FERAL HORSES. 181 



They have already acquired equestrian habits, as 

 dexterous lancers and throwers of the lazzo and 

 holas. Numerous superstitions exist among them 

 which show a long familiarity with horses, and an 

 opinion of the Ricarras, that the souls of horses will 

 rise in judgment against unmerciful riders, does 

 them honour. This ready departure from their an- 

 tique habits, from the circumstance of horses being 

 casually introduced to their observation, shows what 

 must have occurred in the Old World among the 

 primitive barbarous nations who had wild horses 

 within their reach. As soon as one tribe could show 

 the example of a successful experiment in the sub- 

 jugation of the animal, others necessarily must have 

 undertaken the same task; and those tribes that 

 first accomplished it, immediately made the new 

 instrument of power applicable to invade the others 

 and commence the era of conquests. An indigenous 

 possession of horses exhibits the further similarity in 

 manners which result from it, for in both continents 

 the Tahtar and the Patagonian feed upon the flesh, 

 both do most of their common daily business on 

 horseback, and, after death, both are laid in a tomb 

 with the stuffed skins of their favourite animals set 

 up around it. 



There remains one more form of feral or wild 

 horse to notice, namely, that which is of question- 

 able origin, and found independent on the island of 

 Celebes. East of the Bramapootra, and south of 

 tlie tropic, through all Indo- China, Malaya, and 

 the great islands, horses are dwindled to very small 



