ti EEP0B-T8. 



from Bagdad to Syria, horses so beyond all price that it was 

 almost impossible to purchase them, and, certainly, impossible 

 to pay ready money for tliem. These animals, of a fabulous 

 value, are sold only to the highest personages, or to rich mer- 

 chants who pay for them by thirty or forty instalments., or by ^ 

 perpetual rent, setded on the vender or his descendents. The 

 birth of a horse can never be considered a misfortune by an 

 Arab, however much he may prefer a mare for the material ad- 

 vantages which they procure. Mares almost always produce, 

 and it is on that account principally, that they are preferred. 

 I repeat it — the birth of an animal that guarantees its master 

 against humiliation can never be considered a misfortune. A 

 poet says, ' My brothers reproach me with my debts, yet I never 

 contracted one but for an honorable purpose. In giving the 

 bread of heaven to all, in purchasing a horse of noble racCj and; 

 buying a slave to attend upon me.' " 



Stonehenge says, " My own belief, founded on much obser- 

 vation is, that much depends upon the comparative physical 

 power and strength of constitution in sire and dam, even more, 

 perhaps, than upon the composition of the blood. Where the 

 blood is tho same in kind, the difference in progeny, which 

 often occurs must be attributable to the individual nervous 

 system, power, energy, or something akin thereto. Something 

 more than mere breeding must be souglit to explain this, and I 

 am inclined to think it is in the constitution, possessed by the 

 individuals." Let these considerations be duly weighed by all 

 breeders of horses as of other domesticated animals. 



In the choice of sire and dam for breeding purposes, two, 

 much care cannot be given in regard to soundness of wind and 



