348 



OTHER HOUSES. 



like, carried nearly straight, as usual with the 

 best blood, and remarkably, high. The beau- 

 ideal of a Nejdi is an animal all shoulder and 

 quarter, connected by a bit of barrel; and to 

 this pitch of excellence we are gradually breed- 

 ing up our English horses. The charger in 

 question is of the ancient Oman race, once cele- 

 brated for endurance : the late Sayyid, how- 

 ever, injured his stud by crossing foal and dam, 

 brother and sister, till the animals fined down 

 and dwindled to mere dwarfs. I remarked that, 

 here as elsewhere, the Arabs have learned from 

 Europeans to trace the genealogy of their horses 

 through the sire, a practice unknown to the 

 sons of the desert. 



All the best horses in Zanzibar come from 

 Oman : an inferior strain is exported by Brava 

 (Barawa), and the Somali country. The latter 

 sends good little beasts somewhat like those of 

 the Pernambucan Province ; but worn out by 

 long marches and scant feeding, they usually die 

 during the first rains. Upon the mainland they 

 will live for years. Here, however, the new im- 

 portations at first fatten ; then they get foul ; 

 the sweat becomes fetid; they lose breath and 

 become unfit for work, till fatal disease mani- 

 fests itself by foam from the mouth. As in 



