482 THE HORSE. 



other gentlemen of his profession, he did not feel himself 

 quite at home, as we say, in the saddle, that is, he rode very 

 ill. The native who supplied the ship with vegetables, jealous 

 of the honour of his European friends, excused the matter to 

 his countrymen hy giving it out privately that the English 

 gentleman was drunk, conceiving it to he less dishonourable 

 to his new friends to be drunk at noon than to be unable to 

 ride. To the north and east of Persia are countries where 

 the same form of the Horse presents itself, but large and 

 powerful, and suited for the exertion of physical strength. 

 These countries, usually termed Independent Tartary, abound 

 in the grasses, and give birth to horses, not very handsome, but 

 possessed of good action, and great powers of endurance. The 

 horses of some of the Turcoman tribes are sixteen hands high. 



Eastward of the modern limits of Persia is the wild, beau- 

 tiful, but now long-desolated country of the Afghans, inha- 

 bited by races of men of mixed lineage, of old under the 

 stern dominion of the Persian kings, but now almost savage 

 from the absence of law, and perpetual feuds. The Horses of 

 this country are partly similar to those of Persia, and partly 

 a race of stout agile ponies, suited to the mountainous coun- 

 try and barbarous condition of its inhabitants. Many of them 

 are beautifully spotted, and sought after in the countries of the 

 East for their rarity and beauty. In contact with Caubul on 

 the south, and of the same physical characters, is the ancient 

 Gedrosia, now Beloochistan, inhabited in like manner by law- 

 less herdsmen and robbers, in possession of numerous horses. 



Eastward we enter the noble region of the Seven Rivers 

 or Punjaub, the lower valley of Sinde, and the wide coun- 

 tries of India, so called. Over a country so vast and diver- 

 sified, numerous breeds of Horses necessarily exist, whose 

 characters have been formed by the nature of the localities 

 in which they have been naturalized, and by the introduction 

 of foreign races, either by the various conquerors of the 

 country, or by the means of commerce and otherwise. In 

 general, it may be said that India is not a country very fa- 



