The Hooshiari Pissoo. 41 



Fusiliers. He was a grey Arab of the purest Nejd 

 breed, and was as good as, if not better, than Gazelle. 

 If there be a doubt, ask my friend Jack Irving, the well- 

 known jockey. At that time Minuet was fourteen or 

 fifteen years old. Captain Papillon did not believe in 

 the stories of the laudatores teniporis acti, and knew not 

 how greatly superior, as a rule, Arab ponies are to 

 country-bred ones ; the result being that his pony was 

 beaten in a common canter. 



The Hooshiari Pissoo {Anglicc, Clever Flea) com- 

 menced his career as a baggage pony in the Cashmere 

 hills. He was bought by Captain Papillon and turned 

 out a very successful chasing Galloway ; for, although he 

 was incapable of doing a mile under three minutes, he 

 was an extraordinary fencer, and fortifications were the 

 order of the day, at that time, " between the flags." It 

 was a standing joke of the Highlanders to profess 

 ignorance of the position the Pissoo ought to occupy 

 among the eguidcs, for his ears were long, and his general 

 appearance asinine. They generally entered him as 

 ■" Captain Papillon's brown mule or pony." 



Captain Maxwell tells me the native jockey Ouajjoo 

 appeared one day, during the rains at Jullundur, with 

 several horses which he was bringing up country, and 



