FINE EQUIPMENTS 435 



or gold-thread woven cloth, is as expensive as it is beauti- 

 ful, and the horse's rig may have cost many thousand 

 rupees. AVhen they are poor, it is no less showy, but runs 

 fast into the tawdriness which besets all shams and imita- 

 tions. 



In the Benares region I saw a number of goodish horses 

 very neatly equipped. I took them to be native, with an 

 impress of Arabian blood — the latter is always unmistak- 

 able — and to belong to Hindoos from the north-west prov- 

 inces, who had come down to bathe in the sacred Ganges 

 on the ghats of tlie Holy City. These horses had a fancy 

 red or yellow bridle, with a double -ring chain bit, and a 

 standing martingale of wide red cotton cloth inserted into 

 a loose sort of rope with flowing ends. The saddle was 

 stitched in white and red and yellow patterns, with a wide 

 padded saddle-cloth of soft woollen goods; and while the 

 tree proper may have been of w^ood, the pommel and 

 cantle and seat were made of heavily-padded and quilted 

 woollen goods, cleverly fashioned into the guise of a saddle. 

 It looked quite soft and easy. Leathers and stirrups were 

 of common pattern, but five or six thick party-colored 

 ropes passed loosely back over the horse's rump, and were 

 gathered at the tail as a sort of ornamental breeching, 

 while his mane hung in many braids, which were length- 

 ened to three or four feet by jute -cord worked in with 

 the hair, and were then looped up to the saddle-bow. 

 Altogether, the steed was admirably caparisoned in his 

 own barbaric fashion, but the general effect was spoiled 

 by the hideous bedquilt in which his master ensconced 

 himself. The rider was scarcely the peer of the horse. 

 When the hotter weather compels him to shed his outer 

 integument he must be more picturesque. But nothing 

 can equal the grace of the Algerian burnoose. 



Among the military one sees an occasional upstanding 



