His Habitat. 1 5'5 



These doubts and conflicting statements have arisen, 

 I do not doubt, from a want of knowledge of the country 

 of Arabia, and correct information of its people and its 

 horses. Nejed is the name of a country or district in 

 Arabia ; but is neither the name of a breed of horses, 

 nor of any particular tribe ; and probably that district 

 discussed at the commencement of the first chapter, in 

 which the horse was kept free from the causes of de- 

 generacy which has befallen the horse in other parts 

 of the world ; or, as Mr. Palgrave has aptly put it, ' In 

 Nejed is the true birthplace of the Arab steed — the 

 primal type, the authentic model.' 



Every horse bred in Nejed, or bred by any of the 

 tribes of Nejed, may be called correctly a Nejdee, or a 

 horse of Nejed ; not, I think, implying any difference in 

 race and blood from an Anezah horse, but solely as a 

 distinction from the horses of other tribes than those 

 of Nejed, such as the Shammar, although they possess 

 horses of the same blood as those in Nejed ; and most 

 distinctly in opposition to all horses of mixed blood on 

 the borders or outskirts of Arabia. 



The horses of the Great Anezah and other Bedouin 

 tribes of Nejed, of which there are several (Mr. Pal- 

 grave enumerates twelve), are essentially Nejdee horses. 

 The Great Anezah is sub-divided into many families ; 

 and from among them the Gomassa have, perhaps, the 

 best horses in the known world. In describing a horse 

 as an Anezah, or, still further, as a Gomassa, it is not 

 implied that he is not Nejdean, but he is particularised 

 as a Nejdean horse of the Great Anezah tribe, of the 



