CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 10. SOLIDUNGUL A. 587 



master, will fawn upon his master, and will watch and defend his master's property, with a fidelity 

 perhaps unequaled by the human race. The horse does not fight of himself, for his nature is the 

 very opposite of pugnacious ; the horse does not fawn, for the spirit of the horse is noble ; but 

 the horse, if the expression may be used, stands to his rider more in the relation of a companion 

 and equal than any other animal stands to man. There is, also, in the gratified look, the erected 

 ears, the arching neck, and the subdued and murmuring neigh of the horse at the sight of that 

 rider with whom he has been long associated, something more touching, or if you will, more 

 poetical, than in the fawning of all the dogs in the world. 



"Then there is no dano;er which the horse will not brave alone; with his rider, and on those 

 occasions man very often borrows courage from the spirit of the animal. In the darkness of night, 

 when the traveler knows not his way, and would be incapable of reaching his home, his faithful 

 horse will carry him in safety through the most difficult places, and be the path ever so intricate, 

 and the obstacles ever so many, if the rein is entirely given up to the horse, not a foot of his will 

 slip or be misplaced on the most difficult ground, and not one of the obstacles will he come in 

 contact with. This is a curious point in physiology, but it is as true as it is worthy of admira- 

 tion. The firm and entire hoof of the horse, even when shod with iron, seems to acquire in the 

 dark a sense of touch equal to the most delicate finger, and though Ave cannot account for it, every 

 hair upon the skin of the auimal appears to be instinct with all the senses necessary for guiding 

 him along with the same certainty as though it were clear daylight all about him. If the horse 

 and the rider have been long acquainted with each other, and have frequently made nocturnal 

 journeys, it is of no consequence, if the journey is a homeward one, whether the rider pays the 

 slightest attention to the matter or not, for there have been many instances in which an old and 

 trusty horse has carried his rider asleep for a distance of more than twenty miles. There have 

 been also instances of favorite ponies carrying blind musicians from house to house for the pur- 

 pose of giving lessons; and indeed it would be impossible to enumerate half the instances which 

 are well authenticated of quiet and slow-going horses finding and keeping the way without any 

 assistance from their riders, and the same applies to horses habitually used in draught." 



From these and other similar considerations, it is easy to comprehend the place which the horse 

 has occupied in history as well as poetry. In reading the history of Alexander, we not only ap- 

 preciate but applaud the honors bestowed by him on Bucephalus, without whose aid, or the aid 

 of some similar beast, he had never figured as the conqueror of the world.* In thus noticing the 



* In the history of " The Spanish Conquest of Mexico, &c," by Arthur Helps, recently published, we bare the fol- 

 lowing passage: 



" The battle, if battle it may be called, in which perhaps hardly any weapons were crossed except by accident, 

 lasted little more than half an hour, for the sun had already set when the action had commenced. It was rightly 

 <aid that the shades of night would prove the best defense for the Indians. The Spaniards remarked that the horses 

 which the evening before had scarcely been able to move on account of the cold which they had suffered in their 

 journey over the mountains, galloped about on this day as if they had nothing the matter with them. 



"All that the fiercest beasts of the forest have done is absolutely inappreciable when compared with the evils of 

 which that good-natured animal, the hors«, has been the efficient instrument since he was first tamed to the use of 

 nan. Atahuallpa afterward mentioned that he had been told how the horses were unsaddled at night, which was 

 mother reason for his entertaining less fear of the Spaniards, and listening more to the mistaken notions of Mayza- 

 jilica, who had counseled an engagement. 



" Saddled or not saddled, however, in the wars between the Spaniards and the Indians the horse did not play a 



subordinate part; the horse made the essential difference between the armies, and if in the great square of Madrid 



here had been raised some huge emblem in stone to commemorate the conquest of the New World, an equine, not 



■ in equestrian figure would appropriately have crowned the work. The arms and the armor might have remained 



he same on both sides. The ineffectual clubs and darts and lances might still have been arrayed against the sharp 



iiscayan sword and deadly arquebus; the cotton doublet of Caseo against the steel corslet of Milan ; but without 



he horse, the victory would ultimately have been on the side of overpowering numbers. The Spaniards might have 



ewn into the Peruvian squadrons, making clear lanes of prostrate bodies. Those squadrons would have closed to- 



ether again, and by mere weight would have compressed to death the little band of heroic Spaniards. In truth, 



,ad the horse been created in America, the conquest of the New World would not improbably have been reserved 



>r that peculiar epoch of development in the European mind when r as at present, mechanical power has in some de- 



ree superseded the horse, that power being naturally measured by the units of the animal force which it represents 



nd displaces." 



With the general idea contained in this passage, that the horse has been a great instrument of mischief to man- 

 find, we can by no means agree. That his power, as well in war as other things, has been abused, is a matter of 

 aurse ; that it was even abused in this war upon Mexico we may admit ; yet we cannot but feel that, all things con- 



