Page:The journal of the Royal Geographic Society of London. Volume 34, 1864. (IA s572id13663720).pdf/343

Rh The wells are worked by buckets (leathern, of course) attached to ropes which pass over pullies placed in a sort of gallows above the well, and drawn by camels, or asses, rarely by oxen. Indeed in Djebel Shomer, Kaseem, Sedeyr, and Woshem, this latter species of animal is entirely, or almost entirely unknown; but it reappears in Aared and Yemamah, and increases in frequency in proportion as we approach the Hasa and ’Oman. These kine are generally red in colour, small of stature, and have on their back, over the shoulders, a characteristic hump, much like their Eastern brethren, the Brahminee bulls.

I say nothing here of the camel-breed; its copiousness may be imagined in this land of camels. They are in fact to Nejed, for all sorts of work and luxury too, much what horses and kine taken together are for England, at least before the multiplication of railroads had lightened their employments.

The horses of Nejed also hardly belong to my present subject; and I must accordingly reserve a fuller history of them for subsequent publication, yet I cannot here dismiss these beautiful creatures without a few words. They are incomparably the best, the standard breed of Arabia, indeed of the whole world. Light in limb, small in stature, their average height being about 14 hands, seldom more, full in the back, haunches, and chest, their tail set off at a graceful arch, the dorsal bone slightly depressed, so as to give the animal a somewhat saddle-backed appearance, though that is also due in part to the remarkable fulness of their hind-quarters, their muzzle delicately taper, their ear small and pointed, their eye large and full of life, their shoulder at a lovely slope, unlike the heavy Persian or Cape breed, their legs all bone and sinew, and slender as bars of iron, the hoof small and neat; in a word, they present the most perfect model, the “beau-ideal” of equine perfection.

They are never used for hard labour of any sort, not even for travelling, at least to any distance. War and parade are all their business. Nor are they ever sold; they change masters only by heritage, gift, or capture; and no price is in consequence assigned for them. Hence it follows that they very seldom leave their native Nejed. Such horses have indeed been occasionally sent as presents to the Sultan, to the Shah of Persia, to the Egyptian Government, and more often to the neighbouring and international Arab states. But the animals thus parted with are of course stallions, and not, the best of them either; as for the mares they are not to be had even thus. However the Arabs of Shomer and the other neigh¬ bouring clans, whether Bedouins or others, not unfrequently manage to get their mares crossed from this breed, and then sell the foals under the name of Nejdee horses at Meshid Alee, Bagdad, or Syria. Hence arise many so-called Nejdee horses,