A LOST HORSE. 61 



Lad purchased a country or Cutch horse, from a cavalry 

 officer, cheap, as I imagined ; but these animals, in contradis- 

 tinction to Arabs, are notoriously vicious and intractable. 

 We soon found the object of our search ; the dogs were well 

 laid on, and away we went with every prospect of a fine run. 

 I soon discovered I had no control whatever over my 

 great brute, and we were fast approaching a wide and rocky 

 nullah, which I did not imagine he either could or would 

 jump. There was nothing for it but to take my chance ; so, 

 attempting to guide him to the most practicable part of the 

 . ravine, I rammed him at it. 



A sudden stop, with a jerk sufficiently violent to shake a 

 statue from its pedestal, and then a plunge into the ravine, 

 were all that I could remember distinctly. When I came 

 to my senses, I found myself lying on a shelving edge of the 

 nullah, on the opposite side, bleeding profusely from, a wound 

 that had cut through the bridge of the nose, and almost 

 divided the cartilage. In fact, I must have been jerked 

 from my seat across the nullah, and descended upon my nose 

 on a sharp stone ; fortunately it was not my forehead. My 

 horse was nowhere visible, and after a fruitless search, I 

 returned to camp, where I imagined he had preceded me, 

 behind one of iny companions. This, however, was not the 

 case; and although I sent men in all directions to search 

 and make inquiries after him, I never saw or heard anything 

 of horse, saddle, bridle, or stirrup-irons again ! 



We were seated one day at tiffin in the mess-room, when 

 a travelling fakeer, or dervish, entered the " compound," 

 leading a chetah, or leopard, blinded and muzzled, as a 

 medium of procuring alms. One of our old hands, who had 

 witnessed many wild-beast fights and similar exhibitions in 

 Mysore, considered this a good opportunity for attempting 

 a very cruel experiment, which he had seen practised before ; 

 and, accordingly, the fakeer being communicated, with, and 



