190 HOW NOT TO DO IT. 



423.— Look on the other hand at the more common sight, 

 the man who is trying to teach a team of horses to guide to his 

 voice and can never succeed. He cannot utter the same word 

 twice in the same key, nor without sundry additions that cannot 

 fail to confuse the horse. He first says " comather," then 

 ''come hither you brutes," then "come here you great thick 

 heads," then '' darn your stupid ears, if I don't make you come 

 here when I tell ya." Then the whip goes to work, and a lot 

 of jerking on the horses mouths. The horses toss up their 

 agitated heads as soon as they hear the threatening sounds, put 

 back both ears, and rush off in the contrary direction to that 

 in which they were wanted to turn, only anxious to get as far as 

 possible from the threatening voice. 



424.— There is another foolish, thoughtless practice, often 

 systematically adopted, which is almost equally certain to spoil 

 the horse for guiding to the voice. If you stand off at a little 

 distance from many ploughmen and horse drivers you would 

 think that they were constantly ordering their horses to stop and 

 to back ; but the horses do neither, and would be thrashed if they 

 did. "Jawhay," "ja back," are constantly uttered, with the 

 whays and backs loud enough to drown every other sound ; but 

 although the horse has been taught to stop for " whay," and to 

 walk backwards for " back," he is now forbidden by whip and 

 reins to do either, and is only expected to turn to the right. 

 When wanted to turn to the left the same whays and backs are 

 loudly sounded with the almost imperceptible difference that 

 instead of the corrupted gee, we have the corrupted haw, so that 

 instead of "ja back," we hear "ha back," and the poor horse 

 is expected to know that the one means turning to the right and 

 the other to the left. 



425. — So good and discriminating is the horse's ear, when 

 not frightened, that with a very quiet, good tempered man, he 

 will sometimes eventually learn to distinguish the difference 

 between whay, and ha way, and jay whay, though how he does 

 so will puzzle anyone who has ever listened to that monotanous 

 jargon. When the same words are uttered passionately and 

 accompanied with jerks and blows, the result is what we so often 



