THE WILD HOKSE. 27 



get up by the pressure of the bridle. At first, the 

 horse refuses to obey ; then he lays clown at full 

 length; but, presently, on the reiterated pressure of 

 the bridle, and the sting of the whip, he springs 

 neighing to his feet and places his head between his 

 two fore legs. Then he is entirely vanquished, and 

 after making him submit for two or three days to 

 these humiliations of slaver}-, he is set free among 

 the horses who submit themselves to the rein or 

 saddle. I could not help admiring the splendid 

 animals thus trained by the Pawnees, and whose 

 life is changed from freedom to a miserable slavery. 

 Instead of ranging the boundless pastures at their 

 will, wandering from prairie to prairie, and from 

 mountain to plain, browsing upon every kind of 

 flower and grass, and quenching their thirst at every 

 brook, they are condemned to a perpetual servitude, 

 to the humiliation of bridle and bit. 



Is there not a strange similaritj^ between this 

 transition and the lot of some of the human race ? 

 One day a monarch, the next a prisoner. So, one 

 day the noble horse is monarch of the prairies, and 

 the next, he is harnessed to a dung-cart. 



