ON ARABIAN HOUSES. 
185 
great races, alloriginally from Nejed, and they have been studious, 
from time immemorial, to preserve with religious care the purity 
of the races. Some authors trace them back to the most remote 
period of paganism, assigning as their sire the famous stallion 
Mashoor, the property of Okrar, chief of the tribe of Beni 
Obeyda ; others assert merely that they are the issue of the five 
favourite mares of the prophet, named Rabdha, Noama, Wajza, 
Sabha, and Hezma. Whatever be the fact, the following are the 
names of the races, which, according to the vulgar notion, are 
derived from different districts ofNejed, where they were born :— 
Sakla-vvooyeh, Kohayleh, Manakieh, Jelfiyeh, Thooeysiyeh. 
The first is subdivided into Jedran, Abriyeh, and Nejm-el-subh ; 
the second into Ajooz, Kerda, Sheykha, Dabbah,Ebnghooeysheh, 
Khumeyseh, and Abumoarraf; the third into Shemaytha and 
Ashayr; the fourth presents a single branch only, that of Estem- 
blath ; the fifth has none. Besides these principal races, the 
Arabs h ave several others less esteemed ; namely, those of Henaydi, 
Abuarkoob, Abayan, Sheraki, Shooeyraan, Hadbeh, Wedna, 
Medhemeh, Khabitha, Araeriyeh, and Sada Thookan. The dif¬ 
ferent races have not any characteristic marks whereby they can 
be distinguished from each other. They can be recognized only 
by means of certificates of their genealogy, drawn up by their 
proprietors, and attested, in which the issue, male and female, are 
specified with great exactness ; so that an Arabian horse offered 
for sale is usually provided with his title of nobility. 
The noblest conquest ever made by man was that of the 
swift and generous horse, which partakes with him the fatigues 
and the glory of war; but no nation knows so well how to ap¬ 
preciate it as the Bedouins. We must visit the deserts of Ne- 
jed, its native country, and those of the Hejjaz and of Yemen, 
where this animal multiplied at an early period, in order to judge 
of the interest with which it inspires them, and to learn the 
different races to which it may belong, and which the princes of 
Europe, as w^ell as those of Asia, have always been desirous of 
propagating in their territories. The decided predilection, the al¬ 
most fraternal affection, which the Arabs entertain for their horses 
is founded not only on their utility to them in their active and 
wandering life, but also on an ancient prejudice, which induces 
them to regard horses as beings endowed with noble and generous 
sentiments, and an intelligence superior to that of other animals. 
Thus they are accustomed to say, ‘ After man the most eminent 
creature is the horse ; the best employment is that of rearing it ; 
the most agreeable posture is that of sitting on its back ; the 
most meritorious of domestic actions is that of feeding it.’ They 
add, after their prophet, ‘ As many grains of barley as are con- 
VOL. VI. A a 
