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

246 Btdo'iiin Tribes of tJic Eut>hratcs. [m. xxvin.
scribes as "little lions/' of great power and beauty;
the "tattoes" of the Indian market.
It is not then in the peninsula of Arabia, where
water is
only to be had from wells, that the original
stock can have been found, but rather in Mesopotamia
and the great pastoral districts bordering the
Euphrates, where water is abundant and pasture
perennial. I Avas constantly struck, when crossing
the plains of Mesopotamia, with its resemblance to
Entrerios, and the other great horse - producing
regions of the Eiver Plate. Here the wild horse
must have been originally captured, (just
[)resent day the ivdhash or wild ass is
as in the
captured,) and
taken thence by man to people the peninsula.
Later on, invasions from the north seem to ha^'c
brought other breeds of horses to these very plains,
members perhaps of other original stocks, those of
the Piussian steppes or of Central Asia. These we
find represented on the Chaldean bas-reliefs, and
still existing in the shape of stout ponies all along
the northern edge of the desert— animals
disowned
by the Bedouins as being horses at all, yet serviceable
for pack work, and useful in their way. This
Chaldean type, from whatever source it springs,
stands in direct contrast wdth that of the true Aral)ian.
It is large-headed, heavy-necked, straight-shouldered,
and high on the leg—a lumbering clumsy beast, fit
rather for draught,
riding ;
if it were large enough, than for
and in this way the ancient Chaldeans seem
to have chiefly employed it. The desert, however.