48 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



seen biters punished until they trembled in every joint 

 and were ready to drop, but have never in any case 

 known them to be cured by this treatment, or by any 

 other. The lash is forgotten in an hour, and the horse 

 is as ready and determined to repeat the offence as 

 before. He appears unable to resist the temptation, 

 and in its worst form biting is a species of insanity." 

 But, according to Burckhardt, the traveller, there is a 

 method known to the Egyptian soldiery for curing the 

 propensity to bite, and practised by them with unfail- 

 ing success. They roast a leg of mutton, take it hot 

 from the fire, and present it to the offending animal. 

 He plunges his teeth in it, they stick fast in the hot 

 meat, and the pain he endures makes him careful for 

 the future to bite at nothing but his lawful food. Mr. 

 Morier mentions a singular method he saw practised 

 in Persia, to subdue the temper of a very vicious horse 

 that had resisted every other kind of treatment. The 

 horse was muzzled, and turned loose in an enclosure, 

 there to await the attack of two horses whose mouths 

 and limbs were at liberty, and which were turned in 

 to attack him. So effectually did this discipline ope- 

 rate that he became completely altered, and as remark- 

 able for docility as he had previously been for savage 

 obstinacy. 



It is related, we know not on what authority, that 

 a novel kind of jockeyship was once tried with tri- 

 umphant success in one of those cases we are here 



