ARABIAN HORSES. 257 
speaks of the reports which reached her party in the 
desert as to the extraordinarily fine pedigree of a par- 
ticular horse owned by a certain old man. “‘Manéghi 
Ibn Shéyel’ [the title of the horse’s family], they kept 
on repeating in a tone of tenderness, and as if tasting 
the flavor of each syllable.” ‘The travellers made a 
considerable detour in order to see this famous ani- 
mal. When they arrived at the tent of his owner, 
they found that he had gone to borrow a donkey for 
the purpose of moving the family furniture to a new 
camp; for “a horse of the Manéghi’s nobility could 
not, of course, be used for baggage purposes.” Pres- 
ently, however, the old man appeared, riding his 
high-born steed, which proved to be “a meek-looking 
little black pony, all mane and tail.” 
Mr. Blunt expresses the opinion that the Arabian 
horse is degenerating through in-breeding, and more 
especially because animals of the best families, though 
individually inferior, are preferred to superior indi- 
viduals, but members of families belonging to an 
inferior rank. However this may be, it is certain 
that the extraordinary excellence of the Arabian 
horse in his present form could never have been de- 
veloped or maintained had it not been for the ex- 
treme care which the Bedouins bestow upon equine 
descent. 
They have no written pedigrees ; it is all an affair 
of memory and of notoriety in the tribe. Certain 
interesting books, written chiefly by Lady Anne. These are, “ The 
Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates,” and “Our Pilgrimage to Nejd.” 
They lived among the Bedouins for some time, and what they re- 
port about the Arabian horse, his qualities, his descent, and the 
families in which he is grouped, agrees in all substantial respects 
with the account, presently to be mentioned, given by Major Upton. 
17 
