green grass and herbs produced by the rains in the valleys and fertile ground, and such food seems absolutely necessary for promoting the full growth and vigour of the horse. We find that in Nedjd horses are not nearly so numerous as in the countries before mentioned, and they become scarce in proportion as we proceed towards the south. "The Aeneze tribes on the frontiers of Syria have from 8,000 to 10,000 horses, and some smaller tribes roving about that neighbour. hood possess probably one-half as many. To the single tribe of Montefek Arabs in the desert watered by the river Euphrates, between Baghdad and Basrah, we may assign at least 8,000 horses: and the tribes of Dhofyr and Beni Shammar are proportionably rich in these noble quadrupeds, while the provinces of Nedjd, Djebd Shammar, and Kasym (that is from the vicinity of the Persian Gulf as far as Medinah) do not possess above 10,000. When I affirm, therefore, that the aggregate number of horses in Arabia (as bounded by the river Euphrates and by Syria) does not exceed 50,000, I have arrived at about the true estimate. "In this part of the east I know not any country that seems to abound more in horses than Mesopotamia. The tribes of Curdes and Bedouins in that quarter probably possess greater numbers than all the Arabian Bedouins together, for the richness of the Mesopotamian pasture contributes materially to augment the breed. The best pasturing places of Arabia not only produce the greatest number of horses, but likewise the finest and most select race. The best Koheyls of the Khomse are found in Nedjd, on the Euphrates and in the Syrian deserts; while in the southern part of Arabia, and particularly in Yemen, no good breed exists, but those which have been imported from the north. The horses taken in 1810 by the Rowalla Arabs from the defeated troops of the Pasha of Baghdad were all sold by them to the horse dealers of Nedjd, and by the latter to the Arabs of Yemen, who are not it may be here observed by any means so nice and fastidious in choosing blood horses as their northern neighbours. "During the Government of the Wahaby Chief horses became more scarce every year among his Arabs. They were sold by their owners to foreign purchasers, who took them to Yemen, Syria, and Basra, from which last place the Indian market was supplied with Arabian horses, because they feared that Saoud or his successor might have seized them. "From all that has come to my knowledge on the very best authority I have no hesitation in saying that the finest race of Arabian blood horses may be found in Syria; and, that of all the Syrian districts the most excellent in this respect is the Hauran, where the horses may be purchased at first cost and chosen among the camps of the Arabs themselves, who occupy the plains in the spring-time. The horses bought up at Basra for the Indian market are purchased at secondhand from Bedouin dealers, and an Arab will rarely condescend to offer a good horse at a distant market without a certainty of selling it. True blood horses of the Khomse, as I have been credibly informed, seldom find their way to Basra; and most of the horses purchased there for the Indian market belong to the Montefek Arabs, who are not very solicitous about giving a pure breed. "The fine horses of the Khomse are far more numerous than the common horses belonging to the same breed, but still, among these fine horses, there can be found only a few worthy of being entitled 'firstrate' in respect to size, bone, beauty, and action; perhaps not more than five or six among a whole tribe, "It seems a fair and probable calculation to say that the Syrian deserts do not furnish more than 200 of that pre-eminent description, each of which may be estimated, in the desert itself at from £150 to £200. I never saw any geldings in the interior of the desert. "In Egypt itself, on the borders of the Nile, there is not any breed of horses particularly distinguished. Very few Arabian blood horses ever come to Egypt. "In the desert the Bedouins never refer to any pedigrees of their horses, but usually take a written pedigree to market at Baghdad, Basra, Damascus, Aleppo, Medinah, or Mekkah. "The Bedouins use all the horses of the Khomse Exclusively as stallions. The finest horse produced by a mare belonging to a race not comprehended within the Khomse would, notwithstanding its beauty and perhaps superior qualities, never be employed as a breeder. "The favourite mare of Saoud the Wahaby Chief, which he constantly rode in all his expeditions, and whose name 'Keraye' became famous all over Arabia, brought forth a horse of uncommon beauty and excellence. The mare, however, not being of the Khomse, Saoud would not permit his people to use that fine horse as a stallion, and not knowing what to do with it, as the Bedouins never ride horses, he sent it as a present to the Sherif. "The Bedouins in general do not allow their mares to breed until they have completed their fifth year, the poorer classes earlier. "The Wahaby Chief, who possesses indisputably the finest stud of horses in the whole East, never allows his mares to be mounted until they have completed their fourth year. The common Bedouins, however, frequently ride them even before they have attained their third year." I now pass on to some memoranda kindly sent me by a correspondent of The Field, who spent some time among the Bedouins. While at Damascus, at the time of the Crimean War, he mentions that the Arabs brought in some fine horses for sale at about £200 each. He also says that having mixed much with the Arabs and seen many of their horses, he did not find them surprising either in shape or beauty. And he continues, "of the 40,000 to 60,000 horses in Syria, perhaps 1,000 might be chosen, but the Arabs never sell their best blood." "All Arabs are branded, but I never could find any brand for breed ; if there were, the breeds must be innumerable from the amount of different marks." "The tribes deep in the desert have the best breed, but are only approachable through Damascus." "The real Kochlani, or thoroughbred Arab, is bred generally deep in the desert by the Bedouin. They are usually isolated and bred in and in, hence they keep their race distinct." Of the Nejdee breed he remarks, "Nejed, between the Desert and Yemen, has the finest horses I ever saw, and was inhabited by the Wahabees, who were fighting hard at that time. I camped with about 4,000 of them, and they gave me an exhibition of their horsemanship, with which I was not very favourably impressed, as in charging a small grip many falls occurred. Their curiosity was much excited by my English saddle, and they wished to know if I was tied on!" "Hejaz, from Mount Sinai to Yemen, has some handsome horses, but not so large as those of Nejed. I don't think the Wahabees had, out of 4,000 horses, 50 really worth looking at twice. Each tribe had 8 or 10 beauties, but even they were not always the best, as we find with our own breeds. The Arab is an extraordinary animal in his own country, enduring and docile, but without pace or action, and perfectly useless in any other country except for breeding purposes. The Montefek Arabs supply Bassora, and I do not think much of their horses." I can hardly pass on to a general summary of my subject, without noticing some aspects of the Indian trade in Arab horses which occur to me, in a comparison of the opinions of travellers with various cir. cumstances which have come under my own notice, during a short service in India. I would first of all remark that it is a very common mistake in England for people to suppose that Arab horses are bred in India, and that they are indigenous to the East in the widest acceptation of its boundary. It will have been observed, en route, that both Burckhardt and the traveller afterwards quoted speak of the Indian trade from Bassora somewhat slightingly. Burkhardt, however, only says that he believes the true blood horses of the Khomse seldom find their way to Basra, and again that the Montefek Arabs are not very solicitous about giving a pure breed. The Khomse includes five principal strains of blood, each dating back to one of five extraordinary, if perhaps mythical mares, with numerous off shoots. A "Koheyl of the Khomse" is the bluest of blue blood. Now, when we read that Mesopotamia is the richest in horses of any country in that part of the East, and that some of the best of the "Koheyls of the Khomse" are found on the Euphrates, which is the country of the Indian trade, I think we may fairly assume that some of these do find their way to India, though possibly not among the droves which are annually imported from the Persian Gulf, which are principally used as remounts for the armies of Bombay and Madras. The Indian turf is the foster mother of the Arab, as the numerous and valuable races allotted to the breed will at once show, and the Arab dealers at the Presidency towns have the additional stimulus of having to enter the lists against private and direct importations from Baghdad or other of the inland markets. These men (themselves also of Arab nationalities) frequently run horses in their own names and interests; and, in a trade where there is considerable competition, it would be manifestly absurd to suppose that they did not import as many good horses as possible. In the racing world A is always ready to pay a handsome price for a horse likely to beat B's well-known Arab, and B and C follow suit ad infinitum: so there can be no reason why the Indian market should not be supplied with the very best Arabs which are to be obtained in Mesopotamia, or, in fact, in any of the Arab breeding districts. Nero, winner of the Calcutta Derby in 1854 and of many other valuable races, was imported direct from Baghdad. This Calcutta Derby is a race for maiden Arabs, 2 miles, weight for age; and large prices are commonly given for promising candidates, £400 and £500 being no unusual figure even for untried horses. Prices such as these cannot fail to stimulate even an old-established and remunerative trade; and I think it may be assumed either that the well-known demands of the Indian dealers bring to Basra, their usual rendezvous, a fair supply of highly-bred and valuable Arabs, or that they themselves proceed to other inland markets in search of as many of the right sort as their Indian orders and the usual demands of the trade may require. In justice to these importations from Basra for the use of the Artillery and Cavalry in India, one must allow, whatever their breedwhether true Kochlani or only Gulf Arab-that they make excellent and hardy troop-horses. Any one who has gone through a campaign with these little troopers will remember with admiration their wonderful power of carrying heavy weights, regardless alike of forced marches and scanty rations, as the records of Bombay regiments in the snows of Affghanistan, of the 10th Hussars (who took their horses from Bombay to the Crimea), of the campaign in China under Lord Elgin and Sir Hope Grant, and of the late campaign in Abyssinia, will all abundantly testify. But I have already too far strayed away from my original subject; and it is now high time that I should bring these remarks to a conclusion by a few comparisons of the main characteristics of the Arab and Barb. The appearance of the Arabian may be summed up in a few words: A small horse, with very compact frame, large back-ribs, very powerful arched loins and high quarters, tail set on very high and carried well in the air, a large and expressive eye, broad and prominent forehead, small ears and muzzle, and deep cheek, limbs very clean and muscular, with bone and joints large for his size, a fine temper, a capital appetite, good constitution, with great natural soundness of wind and limb, and an obvious look of "quality" in all his points and movements. He has a muscular shoulder, well laid back, though often his withers appear low, from the height and power of his quarters; but his action is not as good in front as behind, the strength of his loins and the long reach of his hind-leg under him giving to the rider the feeling of being on a much larger horse. Let us now look at the Barb. The main difference which will at once catch the eye is, that his shoulders and action in front are as much superior in appearance to those of the Arab as are the Arab's quarters and style of galloping to his. The Barb also falls far short of the Arab in roundness of barrel and depth of rib, in the height and power of his quarters, and in the setting-on of the tail. The propelling powers of the Arab make him in speed more than a match for the Barb. At Gibraltar, where they both meet under English training, the Arab gives about a stone to his African rival. Now I do not for a moment claim for the Arab any position as a race-horse, except among horses of his own rank. The weights in use among the different Turf Clubs in India amply prove this; but it is not, perhaps, very generally known or noticed that in India, in races where English thorough-breds and Arabs meet, the weight for the English horse decreases, while that for the Arab increases, in proportion to the distance. Here, therefore, we have custom and experience joining in a tribute to the staying qualities of the Arab and the weight-carrying properties of his powerful loins and quarters. I would further draw attention to the methods of breeding adopted by the Bedouin of Arabia and by those of Africa, leaving it to the reader to settle to his own satisfaction whether these widelydiffering customs, continuously carried on for very many generations, do or do not account for the present different appearance of the two breeds. The Syrian and Arabian Bedouin places all his reliance on the qualities of the mare; the African is mainly solicitous about those of the stallion. Whatever may have been the characteristics of the original stock, if from one breed, they both spring, one or other must be at this moment gradually losing the likeness of its remote parent. THE "SWEET PRIMROSES." ENGRAVED BY E. HACKER, FROM A PAINTING BY E. CORBET. "The prickly thicket o'er him closes, To him it seem'd a bed of roses, WARBURTON. The woodlands here look, perhaps, a little too blooming for s0 catching a season as that now just coming to a close, during which we should say, however much they may wish to make the best of it, few kennels can really speak to anything like a fair average of sport. Without any long fallow," the interruptions have been very vexatious, and a man with a stable full of horses can, but in few cases, have had his money's worth out of them. In other ways the retrospect is certainly not satisfactory. Not merely has there been the now customary fox-killing, but hound poisoning is becoming quite an every-day occurrence. Mr. Leigh has lost three couple and a-half in the neighbourhood of Silsoe, at a hamlet where some of the pack had previously been way-laid on the road, so that there can be little doubt but the crime was premeditated. A couple of the East Sussex have also been destroyed in the same manner, that is by strychnine, which they picked up on the road, between Beauport Park and Whitelands Wood. Sir Archibald Ashburnham Bart., hon. secretary to the hunt, and the Master have offered a rewar,d of £50 for information; while the East Sussex Express says, the magistrates have already been investigating a charge brought against two men, for poisoning the hounds, and had sufficient evidence laid before them to justify a remand. We have only to trust that they will be as active in Bedfordshire, the more especially as this is not a first offence. Then, in the House of Commons, Sir T. Bateson will ask just about the time our Magazine goes to press, whether it be a fact that several of the Queen's County foxhounds have been poisoned? whether it be the case that Mr. Crosbic, the Master, was the seconder of the resolution adopted by the Queen's County grand jury, calling |