til. XXVIII.] Causes of Dcoencracy. 255 



doubt that in the early years of the present 

 century, the Roala were possessed of immense 

 numbers of mares, and had the reputation of 

 having the monopoly of some of the best strains of 

 blood. It was to their Sheykh, Ibn ShaaMn, whom 

 he called the " Prince of the Desert," that Abbas 

 Pasha sent his son to be educated, and from them 

 that he bought most of the mares, of which he 

 made such a wondei'ful collection. Yet from one 

 cause and another the Ebala, thoue^h still rich and 

 powerful, have now no mares to speak of. They 

 have within the last few years abandoned the old 

 Bedouin warfare with the lance, and taken to fire- 

 arms. Horses are no longer indispensable to them, 

 and have been recklessly sold. The Shammar of 

 Mesopotamia have suffered for the last two genera- 

 tions by the semi-Turkism of thisir Sheykhs, Sfuk 

 and Ferhdn, and have been divided by internal dis- 

 sensions to such an extent, that their enemies, the 

 Anazeh, have greatly reduced them. Ablms Pasha 

 also bought up many fine mares from among them 

 at extravagant prices ; and they now have not a 

 single specimen among them of the Seglawi Jedn'in 

 Ijreed, for which they were formerly famous. TJic 

 Montefik in the south, once also celebrated for tlieir 

 horses, have allowed the purity of their breed to be 

 tampered with, for the sake of increased size, so 

 necessary for the Indian market which they sup- 

 plied. It was found that a cross-bred animal of 

 mixed Persian and Arabian blood, would pass 



