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Bedouin Legends
The Wild Mare of Arabia
July/August 1999 DHR
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 power 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 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 means 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 only take secondary place.
Shared on ModelArabians discussion list by Jennifer Kroll, May 24, 1999.