278 THE DUN OR TAN STOCK. 



In Khoten the horses are likewise small but 

 hardy, mostly geldings, reared by the Kalmuks; 

 they are from thirteen and a half to fourteen hands 

 high, and great droves are exported towards the 

 south, as far as the plains of India. 



The Bhooteahs are very beautiful rather shaggy 

 ponies, not unlike the Siberian, commonly grey, 

 white, or spotted ; their strength, courage, prudence, 

 and surety of footing, in the precipitous paths of the 

 highest mountains, are highly extolled. 



Of the Pickarrow ponies, apparently held in 

 esteem among the British residents in India, we 

 have found no description. 



The Ydboos, or ponies of Afghaunistan, are the 

 common travelling animals of the country, and 

 though mixed with every race of the East, are of 

 the original wild bay stock. 



Among them, as well as with the Hungarian 

 horses, it was formerly the custom to slit the nos- 

 trils, or rather, divide the septum, because that 

 practice was said to facilitate breathing in violent 

 galloping, and also to prevent the animals neigh- 

 ing : the custom is not credited in the writings of 

 several English authors, but although we have 

 never seen an instance, we have at this moment 

 before us a finished sketch of an Hungarian horse's 

 head by the celebrated Zoffani, where the operation 

 is fully displayed. "We here subjoin a reduced 

 copy ; see Plate XXXI. 



The common Bashkir horse is short, compact, 

 with a heavy head, broad- hipped, small-eyed, and 



