CARRIAGES. 51 



the Sun.' He describes how, sitting one morning at breakfast in 

 Havana, a black man rode by on a horse, whose tail was tied 

 to the back of a high demi-peaked saddle with Moorish stirrups. 

 For a time, as the writer humorously declares, nothing hap- 

 pened. Then, ' slowly there came bobbing along a very small 

 gig-body hung on very large C springs, and surmounted by an 

 enormous hood. Stretched between the apron and the top 

 of the hood, at an angle of forty-five degrees, was a kind of 

 awning or tent of some silk material.' A pair of wheels large 

 enough to run a proper coach, and a pair of long timber shafts 

 supported the body ; but the chief peculiarity of the volante 

 Mr. Sala does not mention, and that is the fact that the high 

 wheels are placed at the very end the butt end of the shafts, 

 which project some distance behind the hood and seat. If the 

 motion of these carriages is as smooth and easy as those who 

 have ridden in them protest, it is never certain that some such 

 vehicle may not acquire European popularity, though scarcely 

 in England, where eccentric foreign importations in the shape 

 of carriages are not approved. 



The Norwegian cariole has some relationship to the volante, 

 though there is no awning or hood ; the body rides on springs, 

 and the principal distinction is that the wheels are not (neces- 

 sary springs being employed) at the extremity of the shafts. 

 The springs, however, are a comparatively modern addition, 

 for carioles have been used for certainly more than two 

 centuries, and formerly they more closely resembled an open 

 volante. 



The Russian droschki is a curiosity for the reason that 

 the passenger sits astride a cushioned seat, and the horse is 

 harnessed with a bow-shaped contrivance, sometimes three or 

 four feet high, over his neck. The object of this is to keep 

 the shafts wide apart, support the reins, and do duty also to 

 some extent in the manner of a bearing-rein. 



The custom of harnessing a pair of horses, one between 

 the shafts and the other outside, is common in the Neapolitan 



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