20 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of such little equestrians is distinguished by a certain chivalrous frank- 

 ness, and the word chivalry itself, as well as the German Hitter ("ca- 

 ballero "), were originally derived from horse-riding. The rider's man- 

 agement of his nag may tend to develop the domineering, the princely 

 traits of human nature, though probably at the expense of a humbler 

 virtue or two ; in Sj^anish America, at least, the experience of Indian 

 agents and Indian school-teachers has shown that the pedestrian red- 

 skins are generally more manageable than their mounted compadres. 



The lovers of aquatic sports may combine a useful accomplishment 

 with the best relief from the midsummer martyrdom of our large cities. 

 The art of swimming adds as much to the pleasure of bathing as it does 

 to its healthfulness ; but it has often puzzled me that with the human 

 animal that should be an art which is a natural faculty of all other 

 mammals. Dr. Andersson's theory is probably the right solution of the 

 riddle. He noticed that to the young negroes of Sierra Leone swim- 

 ming comes almost as natural as walking (in which attainment they 

 are also rather precocious), and he concludes that the disability of a 

 white man's child arises chiefly from a general want of vigor. Our 

 mobile arms and paddle-like hands are better swimming implements 

 than the drumstick legs of a dog ; but our muscular debility more than 

 counteracts these advantages. The limbs of a child are swathed, con- 

 fined in tight clothes, kept year after year in compulsive inactivity, 

 till, in proportion to its size, the nursling of civilization is the weakliest 

 of living creatures. After exercise has developed the defective mus- 

 cles, a swimmer can hardly understand how he could ever be in dread 

 of deep water, swimming seems so easy ; the faculty of floating, as it 

 appears to him, is an inalienable attribute of a human creature, requir- 

 ing neither art nor anything like a great effort except in swimming 

 against the stream ; he would undertake to study, read, or dream in a 

 calm sea, and let the body take care of itself. The Marquesas-Island- 

 ers witnessed the struggles of a sinking English sailor with mute 

 astonishment, and neglected to helj) him, utterly incapable of realizing 

 the fact that a full-grown man could be in danger of drowning. 



In the sixteen provinces of the Roman Empire every larger town 

 had a free bath or two, and our entire neglect of this branch of public 

 hygiene is certainly the ugliest feature of our boasted civilization ; but 

 our children at least might make shift with the natural bathing facili- 

 ties which can be reached by a short excursion beyond the precincts of 

 all but the unluckiest cities. A cool bath at the end of a sweltering 

 day can be delightful enough to reconcile a poor city slave to his 

 misery ; the sensation of floating along with the rhythm of a dancing 

 current admits no comparison with any terra jirma pleasure, and awa- 

 kens instincts of the human soul which may date from the life of our 

 marine ancestors in the days of the Devonian fore-world. But such 

 enjoyments are the privilege of the aquatic gymnast, and no swimmer 

 should deem it below his dignity to imitate the example of the elder 



