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| THE BEDOUIN'S PRIZE STEED - It was stated that
when the Bedouins reached New York City, they were offered $6,000 for
the horse which is portrayed in the engraving, and as this was
probably one of the finest of the historic Arabian animals, the
reader may study the picture with profit and authority. The central
plateau of Arabia is Njed, surrounded by deserts, but by no means a
forbidding region for shepherds. The Nejdee horse, it is claimed, is
indigenous to the Arabian peninsula. While there are swifter and
larger horses, it is probable that they all owe some of their racing
points to the Nejdee; and in the matters of domesticity, fidelity,
beauty, and endurance, it is still claimed for these animals that
they are without equals on the entire face of the earth. History
shows that since the Fifth Century the Nejd possessed these same
high-bred horses in numbers the same as at present. But they are not
plenty, even now. The shepherd rides a camel among his flocks and
the merchant in his caravans. It is only for war or for state
occasions that the beautiful horse is caparisoned. The chief owns
all the horses he can, and mounts his retainers on them. As business
is often war in the shepherd-lands, there remains considerable use
for the horse. The conditions of ownership have kept the breed of
Arabian horses pure, but it averred that, though they have not
degenerated, they have not gained in development for fourteen hundred
years. |
