CH. xxYiM.] Erj'oiicons Principles in Breeding. 257 



we were at Aleppo, mares were thus every day 

 brought for its to look at, terribly knocked about, 

 and often with fresh spear-wounds gaping on Hunk 

 or shoulder. 



Besides all these reasons, the Bedouin system of 

 breeding, as at present practised among the Anazeh 

 and Shammar, must have had a degenerating effect 

 upon their blood stock, which is only now beginning 

 to show its results. That this system has in most 

 of its features been the same from time immemorial 

 in Arabia, is no doubt true, but there is one point 

 on which it is more likely the practice has been 

 modified by recent circumstances. In former times 

 when the tribes were rich and prosperous, it cannot 

 be doubted, but they kept a larger proportion of 

 horses as compared wdtli mares than is now seen. 

 At the present time there can hardly be more than 

 one full-grown horse kef)t for stud purposes to 

 every two hundred mares. Indeed, the proportion 

 is probably far smaller, and this fact alone is suf- 

 ficient to account for much of the barrenness and 

 much of the inferiority of the produce, comj)lained 

 of in the desert. In England such a proportion 

 would not be tolerated. Then, if there be any 

 truth in the doctrine that in-and-in breeding is 

 wrong, this too may be looked upon as an increasing 

 evil in the desert. The Shammar have long been 

 separated from the rest of Arabia, and, though 

 occasionally recruiting their breeding stock by cap- 

 ture from the Anazeh, they have been for a couple 



