16 THE HORSE, 



the kn":e, which is indeed general to all the native horses throughout India ; 

 and also so great a tendency to fulness in the hocks, that, in England, it 

 would be thought half of them had blood spavins." 



THE CHINESE HORSE. 



This breed is small, weak, ill-formed, without spirit, and altogether un- 

 dcservins of notice. 



THE PERSIAN HORSE 



Returning westward we find the Persian next m estimation, and deser- 

 vedly so, to the Arabian. The head is almost equally beautiful, the crup- 

 per superior; he is equal in speed, but far inferior in endurance. The 

 whole frame is more developed than in the Arabian. 



The Persian horses were celebrated for many a century before the Ara- 

 bians were known, or even existed. They constituted, in ancient times 

 the best cavalry of the East. The native Persian was so highly prized 

 tliat Alexander considered one of them the noblest gift he could bestow, 

 and when the kings of Parthia would propitiate their divinities by the most 

 costly sacrifice, a Persian horse was offered on the altar. An entertaining 

 traveller (Sir R. Ker Porter) bears testimony that they have not now de- 

 generated. He gives the following account of this breed. 



" The Persian horses never exceed fourteen or fourteen and a half hands 

 high, yet certainly, in the whole are taller than the Arabs. Those of the 

 desert and country about Hillah run very small, but are full of bone and 

 of good speed. General custom feeds and waters them only at sun-rise 

 and sun-set, when they are cleaned. Their usual provender is barley and 

 chopped straw, which, if the animals are piqueted, is put into a nose-bag 

 and hung from their heads; but if stabled, it is thrown into a small 

 lozenge-shaped hole left in the thickness of the mud-wall for that purpose, 

 but much higher up than the line of our mangers, and there the animal 

 eats at his leisure. Hay is a kind of food not known here. The bedding 

 of tlie horse consists of his dung. After being exposed to the drying in- 

 fluence of the sun during the day, it becomes pulverized, and, in that state, 

 is nightly spread under him.* Little of it touches his body, that being 

 covered by his clothing, a large numviud from the ears to the tail, and 

 bound firmly round his body by a very long surcingle. But this apparel 

 is only for cold weather ; in the warmer season the night-clothes are of a 

 lighter substance, and during the heat of the day, the animal is kept en- 

 tirely under shade. 



" At night he is tied in the court yard. The horses' heads are attached 

 to the place of security, by double ropes from their halters, and the heels 

 of their hinder legs are confined by cords of twisted hair, fastened to iron 

 rings, and pegs driven into the earth. The same custom prevailed in the 

 time of Xenophon, and for the same reason, to secure thtin from being 

 able to attack and maim each other, the whole stud generally consisting of 

 stallions. Their keepers, however, always sleep on their rugs amongst 



* It is the usual flooring of the stable and tlie lent. The united influence ( f the sun 

 and air deprive it of all unpleasant odour, and when from use it becomes a second time 

 offensive, i is again exposed to the sun, and all unpleasant smell once more tak«n away. 



