THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 5] 



begin by pretending to bite or kick their tormentors ; 

 by-and-by they will do so in earnest, and at last the 

 habit will be permanently confirmed. Almost all 

 veterinary surgeons are agreed in considering it hope- 

 less to attempt the cure of these vices when once 

 established. Professor Stewart says, "I have seen 

 biters punished until they trembled in every joint 

 and were ready to drop, but have never in any case 

 known them to be cured by this treatment, or by any 

 other. The lash is forgotten in an hour, and the 

 horse is as ready and determined to repeat the offence 

 as before. He appears unable to resist the tempta- 

 tion, and in its worst form biting is a species of in- 

 sanity." But, according to Burckhardt, the traveller, 

 there is a method known to the Egyptian soldiery for 

 curing the propensity to bite, and practised by them 

 with unfailing success. They roast a leg of mutton, 

 take it hot from the fire, and present it to the offend- 

 ing animal. He plunges his teeth in it, they stick 

 fast in the hot meat, and the pain he endures makes 

 him careful for the future to bite at nothing but his 

 lawful food. Mr. Morier mentions a singular method 

 he saw practised in Persia to subdue the temper of a 

 very vicious horse that had resisted every other kind 

 of treatment. The horse was muzzled, and turned 

 loose in an enclosure, there to await the attack of two 



