HISTORY. 479 



countries stretching from Mecca to the Persian Gulf are 

 stunted in their forms, and so few in number, that there is 

 scarcely any inhabited country that contains so small a num- 

 ber of horses as the regions which some have supposed to be 

 the cradle of the race. 



When the united chiefs of the "VVahabees attacked Mehe- 

 met AH at Bysset in the year 1815, there were only 500 

 horses in their whole army of 25.000 men ; and when horses 

 are found in the most fertile parts of South Arabia, they are 

 reckoned a rarity, and are only in the possession of princes 

 and people of rank. " In affirming/' says the distinguished 

 traveller Burckhardt, in a letter to Mr Sewell, " that the 

 aggregate number of horses in Arabia, as bordered by the 

 Euphrates and Syria, amounts to about 50,000, I am confi- 

 dent I have not underrated them. The richest country in 

 this part of the East appears to be Mesopotamia. The tribes 

 of Kurds and Bedouins in that quarter very likely possess 

 more horses than all the Arabian Bedouins put together ; for 

 the richness of their pastures easily propagates their studs. 

 The best pasturing places of Arabia not only produce the 

 greatest quantity of horses, but likewise the best and most 

 choice breeds. The finest Koheyls of the Khomb are met 

 with in the Medgid on the Euphrates, and in the Syrian 

 deserts ; while in the southern parts of Arabia, and especially 

 Zemba, no good breeds of horses exist but those imported 

 from the north. In the tract between Mecca and Medina, 

 between the mountains and the sea, a distance of, at least, 

 260 miles, I do not believe that 200 horses can be found ; and 

 the same proportion of numbers is to be remarked all along 

 the Red Sea from Zemba up to Akaba." It is certain, then, 

 that Arabia is a country remarkably poor in horses, and that, 

 just as might be inferred from analogy, the best of the race 

 are to be found in the countries where the climate is most 

 temperate, and where a sufficient degree of food is produced. 

 It is, however, in the remoter districts inland that the purest 

 of the race exist, because the greatest attention is there paid 



