CHAPTER IX. 



Runjeet Singh's famous Horse Lylee Anecdotes Persian Horses. 



IT is no unusual circumstance in the East, for deadly 

 feuds, such as that detailed in the last chapter, to be 

 occasioned by disputes for the possession of a horse. 

 Quarrels of this kind are very common among the 

 Arab tribes of the Desert, and are often perpetuated 

 from generation to generation. The fatal beauty of 

 Helen scarcely caused more disasters than have seve- 

 rally followed the abduction of many a famous steed. 

 Runjeet Singh, the great ruler of the Punjaub, had a 

 horse named Lylee, which he computed to have cost 

 him 60 lakhs of rupees (600,000) and the lives of 

 12,000 soldiers, having been the occasion of several 

 wars. It was the property of Yar Mohammad Khan, 

 of Peshawur ; and Runjeet Singh, after a long contest 

 with that potentate, made the delivery of the animal 

 to him, a primary condition of peace. Yar Moham- 

 mad tried many stratagems to evade this demand ; first 

 declared the horse was dead, and when this was dis- 

 covered to be a falsehood, he made several attempts to 

 palm off other horses on the conqueror, instead of the 

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