Horse and Man. 349 



shattered hopes. To the free inhabitants of air we 

 can only liken the mounted Arab, vanishing, hawk- 

 like, over the boundless desert. 



In riding there is always exhilarating motion; 

 yet, if the scenery encountered be charming, you 

 are apparently sitting still, while, river-like, it flows 

 toward and past you, ever giving place to fresh 

 visions of beauty. Above all, the mind is free, as 

 when one lies idly on the grass gazing up into the 

 sky. And, speaking of myself, there is even more 

 than this immunity from any tax on the under- 

 standing such as we require in walking; the 

 rhythmic motion, the sensation as of flight, acting 

 on the brain like a stimulus. That anyone should 

 be able to think better lying, sitting, or standing, 

 than when speeding along on horseback, is to 

 me incomprehensible. This is doubtless due to 

 early training and long use; for on those great 

 pampas where I first saw the light and was taught 

 at a tender age to ride, we come to look on man as 

 a parasitical creature, fitted by nature to occupy 

 the back of a horse, in which position only he has 

 lull and free use of all his faculties. Possibly the 

 gaucho the horseman of the pampas is born 

 with this idea in his brain ; if so, it would only be 

 reasonable to suppose that its correlative exists in a 

 modification of structure. Certain it is that an 

 intoxicated gaucho lifted on to the back of his 

 horse is perfectly safe in his seat. The horse may 

 do his best to rid himself of his burden ; the rider's 

 legs or posterior arms as they might appropriately 

 be called retain their iron grip, notwithstanding 

 the fuddled brain. 



