LIMITATIONS AND TRICKS 87 



off his back. Failing in that, he returned 

 higher up the bank, and this time I was 

 scraped off into a pool of dust. Out of that 

 brown explosion of dust, I looked up in time to 

 see his malicious pleasure in a successful joke. 



And so one might set forth instances by the 

 score, all to the same monotonous effect, that 

 humans and horses have a sense of humour. 



Please imagine a man to have his hands and 

 feet replaced by boxes of horn such as the hoofs 

 of a horse, and that, so disabled, he is tied by 

 the head in a cell. Reduced to the conditions 

 of horse-life in a stable, the man would be as 

 clever as a horse in the use of lips and teeth. 

 He would slip his headstall or break his head- 

 rope, open the door and escape until such time 

 as the need for food and water drove him back 

 to prison. When asked to go to work, he 

 might give a clever impersonation of a lame 

 horse. He might also copy the trick of the 

 beggar horse who gives the love call to every 

 man who enters the stable, fooling each of 

 them with the flattery of special homage, a sure 

 way to gifts of sugar, apples or carrots. Or 

 he might copy the horse who whiles away dull 

 times by keeping a pet cat, or bird, or puppy. 

 It seems odd, too, that the most dangerous 

 human outlaws and man-slaying horses are 



