HEAD IN GENERAL. 97 



most clearly. When this faculty of expression is carried to a high 

 degree, he is said to have figure and expression. 



The parts which are most particularly charged with the manifesta- 

 tions of the different internal states of the animal are : the eyes and the 

 eyelids, the ears, the nostrils, the lips, and the mouth. These organs, 

 through the different attitudes which they take, depict, by turns, gentle- 

 ness, vivacity, anger, sadness, depression, joy, pain, fear, frankness, 

 courage, ferocity, aggression, savageness, indifference, stupidity, ennui, 

 etc. Ordinarily, the faculty of expression of the head is in direct 

 relation with the purity of the race, the quality of the animals, their 

 energy, and their intelligence. But it is a gross error to believe that it 

 is possible to appreciate the qualities of a horse from an examination 

 of his physiognomy alone. The latter, like that of man, can deceive, 

 perhaps still more, for it has not the same mobility and shades ; its 

 language is less familiar to us ; its most powerful auxiliary (gesture) and 

 its best interpreter (speech) is wanting. Besides, if the features of the 

 face are quite well understood, through education and habitual inter- 

 course, as regards horses of the same species, they become much less 

 comprehensible when it is a question of different species having between 

 them only limited relations. 



Man reads upon the face of his fellow-man sentiments which he 

 feels ; long observation and habit are indispensable to him, on the con- 

 trary, in order to understand the expressive manifestations of the horse. 



Besides, we should not be deceived about their value ; for in some 

 select subjects in which the head clearly reveals the greater part of 

 the internal passions, the mass of the body will often deprive it of 

 expression. 



The ability of the buyer will consist, then, in the prudence with 

 which he guards himself against the premature inferences that can be 

 drawn from their absence. 



It must not be forgotten that he who exhibits the animal for sale 

 is greatly interested in showing qualities which the horse' has not, or has 

 only in a feeble degree, and can by a kind of special preparation the 

 fear of blows, the blows received, the introduction of a piece of ginger 

 into the anus, etc. give him an appearance of vivacity or energy 

 which, unfortunately, will be only temporary. 



