cii. xxYiii.] Description of the Arabian. 247 



lias ahways preserved its own breed intact ; and 

 wherever the Bedouin is found, whether in Nejd or 

 in the Hamad or Mesopotamia, the same animal, 

 with the same traditions and the same prejudices 

 concerning him, is to be found. It is of this animal 

 only that I propose to speak. 



The pure bred Bedouin horse stands from four- 

 teen to fifteen hands in height, the difference de- 

 pending mainly on the country in which he is bred, 

 and the amount of good food he is given as a colt. 

 In shape he is like our English thoroughbred, his 

 bastard cousin, but with certain differences. The 

 principal of these is, as might be expected, in the 

 head, for Avhere there is a mixture of blood the head 

 almost always follows the least beautiful type of the 

 ancestor^. Thus, every horse with a cross of Spanish 

 blood will retain the heavy head of that breed, 

 though he have but one-sixteenth part of it to fifteen 

 of a better strain. The head of the Arabian is larger 

 in proportion than that of the English thoroughbred, 

 the chief difference lyiug in the depth of jowl. This 

 is very marked, as is also the width between the 

 cheek-bones where the Enofish horse is often defec- 

 tive to the cost of his windpipe. The ears are fine 

 and beautifully shaped, but not very small. The eye 

 is large and mild, the forehead prominent as in horses 

 of the Touchstone blood with us, and the muzzle 

 fine, sometimes almost pinched. Compared with the 

 Arabian, the English thoroughbred is Eoman nosed. 

 The head, too, and this is perhaps the most dis- 



