenheit's, 

 thermometer is never below 50° in the night, or in the day 

 below 80°, though it may rife to 1 20° at noon in the fhade, at 

 which point horfes are not affe^Sled by the heat, but will 

 breed as they do at Halfaia, Gerri, and Dongola, where the 

 thermometer rifcs to thefe degrees, Thefe countries, from 

 what has been faid, muft of courfe be a dry, fandy defert, 

 with little water, producing fliort, or no grafs, but only roots, 

 which are blanched like our cellery, being always covered 

 with earth, having no marfhes or fwamps, fat foapy earth,, 

 or mould. 



I NEVER heard of wild horfes in any of thefe parts. A- 

 rabia Deferta, where they are faid to be, feems very ill cal- 

 culated to conceal them, it being flat without wood or co- 

 ver, they muft therefore be conftantly in view; and I ne- 

 ver heard any perfon of veracity fay they ever faw wild 

 horfes in Arabia. Wild afles I have frequently feen alive, 

 but never dead, in neck, head, face, and tail very like oiu's, 

 only their flcins are ftreaked, not fpotted. The zebra is 

 found nowhere in AbyfUnia, but in the S. W. extremity of 



Kuara 



