278 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER 



had previously been very friendly towards the experi- 

 menter, could not afterwards be brought to notice 

 him otherwise than with aversion.' l 



An instance of vindictive memory may follow 

 here, showing how the horse remembers those who 

 ill-treat him. 



' I will relate a little circumstance which took 

 place in Mexico a few years before I left there. One 

 of my friends had a horse extremely gentle, and of 

 such an easy agreeable gait, that he took the greatest 

 care of him, and held him at a great price. A well- 

 fed, big and lusty friar was a friend to our neigh- 

 bour : one who liked the good things of this world, 

 as well as he liked to ride out to the small towns 

 bordering upon the city of Mexico, and take a dinner 

 with the bonny lasses and countrymen inhabiting 

 those villages. He used to ask my friend to loan 

 him his horse to take these excursions just around 

 the capital ; and, as his requests were granted with 

 so good a grace, he, in a short time, went so far as to 

 ask the loan of this favourite animal to go to Cuerna- 

 vaca, a distance of eighteen leagues. As this 

 happened pretty often, our friend complained to me 

 one day of the indiscretion of the friar. I asked him 

 if he could procure me a friar's dress for a few days, 

 and leave his horse with me for the same time. He 

 did so. I dressed myself in the friar's dress and 



1 Youatt The Horse 



