84 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



back, and other dogs set upon him without effect, 

 when he was stabbed to death with a sword. 



A parallel for this barbarity is recorded in Colonel 

 Davidson's " Travels in Upper India." He saw at 

 Lucknow in the king's stable, a beautiful bay English 

 blood horse, which had been presented by George IV. 

 to a former king of Oude. The animal was blinded 

 with cloths, and fastened on each side of his head- 

 stall with strong chains, his vicious temper rendering 

 these precautions necessary. While thus secured he 

 was not only a windsucker, but a weaver ; and his 

 whole body incessantly moved from one side to 

 another without rest by night or day. On the 

 colonel's calling out in groom's fashion, " Come up !" 

 the weaving instantly ceased, the horse trembled 

 violently, and then suddenly lashed out with his hind 

 legs, as if he wished to kick the speaker to atoms. 

 Attempts had been made to educate him in the native 

 style, and this was the cause that had rendered him so 

 intolerably vicious ; nor is this to be wondered at, for 

 few horses possess tempers sufficiently good to endure 

 the severe treatment of the native riding schools. On 

 the accession of the late king of Oude, this poor creature 

 was turned loose into a court-yard with a hungry royal 

 Bengal tiger. The battle was of considerable dura- 

 tion ; but the event proved the power and spirit of the 



