LXXIII 



The Celestial is less of a horseman than even the Hin- 

 doo. There are scarce a dozen public horses in Hong- 

 Kong ; in Canton there is not one kept for public use, for 

 there are no streets wide enough for him to travel on. 

 In Shanghai there are a few cabs to supplement the 'rick- 

 shas and the queer passenger-wheelbarrow on which the 

 Chinese take their outings or pay their social duties ; but 

 the only riders one sees in any part of China are military 

 men, or residents, who ride d I "'xlnglaise. 



Riders may be said to be habitual or accidental. So 

 soon as you leave Arabia to the west of you, the latter 

 condition obtains. In the far East no one who must not 

 ever thinks of riding, unless he be a European stranded 

 away from home by official duty or by commerce. One 

 cannot wonder that, with this lack of appreciation of his 

 good qualities, the Chinese pony has become a wretched 

 specimen. On the whole, I do not know anywhere, but 

 in Japan, a horse which shows so poorly. He is coarse 

 in every sense. Even when clipped he still looks coarse. 

 A large percentage are white or of light color, and they 

 all resemble each other like eggs in a basket. This pony 

 averages little over fourteen hands, if that. His head is 

 large and meaty, though exhibiting in the face no signs of 

 vice. His neck is put on so that he cannot by any possi- 

 bility carry a good head ; and as at all gaits and in all 

 positions it sticks out in linear prolongation of his back- 

 Ijone, so he has no throttle, and his head is affixed to his 



