THE HORSE. 431 



leagues a day without being fatigued." The Germans collect 

 thistles, and having beaten them in a sack to destroy the 

 prickles, they give them to their horses, who eat this kind of 

 food greedily, and though it proves very diuretic it keeps them 

 in good condition. Mr. Fraser says, that in Persia, the horses 

 are fed and thrive on pounded date stones, and on dried fish, 

 a little salted. The horse drinks largely of water. The Flemish, 

 who manage horses better than any other European nation, 

 give no water to their horses without first mixing some corn- 

 meal with it till it resembles a white soup. From Homer we 

 learn that the Greeks gave astringent wines to their horses to 

 animate them. In our own country they are often refreshed 

 with beer and ale. 



The breeding of horses is necessarily slow, as the mare 

 produces generally but one foal at a birth, and but once a-year. 



Of the age to which the horse will live very narrow estimates 

 have been formed by those who have judged of the matter, by 

 the periods at which the several breeds are generally worn out. 

 A pony belonging to Mr. Tidmarsh of Kneesworth, Cambridge, 

 died in February 1840, aged forty-one years. Mr. Culley 

 mentions a horse which died in 1758, aged sixty- two years. 

 A towing-barge horse died at the same age at Manchester in 

 1822, and his remains are preserved in the zoological museum 

 in that town. 



The Tartars and the Indians of the Pampas eat the flesh of 

 horses j and the chronicles tell us that during a dreadful famine 

 in England, in the reign of Stephen, the people ate the flesh of 

 horses and dogs. The Scythians, for want of water, used to 

 draw blood from their horses and drink it. The Moscovites 

 and the Kalmucs drink mare's milk. In most civilized countries 

 the hide is made into leather, mostly used for collars and other 

 harness for horses, who thus rehearse, as it were, in the trammels 

 of life their future destiny. The hair of the mane and tail is 

 used for making judges' wigs, mattress stuffing, chair and sofa 

 bottoms, sieves, fishing lines, &c. 



From this general sketch of the horse we proceed to notice 



