8 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



and mules of that country are not shod.' The wandering 

 Mongols who roam between the Great Wall of China, 

 the desert of Gobi, and the Russian frontier, with their 

 flocks of sheep and droves of horses and cattle, do not 

 employ shoes for their hardy but uncouth solipedes, ac- 

 cording to the account of my friend and fellow-traveller, 

 Mr Michie. Whenever a pony selected from a drove has 

 become footsore from being ridden too long a time, the 

 rider dismounts, a fresh steed is caught from the crowd, 

 and the hoof-worn one is set at large again, to recover as 

 it best may the loss it has sustained. So that a traveller 

 often requires to change his invaluable steed when crossing 

 these inhospitable wilds. But in this there does not appear 

 to be any difficulty, as an exchange can be readily effected 

 by paying a slight difference to the nomadic owner of a 

 drove, who knows that by allowing the lame creatures to 

 pasture quietly for a few weeks, they will soon have re- 

 placed the lost horn, and be as serviceable as ever. 



It would appear, however, that horses are sometimes 

 shod here, but they may only be Russian ones. Tim- 

 kowski in travelling through this country, and when at a 

 halting-place, writes : 'While the smith was shoeing onr 

 horses, a lama, who kept walking about, and seemed very 

 attentive to what he was doing, suddenly mounted his 

 horse and galloped away. It was afterwards discovered 

 that this priest had stolen one of the smith's tools.' ^ 



Marco Polo, in the 13th century, travelling in Badak- 

 shan, says : ' The country is extremely cold, but it breeds 



' Mansfield Parkyns. Life in Abyssinia, vol. ii. See also Baker, 

 Nile Tributaries in Abyssinia. Proc. Roy. Geo. Soc., 1866. 

 ' Travels through Mongolia to China, vol. i. p. 188. 



