258 Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates, [en. xxvm. 



of liundred years practically cut off from all com- 

 munication with other horse-breeders. They have 

 despised the horses of their Kurdish and Persian 

 neighbours too thoroughly to allow any infusion of 

 blood from them, and thus have been forced to 

 breed in-and-in during all these generations. The 

 Anazeh, too, though not so absolutely severed from 

 Central Arabia, have, since the reduction of Jebel 

 Shammar by the Wahabis, been precluded from 

 free communication with the peninsula, and have 

 become more and more isolated ; and the evil has 

 been exaggerated by the extraordinary fanaticism 

 shown Ijy both Anazeh and Shammar in favour of 

 certain special strains of blood which monopolise 

 their attention. At the present moment all the 

 blood stock of the Anazeh tribes must be related in 

 the closest degrees of consanguinity. That this 

 fanaticism operates most injuriously there can hardly 

 be a doubt. The horses bred from are not chosen 

 for their size or their shape, or for any quality of 

 speed or stoutness, only for their blood. We saw a 

 horse with a considerable reputation as a sire, 

 among the Aghedaat, for no other reason than that 

 he was a Maneghi Iledruj of Ibn Sbeyel's strain. 

 The animal himself was a mere pony, w^ithout a 

 single good point to recommend him, but his blood 

 was unexceptionable, and he was looked upon with 

 awe by the tribe. 



These two j^oints then, the insufficiency of stud 

 horses and in-and-in breeding, may be looked upon 



