THE RISE OF THE NEW ARAB NATION 



Eagles, vultures, bustards, and various 

 hawks, to say nothing of the awkward 

 old ostrich, are common enough. 



Except for the lizard family, reptiles 

 are rare, and no poisonous snakes, save 

 the "afai" and the "rukta," both of the 

 viper family, are found in all Arabia. 

 There are scorpions, however, and centi- 

 pedes ; and in old houses on the west 

 coast a very dangerous spider ("Abu 

 Hanekin") makes life miserable for the 

 Arab tired business man. 



HORSE AND CAMEL — LIGHT-EOOT FRIEND 

 AND FLEA-BITTEN SLAVE 



The horse is perhaps indigenous to 

 Arabia. Certainly the finest horses on 

 earth live here ; not the largest nor nec- 

 essarily the swiftest, but the handsomest. 

 The best Arab horse is seldom over 15 

 hands high, and there are probably many 

 favorites in Europe and America that 

 can do a mile faster than the best horse 

 in Nejd — on a modern track under rac- 

 ing conditions. But for docility and en- 

 durance, for symmetry of limb and body, 

 for sheer animal beauty and perfection 

 of form, the "Nedjee horse" has no 

 rival. 



Here in Nejd live the aristocrats 

 among horses ; their family histories can 

 be traced back to the fifth century. 

 These animals are seldom or never ex- 

 ported. A few stallions have been given 

 away as presents to monarchs or distin- 

 guished foreigners, but the mares are 

 kept at home. 



Nothing in Arabia is more fascinating 

 than the story of the horse ; and long ago 

 a British consul at Bagdad (Colonel 

 Tweedie) wrote a book, "The Arab 

 Horse," with wonderful plates showing 

 prize animals of the country. Oddly 

 enough, the Arab seldom shoes his horse. 

 Sometimes, however, he oils an animal's 

 hoofs to prevent splitting in the hot. dry 

 sands. Horse "wrangling" or breaking 

 is unknown ; colts, raised close to tents or 

 homes of owners, are tame from infancy 

 and are ridden early. 



Dates and barley are fed to horses, and 

 grass selected with much care. Once in 

 a while a little dried meat is fed, and, in- 

 tentionally, scant water is given. In cool 

 weather a Nejd horse will travel 48 hours 

 without drinking. 



Training a horse to different gaits is 

 an Arab gift. No bits are used, but in- 

 stead a fancy rope halter, and at that the 

 animal is guided mostly by pressure of 

 the knees. But Arabs do not kiss their 

 horses, nor cry over them, nor bring 

 them into the tents to sleep on cold 

 nights, as we sometimes read in super- 

 heated desert fiction. Frequently they 

 fatten a weak colt on camel's milk, and 

 the colt will whinny and cry when it sees 

 an Arab take the milk bowl and start 

 toward the cow camel at feeding time. 



The horse is more popular and sells 

 for more money than the ugly, sullen, 

 and indifferent camel. But this latter 

 drab, flea-bitten brute is pre-eminently 

 the most useful of all animals in the East. 

 The Arabs work it 15 hours a day, shear 

 it in the spring, milk it, then kill it, and 

 eat it when it is old. All over Arabia the 

 camel is the chief commodity of trade, 

 the favorite investment, the unit of ex- 

 change, and the common standard of 

 property. 



WHERE COWS EAT EISH 



Goats and sheep are plentiful, too, and 

 from Aden thousands of skins are 

 shipped to this country. In Yemen the 

 fat-tailed piebald sheep are numerous. 

 The skins of unborn lambs are much 

 prized and are exported to France. Cat- 

 tle with humps on their backs, like the 

 "Brahminee" bulls of India, are found in 

 Oman and Yemen, and a stouter, hump- 

 less variety thrives in the northern prov- 

 inces. There are comparatively few cat- 

 tle, however, owing to lack of forage, as 

 cattle will not eat the "camel thorn," on 

 which camels live indefinitely. Around 

 Maskat, in drouth times, dried fish are 

 sometimes fed to cows. 



In the Hasa province the rich ride the 

 ass. The best of these animals are pure 

 white, as much as 13 hands high, and 

 often sell for $500 or more. In the 

 rougher regions of Arabia the ass often 

 runs wild — perhaps related to the wild 

 asses of Nebuchadnezzar's time. 



Two kinds of dogs only are found in 

 Arabia. One looks like a coyote, being 

 sharp-nosed and having pointed ears and 

 a long bushy tail, his body covered with 

 grayish brown hair. This dog is plainly 

 part wolf, or maybe jackal. The other 



