440 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARABIA. 



specting the different Races of Horses." According to the 

 author of this treatise, all the breeds already alluded to 

 sprung from a stallion and a mare, called Zad al Rakeb and 

 Serdet Shekban, which belonged to Muthayer Ibn Oshaim, 

 chief of one of the primitive tribes of Yemen. He has given 

 a table which contains 136 races of Arabian horses, three 

 Persian, nine Turkoman, and seven Kurd, and men- 

 tions the Safenet as being of the same species with those 

 presented to Solomon by the Queen of Sheba. The mo- 

 dern Bedouins repose implicit faith in the traditions of 

 antiquity, and still reckon their five noble breeds to be 

 descended from the stud of the Prophet. The following 

 are their names :Taueyse, Manekeye, Koheyl, Sak- 

 lawye, axidJulfa; which, according to the vulgar notion, 

 are derived from the different districts of Nejed, where 

 they were born. These principal races diverge into in- 

 numerable ramifications. The Saklawye is subdivided 

 into the Jedran, Abriyeh, and Nejm el Subh ; the Ko- 

 heyl into Ajuz, Kerda, Sheikha, Dabbah, Ibn Khueysha^ 

 Khumeyseh, and Abu Moarraff ; the Julfa has only a 

 single branch, that of Estemblath. Besides these, they 

 have various others of a secondary or less-esteemed breed, 

 such as the Henaydi, Abu Arkub, Abayan, Sheraki, 

 Shueyman, Hadaba, Wedna, Medhemeh, Khabitha, Ome- 

 riah, and Sadathukan. The different races have not any 

 characteristic marks by which they can be distinguished 

 from each other. Every mare particularly swift and 

 handsome, with noble blood in her veins, may give origin 

 to a new stock, the descendants of which are called after 

 her ; so that the catalogue of distinct races in the desert 

 is almost endless. The only means of recognising them 

 is by certificates of their genealogy, which are drawn up 

 by the proprietors, and attested by witnesses : in these 

 the issue, both masculine and feminine, are specified with 

 great exactness j so that an Arabian horse offered for sale 

 is usually provided with his title of nobility. The pedi- 

 gree is often put into a small piece of leather covered with 

 waxed cloth, and suspended round the animal's neck. 

 Burckhardt has given one of these curious documents, 

 which he translated from the original in the handwriting 

 of the Bedouins. It is as follows : 



" GOD. 



" Enoch. 

 " In the name of the most merciful God, the Lord of all 



