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fruitless attempts to effect their union, he succeeded at length by 

 an artifice. When the unhappy horses discovered the imposition, 

 they showed the greatest horror, and by incessant neighings 

 seemed to call on the gods to avenge their wrongs : at last, by a 

 mutual impulse, they dashed their heads against the rocks, and 

 terminated their wretched existence. 



The swiftest horses of Sicily are excelled by those of Parthia 

 and Armenia, and these again by the horses of Iberia, whose 

 fleetness is equalled only by that of the eagle, the hawk, or the 

 dolphin in the waves ; but they are deficient in courage and strength, 

 and their beautiful forms are no compensation for their broad and 

 feeble hoofs. 



The Moorish horse excels every other in patient endurance of 

 toil, and the performance of long journies : — next is the Lybian ; — 

 greater in size, and more able to resist the violence of heat and 

 thirst. The Parthian alone has courage to brave the roar of the 

 lion. The virtues of horses are ascertained by the colour of their 

 eyes. Those with eyes of an azure hue are best for pursuit of the 

 stag ; —the blue of the bear ; — the sanguine of the panther ; — the fiery 

 of the boar, — and the grey of the lion. The Nysaean horse, the fa- 

 vourite of kings, has no rival in beauty. Of the Orynx, (the 

 Zebra) another beautiful race, there are two species ; the one 

 marked with long stripes like the tiger, — the other with round spots, 

 like those inflicted by burning brass on the panther's young. — The 

 modes employed by men to vary the hues of horses wiiile they are 

 yet in embryo, of pigeons, and of children, as practised by the 

 Lacedemonians. — These adorn the chambers of their pregnant wo- 

 men with pictures of the most beautiful youtlis, Nereus, Narcissus, 

 Hyacinthus, Apollo or Bacchus, tliat the frequent contemplation 

 of them may transfer the similitude to their infants. 



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