Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates Vol 2 - The Search For Mecca

cij. XXVIII.] 77/c' Original Home of the Horse. 245
into the ark, and where the Iiorsc went after Ik,'
let out of it.*
'
\v;is
Not to go back so far as that, I think Ave may
be content with accepting the usual lielief that
Arabia was one of the countries where tlie liorse was
originally found in his wild state, and where he was
first caught and tamed. By Arabia, however, I
would not imply the peninsula, wliicli, according to
-every account we have of it,
is not at all a country
.suited to the horse in his natural condition.
is no water above ground in
There
Nejd, nor any pasture
lit for horses except during the winter months ; and
the mares kept by the Bedouins there are fed, during
part of the year at least, on dates and camel's milk.
Every authority agrees on this point. The Nejd horses
are of pure blood, because of the isolation of the ])eninsula,
but Nejd is not a country naturally fitted for
horses, and the want of proper food has stunted the
breed.
Nejd bred horses are neither so tall nor so fast
.as those of the Hamad, although the blood is the same.
Dr. Colvill, who went to Riad in 1854, assures me
that he saw but one single mare durinoj the whole
of his journey there and back, and that that Avas a
small insignificant animal. He has seen, however,
ponies of thirteen hands in El Hasa which he de-
* Since writing the above I have been shown an article in
Fraser's Mcujazine of September, 187G, in which Captain Upton
corrects his original impressions about Arabian horse-breeding,
in consequence of a visit paid by him to the Sebaa, Moali and other
tribes in the neighbourhood of Aleppo. The account thus corrected
is exceedingly good, though it still contains not a few mistakes.