HALF-WILD HOUSES. 317 



which the horse recedes in Bulgaria, the horses obey 

 the same instinct. Mr. H. C. Barkley, in his ' Five 

 Years in Bulgaria,' takes notice of this fact : 



' The great droves of horses and cattle, and flocks 

 of sheep, give the plain a very pretty appearance. 

 As for the horses, they are but little trouble, for in 

 winter and summer they feed themselves on the open 

 plains, and there increase and multiply. They go 

 about in droves of about thirty, with one stallion who 

 acts as master over all, and keeps them in order. 

 Woe betide a young lady who casts sheep's eyes 

 towards a neighbouring drove, or a colt who wishes 

 to enlarge his mind by an interchange of ideas with 

 the young bloods of another family. The vicious- 

 looking old husband and father trots quietly up to 

 the delinquent, and either takes at one bite about 

 a pound of flesh out of its neck, or gives it a kick on 

 the hocks that reduces it to three legs for a week.' 



It is sheer cruelty to box up horses after they 

 have done their work, and to keep them from com- 

 municating with their own kind. 



Were there any other inducement to make man 

 sympathetic with the horse, and to ' gentle ' it, as 

 the Americans say, instead of ' breaking ' it as we 

 say in England, it is the greater amount of work 

 which can be got out of a horse by treating him 

 kindly. Everyone who is conversant with nautical 



