96 Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates, [en. xix. 



tlic usual question about tlie horses of Nejd, and 

 the existence of separate breeds there, and they 

 o-ave the usual answers. AVe also asked whether 

 they had ever heard of a mixture of blood having 

 Ijeen effected with English or other horses, as some 

 peoj^le pretend has been the case with the Anazeh 

 stock. At first they could not understand our 

 question, but when they did they were rather indig- 

 nant. " All that is a lie," they said, " and absurd. 

 Our horses are the same as those of our forefathers, 

 ])efore they came from Nejd, and the same as those 

 of the tribes which have remained there." None 

 of them have ever seen or heard of an English 

 horse, which would of course be a hadwh (mongrel). 

 All horses but their own were Jcadiskes, not worth 

 talking about. Abd-er-Eahman, too, whose father 

 was a horse-dealer, laughed at the notion of a 

 Bedouin ever allowing his mares to look at an 

 European horse, and said he had never heard of 

 any tradition of the kind we mentioned. The 

 thing would be an impossibility. So I should 

 think. The only European horses ever brought ta 

 the desert w^ere some of Mr. S.'s, about twenty 

 years ago, and they proved an entire failure. 

 Though of the best blood in England, the Arabs 

 would have nothing to say to them. 



While we were eating our dinner, a very good 

 one of fried mutton, cakes, and fresh butter, a 

 beautiful little gazelle was brought for us to look 

 at. It was a fawn of only a few days old, and had 



