THE PERSIAN. 237 



firmly jointed ; and this deficiency seems to be 

 general, since, in a noted trial of speed and endur- 

 ance between Sharper and Mina, two first-rate 

 English blood-horses, and the best bred animals 

 picked for the purpose among the Don, the Black 

 Sea, and the Ural Cossacks, which occurred in 1825 ; 

 they were to run to the cruel distance of forty-seven 

 miles, and although both the English had gone out of 

 the course uphill for above two miles, yet Sharper 

 was winner by eight minutes, running the whole dis- 

 tance in two hours and forty-eight minutes, carry- 

 ing three stone more than his best opponent, leaving 

 him to be warped in without a saddle, and having 

 only a child on the back, with two horsemen hold- 

 ing him up on both sides, and other men dragging 

 at his head with a rope ! 



The horses of the vicinity of Caucasus, both to 

 the north and south, are, however, more particularly 

 of the ancient dappled and grey stock, now gradu- 

 ally merging into the bay, but still numerous ; in 

 some pastures predominant, and both in Persia and 

 India, on gala days, often beautified by having 

 their manes, tails, and sometimes parts of the body, 

 stained with a crimson or an orange dye. There is 

 also, on the coast of the Persian Gulf, the Musjeed 

 breed of white horses, naturally speckled with deep 

 brown or black, known early in the middle ages, 

 and then considered as the most eligible of all 

 parade horses. * White horses are likewise arti- 



* We think the name of Tazi is given to them by ancient 

 Indian writers, but do not know where it is so defined. The 



