72 SEATS AND SADDLES. 



of the latter, when it becomes necessary to stand or 

 rise in the former, we must reserve for a little. 



There is a notion prevalent that a military seat is a 

 fork-seat ; this is simply a popular error that requires 

 refutation. On the other hand, some people will persist 

 in sitting on that part of their back which is still, 

 perhaps, called back, instead of on that portion of it 

 which is honoured with a supplemental designation. 

 What is a man to sit on ? Well, he has two bones 

 in his seat, which we venture, in imitation of German 

 phraseology, to call his " sitting bones," and a third in 

 rear that on which umquhile Lord Monboddo built 

 his celebrated theory, since improved on by Darwin, 

 of the human race having been originally developed 

 from monkeys ; this third bone completes, with the 

 other two, a triangular basis for the human seat on 

 horseback, and, be it said, a much more efficient one 

 than for the theory in question.* If the angle of the 

 hip-bone comes to be perpendicular over the sitting- 

 bone at the same side, the rider's weight will rest on 

 this triangular basis, which being the largest available 

 for the purpose, affords the greatest degree of stability 

 to the seat. If, however, the perpendicular from the 

 hip-bone falls to the rear of the sitting-bone, the leg 

 and thigh are immediately thrown forward to the 

 horse's shoulder, the rider's back is converted into the 

 segment of a circle, and his weight sways about un- 

 steadily on the Monboddo corner of the triangle. 

 Finally, if the aforesaid perpendicular fall in front of 

 the sitting-bone, the fork seat is achieved, the thighs 



* It has escaped the observations of the Darwinians that mon- 

 keys on horseback never sit on their tails, which of course upsets 

 their whole theory. 



