"The strains belong to one breed or genus, but they differ in points of conformation and individual characteristics and peculiarities of the shape, which they transmit, but even outstanding differences in one mare do not make her the fountain head of a new breed, though her foals may be named after her as a substrain. Usually after three or four generations these substrains disappear and only the strain from which they originally descended retains its name and carries it on."

LADY ANNE Blunt enlarged on the strain list in her book, "Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates," and I devoted seventeen years to collect more than one hundred and eighty one additional strains and substrains, most of which were published in W.R.Brown's book: "The Horse of the Desert," and in my book, "Black Tents of Arabia," and in the first article of this series in The Western Horseman. The rest I plan to publish later in a special book on the strains and the breeding of Arabian horses, together with a glossary of 1050 other Arabian names in Arabic and English (they concern the strains and information appearing in recorded pedigrees in Egypt, Europe and America).

READING THE records of travellers in the 17th and 18th and 19th centuries, one finds "bits" of information which confirm the truth of distinctive types among strains.

BURKHARDT, AN outstanding explorer of Arabia, said Muniqi and Jilfan were not considered among the Al-Khamsa (the classic "Five"). Pedro Nunnes, a Spaniard in Arabia, 1810, said the Jilfan came from Yemen and were not beautiful, but wonderful race horses -- and Rosetti remarked that those horses which belonged to the Al-Khamsa were always the most beautiful and their strains were regarded as sacred as the Koran.

THE HORSES of Sapphar (Yemen), according to Vegez (fourth century) compared well with those of Armenia. Ancient Arabian poets of the pre-Moslem period sing continuously praise to their beautiful an and enduring horses, which they used in raids and in real war. Conditions in Desert Arabia seventeen hundred or more years ago (according to these old descriptions) were almost the same as I have experienced them among the great camel breeding tribes of Inner-Arabia. The use of horses among Bedouins and the life these animals shared with their master and his family has not changed in bygone ages to this day, and I believe with the migrating Arab that their steeds originated as a special breed in their deserts -- as horses did in pre-historic times in various parts of America and in different varieties. While they died out in America, a particular type (different from other horses as far as anatomical points are concerned) survived in Arabia.

THE WILD mare of Arabia was an Ultimate achievement of nature, a mature and perfect creature, the Bedouins told me.

THE GIFT of an intelligent spirit was bestowed upon the mare of Ishmael and an intuitive soul to dwell within her beautiful, strong and symmetrical body. Psychic powers of her animal spirit were gifts of God, but her conscious mind developed through her intimate human association. The Arabs believe that psychic powers are never transmitted through stallions, though they possess it as much as the mares. AN ARABIAN sire communicates physical qualities and nervous energies, but never the elements of the mind and soul which are outside of the domain of physical laws and which were a spiritual gift to the first mare -- Ishmael's mare -- who, the Arabs insist, was not only a special, but twofold creation of God: she was brought into existence in this world with an image of herself in her own womb: a son who was only to serve later as a mens of helping to reproduce her semblance on this earth. A perfectly developed male was born in Ishmael's tent in the morning of her creation in the desert. For this supernatural reason, the mare is always considered supremely important among the Bedouins. A stallion can take only secondary place.

FOR THIS divine reason too the psychic powers of Arabian horses descend through mares only and are thus retained within pure Arabian horses.

A HIGH CASTE Arabian mare (one who is possessed of a higher soul) and a "foreign"stallion (with a "lower" psyche) mated together, produce an inferior offspring in whose misformed "shell" the higher soul does not "feel-at-home." Even the eyes (windows of the psychic spirit) have a frightened expression, whereas an Arabian stallion bred to a "foreign"mare improves the physical shape and nervous energies of her descendants.

THUS SPEAK the Bedouins -- believers in divine manifestation. They furthermore say:

"Upon an unseen but not totally abstract pattern of beauty and perfection the spirit of God has created a harmonious animal and endowed it with a gentle and intelligent soul which has the capacity to understand his mission in this world as a companion to man. what obligation to man himself to understand such a divine creature which has been sent for his supreme joy and to delight his spirit as well as his heart and to share the fortunes and adversities of this illusory world."

EVER SINCE I heard these words spoken to me in the desert of Arabia I have thought of the Arabian horse truly as a companion of angels and men. Modern civilization (it seems) has separated us from the creatures of God -- that is from an intimate association and understanding of their soul. We only "handle"their physical forms and animal mind. Perhaps the Bedouin "has" something there which many of us should consider.

THE BEDOUINS say that their horses share the moods of their masters, even their joys and sorrows. Often when I plodded along with our camels and horses, my mare would neigh as if joining in the humor of our conversation. She grew quiet when I was sad or tired. If I saw her head hang pensively I could blame only myself.

EXPLAINING the mystery of such a relationship, the Arab said to me:

"To the degree that an Asil (high-born) horse possesses thy heart, will she respond to thee. She will humble thy enemies and honor thy friends. Willingly she will carry thee upon her back but she will consent ot no humiliation. She is at once aware whether she carries a friend or an enemy of God. The mare that lives under divine orders, as a mute and obedient companion of man, has an insight into the mind of her master whom she may even prefer to her own kind."

SOME HORSES have the contemplative eyes of the Muluq -- the celestial creatures. The Muluq have the faculty to think and reason. The Muluq have the faculty to think and reason. They are able to meditate upon the unseen. It is called "Yuminuna Bi'l Ghayb." "It is within them - the psychic power of an angel."

I LEARNED that a Muluq horse is an "enlightened creature" and belongs to the "wisal," a spiritual assembly of animals who are aware of their creator. The horses of the Wisal are quieter than others, often listening and meditating like intellectual being immersed in a deep thought. Their charm, their delightfully mysterious fascinations and attractions, even their exciting fragrance and the magnetic touch of their bodies arouse entirely different sensations in us than those of ordinary horses.

KNOWING THIS, one begins to understand the close friendship that exists between the desert man and his horse.

I AM OFTEN asked to name the finest Arabian horse I have ever known. To answer this question is very difficult indeed. There are many Arabians who pass the test of pedigree, whose blood, conformation, performance and intelligence mark them in the annals of Arabian horses: "best bred." The personal attachment to an individual horse rests on all this and more. Frankly, when I am asked this question my heart is stirred by sentiment and I cannot help remembering one of the most beautiful Ärabian horses I have ever known. She was a mare who would have pleased an artist, a breeder or a veterinary. She fascinates me to this very day with her distinguished personality.

ORIGINALLY SHE came from Lady Anne Blunt's stable near Cairo. When I acquired her she was an old white mare; she was so old she was almost yellow, but with her own spry little bay foal beside her seemed young.

HER HISTORY began with Jaffar Pasha, the Turkish General who, during the last war fought with the Turks in Tripoli, Africa, against the Italiansa and British. Jaffar Pasha was captured by the British in the Lybian Desert and held a prisoner in Cairo. After the massacre of Arabian Nationalists at the hands of the Turks became known in Egypt, Jaffar Pasha asked to be released from his British prison and joined Lawrence and Prince Feisal against the Turks. On a visit to Cairo he heard that Lady Anne Blunt had died (1917). At the dispersal sale of her famous stud, Jaffar Pasha bought the mare. She shared with the old warrior the campaign of the Arabian rebellion, and finally entered Damascus with him. When the war was over Prince Feisal acquired her and sent her to his father, King Hussain in Mecca, as a symbolic token of the conquest of the Turks by the Arabs.

KING HUSSAIN rode her every Friday, the Moslem holy day, in his public appearance, leading the faithful to prayer at the Holy Shrine in Mecca. She bore the King on his pilgrimage to the Tomb of Muhammad in Medina. A few years later when King Hussain lost his throne to Ibn Sa'ud and left Mecca to go into exile, this mare and one of his favorite stallions accompanied him aboard a British warship to Akaba and to the Island of Cyprus.

LATER, WHEN King Hussain received permission to live the remaining days of his life with his son Prince 'Abdullah, the ruler of Transjordan, Hussain said farewell to his horses. When they reached the mainland in Palestine, Hussain dispatched the stallion to his son Feisal in Baghdad, and the mare to Prince 'Abd Al-Kader in Damascus.

SHE WAS in foal to the bay stallion and a filly was born, which I bought and shipped to a friend in South America. At that time the old mare became my property too, and I took her with me to southern France, where she lived like an old queen at Aix-en-Provence under kindly skies and on green pastures.

NOBODY KNEW how old she was, but I thought at least thirty years when she had her last foal.

SHE HAD an exquisite head, like that of an antelope, with the curve of her profile upturned and her large, lustrous eyes set deep in the middle of her skull. She was very broad across th the forehead and tapered down to a fine, small muzzle with large dilated nostrils. It was the old Ali Pasha Sherif breeding.

JIRRE WAS the name of my mare. It meant "imprints-in-the-sand-left-by-the-hoofs." King Feisal had named the nameless in memory of these historical events of his revolt in the Desert in which Jirre took such an important part.

"Put your hand on her forehead," her former owner said to me in Damascus, "and touch her strand of hair, for it is sacred to us, and repeat with me these words: Al-Khayr Maqud Fi Nauwasi'l Khayl ili Yaumi Al-Qiyama -- Weal is braided into the forelocks of our horses until the Day of God, the Day of Judgment."

AS I DID so, the beautiful old mare looked at me with such softness of expression in her dark eyes that I felt as if a gentle human soul was searching my own, and that she understood our words.

ONE COULD not have found a more perfect Arabian mare, yet my heart was attached to her for more reasons than her long lineage and perfect conformation (she must have been a Kuhaylat mare). She found favor with a great hero of the Arab Revolt; she was sent by a grateful son to his father in the Holy City of Mecca and became a companion to those who serve at the "Abode of God," as the Arabs say. After enjoying the glory and blessings of a King she suffered with him defeat and humiliation not only on the sands of the desert, but in the hearts of men...

JIRRE HAD not only been a companion of angels and ordinary men, but of heroes, Knights and Kings.

THE ARABIAN horse may be accused by its enemies, it may be treated more as a legend than a reality; a myth, the subject of ridicule; but history does speak, and the magnificence of the Arabian blood is not denied any longer.

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