18 THE HORSE. 



the knee, which is indeetl general to all the native horses throughout India ; 

 and also so great a tendency to fvilness in the hocks, that, in England, it 

 would be thought half of them had blood spavins." 



THE CHINESE HORSE. 



This breed is small, weak, ill-formed, without spirit, and altogether unde- 

 serving of notice. 



THE PERSIAN HORSE. 



Returning westward we find the Persian next in estimation, and deser- 

 vedly so, to the Arabian. The head is almost equally beautiful, the crupper 

 superior ; he is equal in speed, but far inferior in endurance. The whole 

 frame is more developed than in the Arabian. 



The Persian horses were celebrated for many a century before the 

 Arabians were known, or even existed. They constituted, in ancient times, 

 the best cavalry of the East. The native Persian was so highly prized, 

 that Alexander considered one of them the noblest gift he could bestow; 

 and when the kings of Parthia would propitiate their divinities by the 

 most costly sacrifice, a Persian horse was offered on the altar. An en- 

 tertaining traveller (Sir R. Ker Porter) bears testimony that they have 

 not now degenerated. He gives the following account of this breed. 



" The Persian horses never exceed fourteen or fourteen and a half hands 

 high, yet certainly, in the whole, are taller than the Arabs. Those of the 

 desert and country about Hillah run very small, but are full of bone and 

 of good speed. General custom feeds and waters them only at sun-rise 

 and sun-set, when they are cleaned. Their usual provender is barley and 

 chopped straw, which, if the animals are piqueted, is put into a nose-bag 

 and hung from their heads ; but if stabled, it is thrown into a small 

 lozenge- shaped hole left in the thickness of the mud-wall for that purpose, 

 but much higher up than the line of our mangers, and there the animal eats 

 at his leisure. Hay is a kind of food not known here. The bedding of 

 the horse consists of his dung. After being exposed to the drying in- 

 fluence of the sun during the day, it becomes pulverized, and, in that state, 

 is nightly spread under him *. Little of it touches his body, that being 

 covered by his clothing, a large nummvd from the ears to the tail, and 

 bound firmly round his body by a very long surcingle. But this apparel is 

 only for cold weather ; in the warmer season the night-clothes are of a 

 lighter substance, and during the heat of the day, the animal is kept entirely 

 under shade. 



" At night he is tied in the court yard. The horses' heads are attached to 

 the place of security by double ropes from their halters, and the heels of 

 their hinder legs are confined by cords of twisted hair, fastened to iron 

 rings, and pegs driven into the earth. The same custom prevailed in the 

 time of Xenophon, and for the same reason, to secure them from being 

 able to attack and maim each other, the whole stud generally consisting of 

 staUions. Their keepers, however, always sleep on their rugs amongst 



'f It is the usual flooring of the stable and the tent. The united influence of the sun 

 and air deprive it of all unpleasant odour, and when from use it becomes a second time 

 offensive, it is again exposed to the sun, and all unpleasant smell once more taken away. 



