OF FARRIERY. 



877 



domesticated, materially differ in character 

 from those on the plains of South Am<?rica. 

 They will not suffer a stranger to join them. 

 If a domesticated Horse comes in their vvay, 

 unprotected by nis master, they attack him 

 with their teeth and their heels, and speedily 

 destroy him. They readily submit, however, 

 to the dominion of man, and become perfectly 

 docile and faithful. 



Among the Tartars, the flesh of the Horse 

 is a frequent article of food ; and although 

 they do not, like the Indians of the Pampas, 

 eat it raw, their mode of cookery would not 

 be very inviting to the European epicure. 

 They cut the muscular parts into slices, and 

 place them under their saddles, and after they 

 have galloped thirty or forty miles, the meat 

 becomes tender and sodden, and fit for their 

 table ; and, at all their feasts, the Hrst 

 and last and most favourite dish, is a Horse's 

 head. 



When water was not at hand, the Scythians 

 used to draw blood from their Horses, and 

 drink it ; and the dukes of Muscovy, for nearly 

 two hundred and sixty years, presented Tartar 



ambassadors with the milk of mares. If any 

 of this milk fell upon the mane of the Horse, 

 the duke, by custom, was bound to lick it 

 off". 



Troops of wild Horses are occasionally me' 

 with in the central parts of Africa, in the island 

 of St. Domingo, on the deserts of Arabia, 

 and in a few other parts of the world ; but 

 no where do they equal the domesticated 

 Horse in form, strength, or even speed. 



The manufacture of the Gaucho's boots is 

 somewhat singular. " The boots of the 

 Gauchos are formed of the ham and part of 

 the leg-skin of a colt taken reeking from the 

 mother, which is said to be sacrificed for the 

 sole purpose, just at the time of bearing when 

 the hair has not begun to grow. At this 

 stage, the skin strips off easily, and is very 

 white and beautiful in texture and appearance. 

 The ham forms the calf of the boot; the hock 

 easily adopts itself to the heel, and the leg 

 above the fetlock constitutes the foot; the 

 whole making a neat and elegant half-boot, 

 with an aperture sufficient for the great Ui», 

 to project through." 



O G 



