114 PUTTING INTO CONDITION. 



some people ; they either advocate shutting their 

 horses up in a dark and hot stable, thereby 

 doing their best to introduce half a dozen Eng- 

 lish diseases ; or else picket the poor brutes out 

 in the open my dan the whole year long, caring 

 nothing about the thermometer for six months 

 being at 130 degrees in the sun, whose rays 

 penetrate their very brains; while, at other sea- 

 sons, the rains pelt down on their unlucky backs 

 unceasingly for twelve hours, and sometimes 

 for twenty-four, without their being exercised 

 during this time ; thereby producing fevers, rheu- 

 matisms, bad surfeits, and inveterate mange. 

 The man who pays fifteen hundred rupees for 

 his nag, generally adopts the first of these, the 

 hot and dark stable, by way of taking care of 

 him ; the man who pays five hundred, the open 

 mydan, by way of allowing the poor brute to 

 take care of himself ; either way impairing their 

 constitutions, and making them miserable.* A 

 stable in all the warm latitudes of India should 

 be nothing more than an open thatched or tiled 

 pendal, fifteen feet high, and made into loose 

 stalls of twelve feet square each. During the 

 hot and rainy months also, if the ground is not 

 damp, make his bed outside ; the insects in some 



* The Bombay cavalry are always picketed outside, and this 

 is called a state of nature. 



