82 WAR-HORSES 



Crusaders, and to carry the increased weight must have 

 bred their horses of a larger size. This appears in an 

 account by Bruce in his ' Travels to Discover the 

 Source of the Nile/ published exactly one hundred years 

 ago. He visited, near Sennaar, the Sheik Adelan, 

 round whose house were stabled four hundred horses, 

 with quarters for four hundred men, all alike the 

 ' property ' of Sheik Adelan. ' It was one of the finest 

 sights I ever saw of the kind,' he wrote. ' The horses 

 were all above sixteen hands high, of the breed of the 

 old Saracen horses, all finely made and as strong as our 

 coach-horses, but exceedingly nimble in their motion ; 

 rather thick and short in the fore-hand, but with the 

 most beautiful eyes, ears, and heads in the world. 

 They were mostly black, some of them black and 

 white, some of them milk-white (foaled so, not white 

 by age).' The size and character of these horses dis- 

 tinguish them from the ordinary light Arab. Sir 

 William Broadwood questions Bruce's accuracy, saying 

 that he is evidently mistaken when he describes Sheik 

 Adelan's troop-horses as all above sixteen hands, 

 because Arab horses now rarely exceed fifteen hands. 

 Bruce's accuracy has survived the questioning of his 

 contemporary critics, but the context supplies a probable 

 answer to Sir W. Broadwood's doubts. All the riders 

 wore armour, and the horses were not the modern Arab, 

 but bred to carry the extra weight. c A steel shirt of mail 



