The Book of the Horse. 



EGYPTIAN ARABS. 



Another great breeder of Arabs, the greatest, according to Baron Hiigel, since King 

 Solomon, was Abbas Pacha. Himself a child of the desert, for he was brought up in Arabia, 

 where his father was Governor of Mecca, he displayed throughout life the greatest love for the 

 horse; and his stud was brought to the hammer at Cairo in i860. At the time of the sale 

 only 300 animals were left ; for the successor of Abbas Pacha, a madcap youth of eighteen, had 

 given them away right and left to every one who managed to approach him with a well-turned 

 piece of flattery. Von Hiigel attended the sale on the part of his royal master, and had to 

 give exorbitant prices for the two stallions and three mares which he purchased, but which 

 were of the highest caste. The sale lasted three weeks, and the bids were made in English 

 guineas. On one day twenty-six horses fetched 5,000 guineas. Aged mares twenty years 

 old were sold at from 180 to 250 guineas, colts and fillies from 300 to 700 guineas each. 

 ****** 



According to Hammer Purgstall, the beauties of the Arab horse are celebrated by no less 

 than eighty-si.x classical Arabic and Persian writers. 



