262 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 
him with his English contemporary, it must be borne 
in mind that an Arabian of absolutely pure breed is 
an animal which few European eyes have ever looked 
upon. Of all the Oriental horses imported to England 
in the eighteenth century, and upon which, in great 
part, the English thoroughbred is founded, only one, 
the famous Darley Arabian, procured by Mr. Darley 
in the latter part of Queen Anne’s reign, is known 
to have been of pure lineage. It is probable that 
no thoroughbred Arabian horse has yet reached our 
shores, except Kismet, a stallion recently brought 
over, who died a few hours after landing; and per- 
haps the only Eastern mare of that degree ever in 
the United States is Naomi, a late importation from 
England, to which country she was taken by Major 
Upton. 
There are no wild horses in Arabia, although there 
is a widespread belief to the contrary. This animal, 
as an old writer explains, “can live only of man’s 
hand in the droughty Khdla.” The pure-bred Arabian 
horses are the possession, almost exclusively, of a 
single great Bedouin clan, known as the Anazeh, and 
of this clan a tribe called the Gomussa have the best. 
Even among the Bedouins, apart from the Gomussa, 
there are not many animals of the highest stamp. 
“T doubt,” says Mr. Blunt, “if there are two hundred 
really first-class mares in the whole of Northern Ara- 
bia. By this I, of course, do not mean first-class in 
point of blood, for animals of the purest strains are 
still fairly numerous, but first-class in quality and 
appearance as well as blood.” 
Across Central Arabia extends a vast territory 
called the Nejd, composed of sandy deserts and rich 
