ARABIAN HORSES. 263 
pastures. This whole region is a plateau, and the 
atmosphere is dry and bracing. It is under such 
conditions that horses thrive, and here was the origi- 
nal home of the Arabian horse. In Flanders, where 
the air is humid, and the pastures are moist and rank, 
horses grow large, but they have flat feet, inferior 
sinews, lymphatic temperaments, and soft hearts. 
Flemish nags have been imported largely to England 
for many hundred years, being cheap, big, and showy; 
bnt they have always been noted for their lack of 
endurance. Even among thoroughbreds unsoundness 
is frequent in the British Isles, due in great part to 
the moist climate. The English horse, when trans- 
planted to India or to Australia, becomes much im- 
proved in the quality of his feet and legs, and this 
improvement is doubtless the effect chiefly of a drier 
climate. 
The Anazeh spend their winters in the Nejd, mi- 
grating in spring as far as the Euphrates, and it is 
among the wandering tribes of this clan that the 
Arabian steed in his purity must be studied. The 
Anazeh, and the Bedouins in general, keep their 
mares, but sell many of their horses, and it is from 
the horses thus sold, crossed with inferior mares, 
that the animal known in Europe and in India as 
an Arab is bred. The Bedouins call these half-breds 
“the sons of horses,’ and they look upon them, as 
well as upon all other breeds but their own, with 
the greatest contempt, stigmatizing them as kadishes, 
or mongrels. The desert is almost surrounded by 
horse-growing countries, and it is touched here and 
there by great horse markets. On the west and 
northwest is Syria, where many of these bastard 
