16 THE HORSE 



It must, however, be pointed out that though Oasis- 

 dwellers in Nejd, and tribes that have migrated north to the 

 edge of Ottoman territory, accept the ordinary Moslem 

 traditions, it is not so with the Nomad tribes, to whom there 

 is no Khamsa. On this point Lady Anne Blunt emphati- 

 cally remarks : " What I have heard said is ' Ah ! those are 

 things the Northern folk (Ahl es Shemal), believe.' As to 

 any of the equine race being descended from one of the 

 Prophet's mares (a favourite dealer's phrase), the view 

 expressed by my Muteyre informant is that * Any one who 

 talks thus is fit to be shut up as a lunatic ! ' Moreover, of 

 those Arabs, Northern or Oasis, who have adopted the 

 Khamsa, hardly any two (as far as I know), quote the same 

 list of five. My chief authority is never tired of impressing 

 upon me that everything pure-bred (mazbute), goes back to 

 Kehllan Ajuz, therefore I now in the printed list" (i.e., 

 of Lady Anne Blunt's Crabbet Park and Egyptian, Arabian 

 studs), "place that first, as the original generic term for 

 pure-bred." The talk of " outside breeds" as reported in 

 " Beduins of the Euphrates," on Skene's authority, is a 

 mistake ; it is either all or nothing, as to breeding, although 

 from certain strains having made themselves famous, they 

 have acquired and kept a reputation of superiority. 



" A strain, if it can be so called, with only one name means 

 that one parent, or ancestor, was not noble, and in Beduin 

 eyes such a stain endures for ever. Strains mentioned as 

 'outside,' such as Dahman Shahwan, Dahman Nejib, 

 Shueyman Sbah, Wadnan Hursan, are especially Nejd 

 strains, and very hard to find. 



" The general view I take of the Arabian horse's present 

 position is that although the Northern tribes, i.e., the 

 Anezeh group and some Shammar, originally possessed 

 strains identical with the present Nejd ones, the fact of their 

 intercourse with the 'Dowla,' or Ottoman Government, has 

 tended to corrupt their horses. Those late migrations were 

 in search of pasture, and I think about two hundred or 

 three hundred years ago. Even so late as thirty-two 

 years ago, when we went, they were still very indepen- 

 dent of the Dowla ; but the policy of Abd el Hamid was 



