HOOF PROTECTION IN THE EAST. 89 



In Eastern countries at the present clay, as has been 

 already briefly remarked, the greatest importance is 

 attached to the toughness and durability of the hoofs, 

 even where horses are shod with iron plates. Among the 

 Afghan tribes, for instance, not satisfied with the natural 

 qualities of the horn, even when best developed, the native 

 shoers adopt the following means for increasing its resist- 

 ing powers. After removing the old shoe, and cutting 

 away enough of the superfluous growth of horn, the lower 

 margin of the wall and the sole are pretty freely charred 

 by a red-hot iron, and while these parts are yet in a state 

 of partial fusion, the whole foot is dipped into a strong 

 solution of alum. 



In some of the islands of the Eastern Sea — Java, 

 Manilla, and Singapore — where shoeing is not practised, 

 and the small horses have no defence to their feet, the 

 stable floors are constructed exactly as Xenophon, Varro, 

 Columella, Palladius, or Vegetius recommends, with the 

 object of making the horn hard and keeping it dry. 



Travelling to the North Pacific Ocean, there is the 

 remarkable island-empire of Japan, so long isolated from 

 other countries that it is indeed wonderful to find its 

 inhabitants, so far as the arts and sciences are concerned, 

 a highly cultivated and ingenious people. From time 

 immemorial they have been skilful workers in metals ; 

 with the properties and many of the uses of iron they 

 have for ages been familiar ; and for centuries they have 

 employed horses on a large scale, not only in their traffic, 

 but in their feudal armies, of which a large proportion is 

 cavalry. And yet they are in exactly the same condition 

 as we suppose the Greeks and Romans were as regards 



