HORSES AS NIGHT GUARDS. 241 



Every animal should be properly secured, so that he 

 cannot break away if he would : oxen should be secured to 

 their trek-chain during the night, and horses to their wag- 

 gons or to their piquets; in short nothing should be 

 omitted to prevent them from breaking away, always 

 remembering that a horse is a horse, and an ox an 

 ox; and that they are all most liable to panics and 

 to freaks, which it requires all the owner's experience 

 and caution to properly guard against. 



We may here just remark that horses make most 

 efficient guards at night, and are most useful in indicating 

 the approach of any suspicious objects from outside 

 the camp. The sense of hearing, and also of scent, 

 in these animals, is very keen ; and we can have no 

 doubt that in such respects their faculties become, like 

 those of their masters, greatly sharpened, after an 

 experience of camp life continued for some time. When 

 alarmed by anything, they indicate their fears by a 

 loud snoring noise, and gazing intently in the direction 

 from whence the supposed danger proceeds. The cir- 

 cumstance is, we may say, almost universal amongst 

 Indian ponies, and the horses of travellers generally. 

 If for instance anything takes one of the party outside 

 the camp for a time, during the night, his return is 

 sure to be indicated in this way by the horses. The 

 man at once speaks to them : they recognise his voice, 

 and silence again reigns amongst them ; we have 

 noticed this circumstance, as one of the ordinary incidents 

 of camp life which is constantly observable. Similar 

 warnings are also given by cattle, and indeed all other 

 animals, except perhaps camels, each mutely speaking 

 in its own way, of which a short experience of camp life 

 enables the traveller to at once interpret the signi- 



VOL. III. 1 6 



