XIY 
THE HORSE. 
HISTORY. 
country appears to be eminently unfriendly to tlie health and growth of the animal. Those that are reared to the south of the 
countries stretching from Mecca to the Persian Gulf are stunted in their forms, and so few in number that there is scarce any 
inhabited country that contains so small a number of horses as the regions which some have supposed to be the cradle of the race. 
When the united chiefs of the Waliabees attacked Mehemet Ali at Bysset in the year 1815, there were only 500 horses in 
their whole army of 25,000 men; and when horses are found in the most fertile parts of South Arabia, they are reckoned a rarity, 
and are only in the possession of princes and people of rank. “ In affirming,” says the distinguished traveller Burckhardt, in a 
letter to Mr Sewell, “ that the aggregate number of horses in Arabia, as bordered by the Euphrates and Syria, amounts to about 
50,000, I am confident I have not underrated them. The richest country in this part of the East appears to be Mesopotamia. The 
tribes of Kurds and Bedouins in that quarter very likely possess more horses than all the Arabian Bedouins put together ; for the 
richness of their pastures easily propagates their studs. The best pasturing places of Arabia not only produce the greatest quantity 
of horses, but likewise the best and most choice breeds. The finest Koheyls of the Kliomb are met with in Medgid on the 
Euphrates, and in the Syrian deserts ; while in the southern parts of Arabia, and especially Zemba, no good breeds of horses exist 
but those imported from the north. In the tract between Mecca and Medina, between the mountains and the sea, a distance of at 
least 260 miles, I do not believe that 200 horses can be found ; and the same proportion of numbers is to be remarked all along 
the Red Sea fiom Zemba up to Akaba. It is ceitam, then, that Arabia is a country remarkably poor m horses, and that, just as 
might be inferred from analogy, the best of the race are to be found in the countries where the climate is most temperate, and 
where a sufficient degree of food is produced. It is, however, in the remoter districts inland that the purest of the race exist, be¬ 
cause the greatest attention is there paid to the rearing of them. It is usual to name the horses of the Bedouins of the interior 
desert, the Nedjed breed, from the desert of that name, extending from Medina eastwards; but very few horses are produced in 
the Nedjed itself. There is considerable difficulty in procuring the horses of even the inland tribes of the Syrian deserts, from the 
supposed hazard of confiding in the faith of the people, but in reality from the distrust which these wandering tribes entertain of 
the inhabitants of the towns. The intercourse, however, has become more considerable within the last thirty years, in consequence 
of which circumstance the pashas and other rich individuals in Syria have been enabled to supply their stables with Nedjeds; 
and from the same cause French, Russian, and Prussian agents have been able to procure many fine stallions of the races of the 
remoter Bedouins for their respective governments. In the year 1817, according to Mr Barker, whose long residence at Aleppo 
gave him full opportunity of observing the growing intercourse of the Bedouins with the settled inhabitants, three very numerous 
tribes, who had never before beheld a Turkish minaret, pitched their tents within a few miles of Aleppo, bringing along with them 
at least 6000 horses. From these it was easy for Europeans residing in Syria to select a number of splendid stallions, but none 
of them, it is said, found their way to England.* But though the breeds of the interior may have been obtained with difficulty, a 
great number of horses are continually being exported from the northern parts of Arabia. The Turks of Asia Minor and Syria 
obtain considerable numbers; but the principal trade is to the East Indies, from Bussoraon the Persian Gulf. The exportation is 
chiefly of stallions, the Arabs retaining the mares for breeding, and preferring them for the purposes of the saddle. The 
Arabs, we are assured, pay great attention to the purity of the descent of their horses, and have certain races of them which 
are deemed of noble blood. Contrary to the practice of Europe, they reckon their descent by the dam; but they never attempt 
to prove the genealogy of their horses except by tradition, and the beauty of their form. The pretended hujjis, or written attes¬ 
tations of descent produced by dealers in Arabian horses, are, we are assured, a trick either on the part of the Moslem jockeys or 
the Christian. 
In contact with Arabia upon the east is Persia, a country of horsemen and soldiers from early times, in which we find the 
same form of the Horse distinctly exhibited. Persia is a country of much diversity of surface. It is very elevated, and possesses 
an atmosphere of great purity and dryness. Towards the south it presents much of the arid character of Arabia; towards the 
noith it is productive of the grasses and other herbaceous plants, and retains its verdure for a great part of the year. In the 
noi them provinces, accordingly, the horses are of greater size and more developed forms. Some of them near the Caspian Sea 
are as large as the horses of Normandy. Towards the south they resemble more the horses of Arabia, with which, besides, they 
are much mingled in blood: but they have not the same delicacy of figure, and are not so much valued in their own and other 
countries. They are fed sparingly, like all the horses of the same warm regions. The custom is to feed and water them at sun¬ 
rise and sunset; and the ordinary provender is barley and chopped straw. They are kept clothed, and at night are piquetted in 
open yards, their hinder legs being confined by cords of twisted hair, fastened to rings with pegs driven into the ground. The 
same practice is described by Xenophon as in use amongst the Persians more than 2000 years before. All persons of the least 
* St John’s Egypt, 
