396 CONSTANTINOPLE HORSES 



The Turkish cavalryman rides a gelding. The line of 

 demarcation in the common use of the stallion and the 

 gelding appears to be the Mediterranean and the ^Egean 

 Sea ; in other words, in Europe you find the gelding, in 

 Asia and Africa the stallion. The Hungarian gelding is 

 a larger, bonier horse than the Arabian, averaging, per- 

 haps, a scant fifteen two, generally dark in color, with 

 fairly good points, but far from the whip -cord legs of 

 the Arabian, and a poor tail and head. He is considered 

 serviceable. The Arabian cannot be said to be highly 

 regarded in Turkey, except as a pleasure horse. Carriage- 

 horses are frequently bought among the Russian trotting- 

 stock; they are black, and high steppers. The Turkish 

 cavalry looks well as a body, but many of the men ride 

 poorly. There are a great many Germans among the 

 officers, who are doing well for it, but the arm is of re- 

 cent erection. 



At another great ceremony, the visit of the Sultan to 

 the Treasury in the Old Seraglio on the fifteenth of 

 Ramazan, to pray on the mantle of Mohammed, which 

 is therein carefully preserved, and only taken out once 

 a year, I had a chance to gauge the general run of the 

 horses of Constantinople. The world and his wife (or 

 rather his wives) were present. Everything on four legs 

 turned out. The average struck me as very low. Among 

 some exceedingly good ones there were altogether too many 

 weedy, wretched little ponies under thirteen hands high. 

 The harems of the whole city were on hand, and the at- 

 tendants and eunuchs rode trashy stock of the meanest 

 description. The livery - stables were emptied to carry 

 the in- door female population out for an airing, and I 

 doubt if you could have found so many poor specimens of 

 the equine race in even a South American city, which is 

 saying a great deal. The every-day hack of Constant!- 



