CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



the ass, and their hybrid the mule, have been used 

 as beasts of burden that is to say, in those coun- 

 tries which form their natural habitats. At what 

 period the horse was first subjected to the purposes 

 of man we have no authentic record. He is men- 

 tioned by the oldest writers, and it is probable 

 that his domestication was nearly coeval with the 

 earliest state of society. Trimmed and decorated 

 chargers appear on Egyptian monuments more 

 than four thousand years old ; and on sculptures 

 equally, if not more ancient, along the banks of 

 the Euphrates. At a later date, Solomon obtained 

 horses 'out of Egypt, and out of all lands,' and 

 had ' four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, 

 and twelve thousand horsemen.' Thus we find 

 that in the plains of the Euphrates, Nile, and 

 Jordan, the horse was early the associate of man, 

 bearing him with rapidity from place to place, and 

 aiding in the carnage and tumult of battle. He 

 does not appear, however, to have been employed 

 in the more useful arts of agriculture and com- 

 merce ; these supposed drudgeries being imposed 

 on the more patient ox, ass, and camel. Even in 

 refined Greece and Rome he was merely yoked to 

 the war-chariot, placed under the saddle of the 

 soldier, or trained for the race-course. As civili- 

 sation spread westward over Europe, the demands 

 upon the strength and endurance of the horse 

 were multiplied, and in time he was called upon 

 to lend his shoulder indiscriminately to the car- 

 riage and wagon, to the mill, plough, and other 

 implements of husbandry. It is in this servant- 

 of-all-work capacity that we must now regard 

 him ; and certainly a more docile, steady, and 

 willing assistant it is impossible to find. For 

 burden, the ass perhaps is more steady and 

 enduring ; but both are surpassed by the mule, 

 which in Spain, South America, Mexico, and 

 other countries destitute of good roads, affords 

 one of the most available modes of commercial 

 transport. Headed by one of superior sagacity, 

 they move in long cavalcades, like the camel and 

 llama, and with their gay caparisons, tinkling 

 bells, and jauntily dressed drivers, form a very 

 picturesque object in the landscape. 



Another primitive mode of carriage, and the 

 last which we shall mention, is the employment of 

 the huge and unwieldy but powerful elephant. 

 In the East he had been subjugated and trained 

 before the earliest records. It was to Alexander 

 the Conqueror that the western world was first 

 indebted for the elephant ; he it was that made 

 the sports of Persia and India familiar to the 

 Greeks and Macedonians. The acquisition of the 

 war-elephant gave new pomp and splendour to 

 his squadrons, and his example was followed by 

 degrees by other nations. In time, the Egyptians, 

 Carthaginians, and Romans all made use of 

 elephants, both to assist in the march, by carrying 

 enormous loads of baggage, and to join the ranks, 

 mounted by numbers of archers and spearmen, 

 as here represented. 



Since the introduction of firearms and artillery, 

 the war-elephant has been greatly abandoned even 

 in the East, and is now chiefly used in carrying 

 baggage, in doing other heavy work, and, above 

 all, in adding to the ' pomp and circumstance ' of 

 Oriental authority. The present employment of 

 the elephant in 'India is exceedingly varied from 

 the piling of firewood and the drawing of water, to 

 the dragging of artillery and the carriage of royalty. 



434 



When placed under the Jwwdah a covered seat 

 for persons of rank his back is protected by a 

 thickly stuffed hair-cushion, over which is spread 



an ornamental covering. The howdah is made 

 to contain several persons, and this is the amount 

 of the travelling elephant's burden. 



Draught. 



The draught of the reindeer is employed in 

 Lapland as the chief means of artificial locomo- 

 tion, and is always exerted on a species of sledge, 

 which, by its form, is suitable for gliding easily 

 over the frozen ground or snow. The shape of 

 the sledge somewhat resembles a small boat with 

 a sharp prow, and flat in the rear, against which 

 the inmate of the vehicle rests. The traveller is 

 swathed in his carriage like an infant in a cradle, 

 with a stick in his hand to steer the vessel, and 

 disengage it from pieces of rock or stumps of tree 

 that may happen to obstruct the route. He must 

 also balance the sledge with his body, otherwise 

 he will be in danger of being overturned. With 

 this draught the reindeer, if pressed, will travel 

 from sixty to eighty miles in a day ; but more 

 frequently he does not travel more than forty or 

 fifty, which is a good day's journey. 



Among the Kamtschatdales, Esquimaux, and 

 other northern tribes, a peculiar variety of dog is 

 almost universally employed as a beast of draught, 

 and occasionally as one of burden. These animals 

 are trained to draw the rude sledges that the 

 Esquimaux, for example, are able to construct, 

 which are about five feet long and two wide. 

 The dogs are harnessed by a collar, and a single 

 trace running over their backs. They are not 

 tied to each other, but each one is attached 

 separately to the sledge, and at unequal distances, 

 some even at twenty feet. The most docile dog 

 is the leader, and his is the longest trace. A 

 good leader is very attentive to the words of the 

 conductor, and looks back over his shoulder with 

 great earnestness to catch the word of command. 

 Ten dogs make a full team, and will draw a sledge 

 twelve miles an hour. On a good surface, six or 

 seven dogs will perform in a day a journey of sixty 

 miles, with nearly one thousand pounds to draw. 



In Russia, and also in Canada, sleighs are used 

 in winter for conveyance from place to place, the 

 beast of draught being the horse. As the roac 



