Sy/i:/A,v Akabs. 15 



Bedavvin never ride their best marcs on plundering expeditions. You might shake a hand- 

 kerchief at them and make tliem run away, if riding their mares, but if you see them 

 coming on camels — be friglitened. The mare comes before wife and cliild ; she means money 

 and something of reputation. I do not say there are no cases of attachment, but I will say 

 that in five cases out of seven the mare merely represents capital."* 



During the Crimean war some officers were sent to Syria to buy horses. They were 

 provided with firmans from the Turkish Government, interpreters, horse-dealers accustomed to 

 the ways of the desert, and an ample supply of English gold, with which they paid on the 

 completion of each transaction. They formed camps in different convenient stations, made their 

 errand known, and had opportunities of seeing the best horse-produce of the Bedouin tribes in 

 that part of Asia, sucli as no single person, however powerful, could possibly enjoy, f 



The dealings were principally carried on with the Anazeh tribe, amongst whom, "although 

 the chiefs and men of wealth ride with Turkish saddles and bits, the appointments of poorer 

 men's horses consist of a coarse pad of ragged dirty cloth ; a thin leather, slightly stuffed to 

 form a seat, pommel, and cantle, girthed with a bit of coarse web, with sometimes a breast- 

 band, forms the saddle, without any stirrups. The bridle consists of a halter, with a noseband 

 of rusty iron links, without anything in the shape of a bit. A single rope or thong attached 

 to this acts as a rein, and also to tether the horse when required. These accoutrements were 

 often perfectly free of ornament, but, on the other hand, were sometimes decorated with long 

 black and white tassels, like old-fashioned bell-pulls, suspended by ropes v.'hich almost allowed 

 them to sweep the ground, with red cloth and ostrich feathers stuck all over the head-stall, 

 and more frequently with a little short frizzy black plume set between the ears. 



" When armed for war the horseman carries a light lance, at least twelve feet in length. 

 The Anazeh does not exist who does not possess a spear ; but when riding unarmed, the 

 Anazeh always carries a small short stick with a crook at the end, with which he appears to 

 guide his horse. 



" The horses are small, seldom rising above 14 hands i inch, but they are fine, and have- 

 great power and size for their height. They would not be much admired by a purely English 

 liorseman. Indeed, Arab horses imported to England at a fabulous cost are constantly passed 

 over as 'ponies.' The English and the Arab horse look each absurd by turns, as the eye has 

 grown accustomed to the other; but, to my eye, accustomed for some time to rest on nothing 

 but the Eastern horse, they seem to exceed all that I have yet seen in point of beauty. 

 Stallions used to be led into our camp looking like horses in a picture — the limbs flat, broad, 

 and powerful; deep below the knee, small and fine about the fetlock, of a beauty and cleanness 

 of outline, enough alone to stamp blood on their possessor ; the neck light, yet arched ; the 

 flanks closely ribbed up; the tail carried out with a sweep like the curve of a palm-branch; 

 and the small head terminating in large nostrils, always snorting and neighing. 



" It was a beautiful sight to see one of them, when he got wind of another stallion, draw 

 himself up, with his neck arched, his ears pointed, and his eyes almost starting out of his 

 head ; his rigid stillness contrasting curiousl)' with his evident readiness to break out into 

 furious action. Noble, knightly, heroic ! — an incarnation of fiery energy ; a steed that Saladin 

 might have mounted, and that would have matched his master 1 



" Grey of various shades, bay, chestnut, and brown, are the ordinary colours of the Arab 

 horse ; the commonest of all is a dark uniform nutmeg grey. Light grey, verging upon white, 



* Mrs. Burton's 'wile of the celebrated tiavcllcr) "Inner Life in Syria." t "Blackwood's Migazine," 1S39. 



