v.] THE SEAT. 67 



ground. On the other hand, his peculiar seat renders 

 the Eastern horseman so utterly helpless in the per- 

 formances of the manege, that he is unable to make his 

 horse rein back, or pass sideways a step. And I have 

 seen three hundred Mussulman troops from the northern 

 parts of Persia (each of whom would perform forty such 

 feats as I have mentioned) take more than an hour to 

 form a very bad parade line, in single rank. When one 

 of them was the least too far forward, or had an interval 

 between him and the dressing hand, however small, as he 

 could neither make his horse rein back, nor pass side- 

 ways, he was obliged to ride out to the front, turn round 

 to the rear, and ride into the rank afresh, and so in 

 succession every man beyond him. This was an affair of Long stir- 



mps are 



seat ; the Eastern horseman's leg does not come low J ecessar y 



for cavalry. 



enough to give his horse what are called sides. 



On sides depend reining back and passing ; on reining 

 back and passing depend closing and dressing, and conse- 

 quently the power of acting in line. On sides also 

 depends the Central wheel of threes on their own ground. 



F 2 



