Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/429

 n s. i. MAY 28, i9io.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

421

LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 28, 1910.

CONTENTS. No. 22.

NOTES .-Arabian Horses in Pre-Mohainmedan Days, 421 Ann of Swansea's Will, 422 Scotch, Irish, and American Booksellers, 423 -"Pun "Hairdresser to the Bar Phineas Fletcher's ' Love 'William Ginger, Publisher, 425 Population of London in 1631 Linen Tablecloths "Clob,"426.

QUERIES: "Tatting" Colonial Office Administration Latin Quotation Hampden and Ship Money, 426 Dr. Beke's Diary Shakespeare : Croker Portrait Daubuz Family Latin Obscurities in Ecclesiastical Visitations, 427 Mill of Youth William Juniper Virgin Mary called "Empress of Hell" C. Harrison Ryall Tertullian on Christians and Lions Grierson Family Sir John Robin- son, 1660 Andrew Hearsey Maddock Family Organists of St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey Henry VIII. at Boulogne, 428 Richard Glynn, Publisher Milton and Cheadle's Journey W. Kelly Giffard=Mill, 429.

REPLIES : Kite or Dragon, 429" As dead as Queen Anne," 430 Henry Boyle Public School Registers, 431 " Standing for Parliament " Initial Letters for Names "Ganion Coheriga," 432 May Baskets G. Ellis Best Company Galloping Hogan King's Evil, 433 " Ljus" Newton at Cambridge " E" Mute ifl English, 434 T. L. Peacock G. Chalmers : J. Leech De Quincey and Swedenborg 'Cramond Brig,' 435 " Onocrotalus " Modern Names from Latinized Forms German Poets, 436 " Plains " Basbow Lane Duke's Place Linden Folk-loreJohn Nicholl, 437 R. Blacow Abb Coyer- Flax Bourton, 438.

NOTES ON BOOKS : Copinger's 'Heraldry Simplified' ' The Quarterly Review 'George V. Prayer Books.

Booksellers' Catalogues.

ARABIAN HORSES IN PRE-MOHAM- MEDAN DAYS.

RECENTLY I noticed a passage in a foreign journal asserting that horses were rare among the pre -Mohammedan Arabs, and that the camel Was their chief means of locomotion a statement that Would involve the con- clusion that battles among the tribes Were fought exclusively oh foot or on camel- back. If we turn to Prof. Ridgeway's rich and efficient volume on * The Thorough- bred Horse l (1905), p. 205, it will be seen that he likewise surmises that the animal was not common among them :

" It seems certain that in the centuries between the birth of Christ and the rise of Muhammad the Arabs, or at least some of the great men amongst tin- tribes of S. Arabia, had become possessed of horses .... There can be no doubt that by the .sixth century A.D. the Arabs were themselves breeding horses ; for in that period there was a fatuous horse named Dahis (the Thruster), about whose breeding we have very full details .... That, however, even then, horses were scarce and only possessed by very few, seems indicated by the fact that warriors are described as riding on certain horses."

The general evidence from the pre- Mohammedan romance of ' Antarah,' how-

ever, points to a rather different conclusion. Wherever the various heroes go forth to encounter hostile tribes, they encounter numerous horsemen. The bulk of the fighting is accomplished by mounted and mailed warriors, often clothed in steel. One, in a true elegiac strain, exclaims : " O ye steeds, mourn for a knight who could engage the lions of Death in the field of battle!" and mentions "the dust of the hooves of high-mettled steeds." The follow- ing tribes all of them possessed irregular cavalry : Abs, Adnan, Mahrah, Karad, Zeadd, Morah, Kayan,Arcab,Fazarah, Aamir, Zubaid, and Siban. We find a sixth-cen- tury King of Persia (Khosru I.) presenting Antarah with "noble Arab horses of the finest kind " ; so that We have here the Persian bestowing Arabian animals from his stables on an Arab, * ' and the satraps delivered to him some of the finest breed." And these animals were brought by the receiver to Al-Hijaz. In various tribal battles the numbers slain of horsemen amount from 70 even to 900 : ' ' The earth Was pounded under the trampling of the horses." Horseshoes are likewise referred to.

Another important point, which it may be useful to emphasize, relates to the colour of these Arabian horses.

After quoting adroitly the interesting passage from Revelation vi. 2-8, Prof. Ridgeway (pp. 210-13) speculates as to the sources from which the white and grey horses of superior quality among the later Arabs may have traced their pedigrees, and he infers that the Arabs derived their best strain " either from Palestine at the begin- ning of the Christian era, or else through Palestine from some other country.'* Here I would adduce the following valuable passages relative to horses of various colours in use among the pre-Mohammedan Arabs, though the white horse is not mentioned :

" Praise the yellow steed, of the colour of gold ; for he is, of horses, noblest in pedigree. His rider shall outstrip every warrior in the beauty of his shape and paces. He may be in the evening at Tekmet, and in the morning at Aleppo."

On one occasion Antarah* goes forth, mounted on such a golden steed, to encounter a Persian satrap ; while his foe is described as mounted " on a long-tailed steed, marked with the new moon on his forehead. 11 On another occasion a Greek chieftain is men- tioned as coming to Khosru in his palace with 500 horses, 5 monks, and 10 priests.

by Terrick Hamilton, 4 vols., 1820; and 'Arabian Poetry,' by W. A. Clouston, 1881.
 * Cf. 'Antar, a Bedoueen Romance,' translated