THE NEW POCKET FARRIER. 17 



but in their seventh year, without regard to the situation 

 the teeth take as they grow old. 



When horses are young, theij* teeth meet perpendicu- 

 larly, but grow longer, and push forward with age; 

 besides, the mouth of a young horse is very fleshy within 

 in the palate, and his lips are firm and hard : on the 

 contrary, the inside of an old horse's mouth is lean both 

 above and below, and seems to have only the skin upon 

 the bones. The lips are soft and easy to turn up with 

 the hand. 



All horses are marked in the same manner, but some 

 naturally, and others artificially. The natural mark is 

 called Begue, and some ignorant persons imagine such 

 horses are marked all their lives, because for many years 

 they find a little hole, or a kind of void in the middle of 

 the separators and corner teeth ; but when the tusks are 

 grown round, as well within as without, and the teeth 

 point forward, there is room to conjecture in proportion 

 as they advance from year to year, what the horse's age 

 may be, without regarding the cavity above mentioned. 



The artificial manner is made use of by dealers and 

 jockies, who mark their horses, after the age of them is 

 known, to make them appear only six or seven years 

 old. They do it in this manner : They throw down the 

 horse to have him more at command, and, with a steel 

 graver, like what is used for ivory, hollow the middle 

 teeth a little, and the corner ones somewhat more; then 

 fill the holes with a little rosin, pitch, sulphur, or some 

 grains of wheat, which they burn in with a bit of hot 

 wire, made in proportion to the hole. This operation 

 they repeat from time to time, till they give the hole a 

 lasting black, in imitation of nature ; but in spite of all 

 they can do, the hot iron makes a little yellowish circle 

 round these holes, like what it would leave upon ivory ; 

 they have therefore another trick to prevent detection, 

 2* 



