426 INDIANS. 



plains, and wild life agrees with him. He is sufficiently 

 tractable to the rough-riding Indian ; but when brought 

 into civilised ownership he is either a morose, ill-tempered 

 brute, hard to manage, and always dangerous, or he 

 degenerates into a fat, lazy, short-breathed cob, fit only 

 for a baby or an octogenarian. The latter is especially 

 the case when he is stabled, shod, and fed on corn and 

 oats. Prosperity spoils him, as it does many animals of 

 higher order, and his true character, capacity, and value 

 are best displayed in adversity. The variation in quality 

 of powers is little compared with that of our horses ; so 

 little, indeed, that ' a pony ' is the standard of values. 



One may be a little faster or somewhat stronger than 

 another, but these advantages are likely to be counter- 

 balanced by some special vieiousness or other defect. 

 Age seems to be little considered, the animal being 

 ' a pony ' so long as he has sufficient vital energy to get 

 fat in the spring. The loss of an eye or a permanent 

 lameness is so serious a defect as to render him no longer 

 saleable as ' a pony.' When an Indian buys a number 

 of ponies from another, they are not selected, but 'cut off' 

 from the herd, as one would buy a lot of sheep from a 

 flock. Those ' cut off' are then examined singly, and, if 

 full grown and not defective, are taken. In all large 

 herds there are a few special favourites riding, war, or 

 trick ponies which are excepted in all general bargains. 

 Even when a man has stolen 'another's wife, these are not 

 taken among those he must pay for her. 



