THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 77 



to the Andes, adopted the Guacho style of riding, 

 galloping from sunrise to sunset without stopping 

 except to change horses, sleeping at night on the 

 bare ground with his saddle for a pillow, and living 

 on beef and water. So violent was the exertion, 

 that at first the blood used to gush from his nose 

 as he sank down at evening utterly exhausted ; 

 but practice hardened him by degrees, and at length 

 such was the effect of this rude training and simple 

 diet, that he felt, to use his own words, " as if 

 nothing would kill him." 



Every one has heard of the celebrated, highway- 

 man Turpin, his black mare, and the incredibly 

 short space of time in which she is said to have carried 

 him from London to York, animated by the juice of 

 a beef-steak, which the bold robber had tied round 

 the bit. The efficacy of this expedient appears to be 

 established. We ourselves are aware of its having been 

 practised by a noted hardriding butcher of Dover, 

 and it is deserving of remark, that his horse was of an 

 exceedingly violent and ungovernable temper, pos- 

 sibly from the effects of this frequent beef-chewing. 

 An inhabitant of Hamah in Syria, assured Burckhardt 

 that he had often given his horses roasted meat before 

 the commencement of a fatiguing journey, that they 

 might be the better able to endure it ; and the same 

 G 2 



