HOUSES. 259 



Horses have not the least objection to animal food ; 

 and it has been often given to them when they have 

 been obliged to perform immense journeys or to undergo 

 any very great exertion. It, however, excites them 

 very much, and if not judiciously bestowed, makes 

 them fierce and uncontrollable. Stories are told of 

 poor men who, when the despots of the East have 

 ordered them to give up their favourite horses, have fed 

 them on flesh, and rendered them so unmanageable that 

 the tyrants have no longer desired what they once 

 thought a prize. Horses will also drink strong ale, etc., 

 with the greatest relish ; and oat gruel mixed with it 

 has often proved an excellent restorative for them after 

 an unusual strain upon their powers. They will not 

 refuse even spirits or wine, administered in the same 

 manner ; but it is very questionable if these are equally 

 efficacious. There is no telling, however, what strange 

 inconsistencies domestication will produce in the matter 

 of food ; for cats have been known to refuse everything 

 for boiled greens, when they were to be had. 



The following account is abridged from Mr. Kohl's 

 description of those Asiatic horses which are bred in 

 the steppes, and are private property, although he calls 

 them quite wild : ' Only in the heart of Tartary can the 

 horse be found perfectly in a wild state. One herd in 

 the steppe will consist of 1000 horses, but the keepers 

 of herds will have several. Dressed in leather, with a 

 girdle which contains the implements of his veterinary 

 art, a black lambskin cap on his head, the tabuntshik 

 or herdsman eats, drinks, and sleeps in his saddle, has 

 no shelter, and dare not even turn his back upon a storm, 

 as the creatures do for whom he is responsible. In his 

 hand he holds a whip with a thick short handle and a 



