MAMMALIA— HORSE. 



313 



The Arabs divide their horses into two races. The first, which they call 

 /wchlani, or hiilhan, are those whose genealogy is known for two thousand 

 years, and which has, they say, originated from the stud of Solomon. The 

 other race, appropriated to servile uses, they name kadischi, or horses of an 

 unknown race, and they are peculiarly careful, by certificates and other 

 means, to preserve the principal races pure. The mares enjoy the exclusive 

 privilege of transmitting the purity of the race to their descendants, and 

 the genealogies are always reckoned from the mothers. 



Herds of wild horses, the offspring of those which have escaped from the 

 Spanish possessions in Mexico, are not uncommon in the extensive prairies 

 that lie to the west of the Mississippi. They were once numerous on the 



Kootannie Lands, near the northern sources of the Columbia, on the east- 

 ern side of the Rocky Mountain ridge ; but of late years, they have been 

 almost eradicated in that quarter. They are not known to exist in a v/ild 

 state, to the northward of the fifty-second or fifty-third parallel of latitude. 

 The young stallions live in separate herds, being driven away by the old 

 ones, and are easily ensnared, by using domestic mares as a decoy. The 

 Kootannies are acquainted with the Spanish- American mode of taking them 

 with the lasso. 



40 



