TIGER SLAYER BY ORDER 



In the end, the only individual who suffered from the 

 misadventure and deservedly so was the author of it, 

 to wit, the syce ; for his master, seeing his wife and her 

 friend being whirled away to what seemed certain destruc- 

 tion, and helpless to assist them, vented his feelings on him, 

 and in a manner best calculated to impress upon him 

 mentally and physically the folly of meddling with the 

 harness when there are people in the trap. 



Driving accidents are probably more frequent in India 

 than at home partly because of the proverbial careless- 

 ness of syces as in the case above ; but mainly due to the 

 fact that horses and ponies are often used in harness before 

 they have been thoroughly broken in, and especially is 

 this so in the case of animals owned by officials and others 

 quartered or residing in the country, or Mofussil. Take, 

 for instance, horses or ponies belonging to a young civilian, 

 subaltern, or policeman. These have probably been 

 purchased at some livery stable in Bombay, Madras, or 

 Calcutta, as the case may be, and warranted broken to 

 saddle, which may often mean that they have had a saddle 

 on, and perhaps been ridden once or twice by a native riding 

 boy belonging to the stable, but, unless particularly re- 

 quested, certainly not broken into harness. A month or 

 two after the purchase, and when the owner has himself 

 completed the animal's education as a riding horse, at the 

 expense, possibly, of a fall or two, he will probably decide 

 to put it into harness, and under the guidance of, or aided 

 by his own, or some one else's syce, supposed to be an expert 

 in the business, they proceed to carry out the process to 

 the best of their combined abilities. 



The implements used, though somewhat primitive, are 

 effective enough, up to a certain point. They consist 

 firstly of a huge slab of wood, about five feet long by two 

 broad, and some eight inches thick, to the front end of 

 which is fixed an upright pole, and on each side an iron 

 ring a pair of long traces improvised out of rope, and 

 reins of the same useful material, complete the para- 

 phernalia. 



The horse, or pony, which for two or three days pre- 

 viously has been led about morning and evening with the 

 harness on to get accustomed to its weight and feel, is now 

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