ARABIAN HORSES. 285 
Clays were the victims of prejudice, the result partly 
of ignorance, partly of designed misrepresentation ; 
and Mr. Huntington, like the horses that he loved, 
was a perpetual target for ridicule and abuse. Of 
late, however, the value of this strain has asserted 
itself so clearly that it cannot be denied by the most 
envious person. Mr. Huntington owns the Anazeh 
mare Naomi, and he has established a stock company, 
with headquarters on Long Island, for the purpose of 
breeding a family of Clay-Arabian horses. What. 
may be the capacity of these Clay-Arabians, as they 
are called, I do not know, but some of them are ani- 
mals of extreme beauty and finish, as symmetrical as 
their Oriental ancestors, and much larger. 
As an Arabo-maniac, Mr. Huntington has stood 
almost alone in this country. He had one predeces- 
sor, a Kentucky gentleman, a breeder of running 
horses, who staked his fortune and his hopes upon 
the success of his Arabian stud. Twice this man 
visited the desert to buy horses, having become con- 
vinced that on his first attempt he obtained none of 
the pure breed. The enterprise was a failure, and he 
died bankrupt and broken-hearted. 
It would be interesting to know how far the Arabo- 
maniacs have been influenced, unwittingly of course, 
by the halo of romance which surrounds the courser 
of the desert. At all events, it is a generous enthusi- 
asm which this far-away steed kindles in the breasts 
of his few and scattered devotees among English- 
speaking people. The passion for horseflesh is, I 
hold, a sort of divine madness; and Arabo-mania is 
one form of it. Let us deal with it gently. 
