THE term "Arabian horse" expresses a breed or race in a restricted sense - the horse of the Arabs. Horses of other countries cannot be defined in the same manner. To speak of "the English" or "the French horse," or that of any other European country, does not indicate a similar relation of such horses to their countries respectively; it does not point out any special breed, or even class. Thus the term "English horse" includes varieties from the diminutive pony to the cart-horse of gigantic proportions, as well as the blood or thoroughbred horse, which last forms but a small section of the horses in England, and although he has influenced all other kinds in England and most classes of horses abroad, yet as a class he is not in general use. But among the tribes of the deserts of Arabia, the Arabian is the only horse. He is one by himself. As he is so entirely identified with the people of Arabia, a knowledge of the Arabs and their history will ensure a more just appreciation of the subject of the Arabian horse, and make many things plain which otherwise are difficult to be understood, to insure which a short but tolerably comprehensive sketch of Arabia and the Arabs has been given first.

Information supplied by travellers has generally been very meagre, and when the horse has been more decidedly noticed by some of these, I have found, instead of any authentic records or connected history, many unconnected statements, often conflicting on main points, and not easily to be reconciled in details, but withal an undercurrent of truth. These fragments of information seem to have been obtained from people of settled districts in bordering countries, and not from the Badaween of the desert, and to refer to and to be descriptive of horses of such districts rather than of those of the desert tribes of Arabia.

These fragmentary accounts have resulted in a vague idea, but which is generally accepted, that there are three breeds of Arabs, namely, Attechi, Kadeshi, and Kocklani - the first of hardly any value, and sometimes wild; the Kadeshi, a class of horses improved by the pure blood of the class named Kocklani. That there are three such distinct breeds or classes of Arabian horses is an erroneous opinion, but there is some ground for the supposition, which is this: in Syria and some other districts, and in towns near the coast, are to be found three kinds of horses-the Arabian, not as a native, but as a horse of luxury; the Kidish, which class has no pretension to being an improved breed, and is not of Arab blood at all. Kidish means first a gelding, and the term is applied to any common sort of horse used for travelling or baggage, from the fact that many of this kind are geldings, and some of this sort are runners or pacers, and are used by merchants and other classes of townsmen as hacks. And there is another class, well described as "sons of horses," in Syria. They are not genuine horses, i.e. Arabian horses; they may be, and often are, the produce of Arabian horses from common mares, be they Kurdish or Turkoman; they are the sons of horses, but not the sons of mares, i.e. of Arabian mares. Many of these "sons of horses" show much blood, and I have seen less blood-like horses passing as Arabs in India. Considerable numbers of this class are bought up in Syria by agents from Egypt and elsewhere, who give rather a better price than the Turkish Government allows for remounts for the cavalry service, and on horses of this class the cavalry of the army corps of Syria, which is the best horsed, is generally mounted.

Horses are not numerous in Arabia, certainly not in proportion to the size and extent of the country, and the supply, I consider, is not greater than to meet the demand of the country. There are many parts of Arabia in which the horse is rarely, and perhaps some in which he is never seen. Although of Arabia alone, the Arabian horse may be said to belong rather to certain families or tribes in the desert of Arabia, than to the country or people at large.

....It is only consistent and reasonable to believe that horses among the Arabs of the interior deserts have a better claim to be genuine than such as have come to hand through foreign sources, from India, Syria, and the Turks, without any specific knowledge of their history or authentic record of their blood.

In the whole of Arabia, the Anazah, a great race of Badaween, dating back to remote antiquity, composed of many tribes, the most wealthy, the most powerful, the most important in the country, have the best horses. This is by the general consent of all Arabs, and of all conversant with the subject. Another general impression, urged by several writers, that there are many breeds of Arabian, has, I suspect, arisen from mistaking the various distinguishing names of strains of the same blood for separate or distinct breeds. Such are often only the names of owners, and some have been given or added from some feature or incident which caused an animal to be peculiar, or which had rendered him or herself famous, and which names are applied to the off- spring generation after generation.

To assign particular breeds of Arabian horses to different parts of the country is, I am sure, quite wrong; it is a misconception.

A "Najd breed" is constantly alluded to by writers and travellers, and generally spoken of as a distinct breed and the first in Arabia. Najd is the name of a province, and does not possess any special breed of horses. The idea, we found, did not exist among the Badaween, nor was the term "Najd breed" understood by them. It is, however, not uncommon to hear people in Syria speak of Najd horses, and generally such are not esteemed, from the fact that they call horses which come from Erack or Turkish Arabia, Najd horses, in which districts there are horses of mixed blood and other horses than Arabian. Erack or the neighbouring districts, although frequently called Najd, are wholly distinct from the province of Najd in Central Arabia. The many ways which have been adopted of spelling the same name may have caused misconceptions; thus, Nedschdis, Nedgedjee, Negeddy, Nedjee, and Nedjdee, are all intended to express Najd, or a horse or horses of the country of Najd.

I consider there was but one breed or race of horses in Arabia, i.e. the Arabian horse, so called from the country, or, with more truth, from being the horse of the Arabs, is of one origin, and was not derived from several later varieties of the horse family.

The Arabian horse is of the Kuhl race. Keheilan is the generic name of the Kuhl or Arabian breed of horses. Thus a true Arabian horse is a Keheilan, and a mare a Keheilet - fem.

Kheilan, the generic name of the true Arabian horse, is derived from the Arabic word i.e. Khl, or Kuhl, or Kuhal, signifying "antimony," and was given to the Arabian horse doubtless from the great resemblance which his skin (not only on the face, but allover the body) has to antimony, and not alone from the similar appearance of the eye of the Arabian horse to that of the human female eye when painted with antimony. The skin of the Arabian horse is a bluish black, and often presents a very strong resemblance to skin painted with antimony.

This is a marked feature and the true colour of the Arabian horse; variation of colour in the coats of individual horses is quite secondary. I have seen it stated that the antimony-colour skin is darkest in horses of a grey colour. The contrast of colour may seem to be greater; but I have seen in the desert bay horses, both golden and dark, with skins as dark and as thoroughly of the appearance of having been "anti-monied" as any grey horses. This appearance is very marked in some individuals.

The Arabs use the feminine term Faras (mare) generally in speaking of horses, as we do the male term "horse."

Faras (mare), "The swallower of the ground," is derived from the Arabic word Ifterasa, "he swallowed" or " devoured."

The Arabic for a horse is Hisan, "a strong, noble horse," derived from the Arabic word Tahassan, meaning that the horse is a defence from attack; Tahassan meaning "defending one's self," or "seeking for security," as one would by retiring into a strong tower.

The terms are significant, and express the attributes of the horse in similar language to that used in the Book of Job, " He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage.”

ABRAHAM.

So that, more than a thousand years before Christ, history not only records that horses were in Arabia, but specifies a certain class-the horses of Rabiah's ancestors; and Salaman, the direct ancestor of Rabiah, whose five Arabian mares founded the select family of " Al. Khamseh," was of the same number of descents from the patriarch Abraham as Hezron, the grandson of Judah, who flourished about the year 1635 B.C., so that an authentic family of horses has been preserved in Arabia for 3500 years.