240 XENOPHON's TREATISE 



is of ufe in giving a better hold to the pcrfon who is 

 to mount him. 



Befides, the Mane, Forelock, and Tail, are bellowed upon 

 the horfe as a grace and ornament. A proof of which 

 may be, that Brood Mares do not fo eafily admit the em- 

 braces of JJes, till the breeders of Mu!es have purpofely 

 fti ipt them of thefe beauties *. W.ifliing of the legs 



The title of the canon is, 



Ui reliquias riluum poganorim qui/que abjiciat. 

 Equos vejlres turpi confuctudine detriincatis, nares finditis, awes copulatis^ 

 Vitum etiam et fur das redditis, caudas amputatis, et quia illos ilUfos habere 

 potejlis, hoc nolenles, cunffis odibiles redditis. Equos eliam plerique in vcbis 

 comedmit, quod nullus Chriflia)!orum in Orientalibusfacit, quod eliam evitale. 

 Concilium Calchutenfe. Vid. Spelman's Councils cf England, where are 

 the decrees of the council of Calchut. vol. i. p. 293. See alfo Collier's 

 Ecclefiaftical Hiftory, vol. i. p. 137. 



" From the influence of a vile and unbecoming cuftom, you deform 

 and mutilate your horfes. You flit their noftrils, tie their ears together, 

 and, by fo doing, make them deaf: befides this, you cut off their tails; 

 and, when you may enjoy them uninjured and perfeft, you chufe rather 

 to maim and blem.ifh them, fo as to make them odious and difguftful 

 objefls to all who fee them. Numbers of you likewife are accuftomed 

 to eat your horfes ; a praftice of which no Chriftians in the Eaft were 

 ever "uilty. — This alfo you are hereby admoniflied to renounce en- 

 tirely." 



The French call an horfe whofe tail is cut, nn Cadogan, from the 

 name and title of lord Cadogan, who ferved under the duke of Marl- 

 borouo-h in the reign of queen Anne ; and is faid to have firfl introduced 

 this cuftom of docking the troop-horfes. 



It is thought by fome, that the cutting of the tail diminiflies the fwift- 

 nefs of the horfe ; it certainly does in grey-hounds and birds, efpecially 

 in turning. 



■*(■ This is a ftrange aflertion to come from the pen of fo grave and 

 exa£t a writer as Xenophon. The reader is left to form what opinion 



he 



