332 



THE HORSE. 



run. lie was a horse of the most extraordinary savage and vicious dis- 

 position. His particular propensity was that of Jlying at and ■worrying 

 any person who came within his reach, and if he had an opportunity, he 

 would get his head round, seize his rider by the leg with his teeth, and 

 drag him down from his back. For this reason he was always ridden in 

 wliat is called a sword; which is nothing more than a strong flat stick 

 having one end attached to the check of the bridle, and the other to the 

 girth of the saddle, a contrivance to prevent a horse of this kind from 

 getting at his rider. 



" King Pippin had long been difficult to manage and dangerous to ga 

 near, but on the occasion in question he could not be got out to run at all.. 

 Nohody could put the bridle upon Ins head. It being Easter Monday, 

 and consequently a great holyday, there was a large concourse of people 

 assembled at the Curragh, consisting principally of the neighbouring peas- 

 antry ; and one countryman, more fearless than the rest of the lookers-on, 

 forgetting, or perhaps never dreaming, that the better part of courage is 

 discretion, volunteered his services to bridle the horse. No sooner had he 

 committed himself in this operation, than King Pippin seized him some- 

 where about the shoulders or chest, and, says Mr. Watts (Mr. Castley's 

 informant), ' I know of nothing I can compare it to, so much as a dog 

 shaking a rat.' Fortunately for the poor fellow, his body was very thickly 

 covered with clothes, for on such occasions an Irishman of this class is fond 

 of displaying his wardrobe, and if /te has three coats at allinthe world, he is 

 sure to put them all on. 



"This circumstance in all probability saved the individual who had so 

 gallantly volunteered the forlorn hope. His person was so deeply envel- 

 oped in extra-teguments, that the horse never got fairly hold of his skin, 

 and I understand that he escaped with but little injury, beside the sadly 

 rent and totally ruined state of his holyday toggery. 



" The Whisperer was sent for, who, having arrived, was shut up with the 

 horse all night, and in the morning he exhibited this hitherto ferocious animal, 

 following him about the course like a dog ; lying down at his command ; 

 suffering his mouth to be opened, and any person's hand to be introduced 

 into it ; in short, as quiet almost as a sheep. 



" He came out the same meeting, and won a race, and his docility con- 

 tinned satisfactory for a long time ; hut at the end of about three years his 

 vice returned, and" then he is said to have killed a man, for which he was 

 destroyed." 



It may not be uninteresting, in this connection, to give some account of 

 this tamer of quadruped vice. However strange and magical his power 

 may seem to be, there is no doubt of the truth of the account that is given 

 of him. The Rev. Mr. Townsend, in his Statistical Survey of Cork, first 

 introduced him to the notice of the public generally, although his fame had 

 long spread over that part of Ireland. We, however, give the following 

 extract from Croker's Fairy Legends and Traditions of Ireland, Part II., 

 p. 200, for the fact seems the work of some elfin sprite, rather than of a 

 rude and ignorant horse-breaker. 



"He was an awkward, ignorant rustic, of the lowest class, of the name 

 of Sullivan, but better known by the appellation of the Whisperer; his 

 occupation was horse-breaking. The nickname he acquired from the 

 vulgar notion of his being able to communicate to the animal what he 

 wished by means of a whisper, and the singularity of his method seemed 

 in some degree to justify the attribute. In his own neighbourhood, the 

 notoriety of the fact made it seem less remarkable, but I doubt if any 



