72 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



no window, a bullock's hide for a door, and but little 

 roof." 



Sir Francis, who had occasion to make frequent 

 journeys across the Pampas between Buenos Ayres 

 to the Andes, adopted the Guacho style of riding, 

 galloping from sunrise to sunset without stopping 

 except to change horses, sleeping at night on the 

 bare ground with his saddle for a pillow, and living 

 on beef and water. So violent was the exertion, that 

 at first the blood used to gush from his nose as he 

 sank down at evening utterly exhausted ; but practice 

 hardened him by degrees, and at length, such was 

 the effect of his -rude training and simple diet, that he 

 felt, to use his own words, "as if nothing would kill 

 him." 



Every one has heard of the celebrated highwayman 

 Turpin, his black mare, and the incredibly short space 

 of time in which she is said to have carried him from 

 London to York, animated by the juice of a beef- 

 steak, which the bold robber had tied round the bit. 

 The efficacy of this expedient appears to be esta- 

 blished. We ourselves are aware of its having been 

 practised by a noted hardriding butcher of Dover, 

 and it is deserving of remark, that his horse was of an 

 exceedingly violent and ungovernable temper, pos- 

 sibly from the effects of this frequent beef-chewing. 

 An inhabitant of Hamah in Syria, assured Burckhardt 

 that he had often given his horses roasted meat before 



