BOOK VIII.] History of Nature. 77 



there set down, I see almost all agree. But for Horses 

 trained to the Circus, a different mode of Proceeding is to be 

 sought for. For whereas they may be broke into other Em- 

 ployments when they are two Years old, they must not be 

 brought to enter into that Contest before they are five Years 

 of Age. The Females in this kind go eleven Months with 

 Young, and in the twelfth they Foal. The Sexes are put 

 together at the Spring Equinox, when both of them are two 

 Years old ; but if they be kept until they are three Years of 

 Age, they produce stronger Colts. The Male is fertile to 

 three-and-thirty Years old ; so that when they are dismissed 

 from the Circus, after their twentieth Year, they are sent to 

 produce Offspring. And it is said that they will continue to 

 forty Years with a little Help put to the Forepart of the 

 Body, to lift him up. Few Beasts besides are less capable 

 of Fertility than the Male ; for which Cause they are allowed 

 some Space between, and in one Year the most that can be 

 allowed is fifteen. The Way to quench the Heat of a Mare is 

 to shear her Mane. Arid yet Mares can bear every Year until 

 they come to forty Years. It is reported that an Horse hath 

 lived three-score and fifteen Years. Mares only among all 

 Races produce their Foals standing on their Feet; and they 

 love them more than any other Creatures do their Young. 

 Foals truly have on their Forehead a black Thing of the 

 Bigness of a Fig, called Hippomanes, 1 which is a powerful 

 Charm to procure Love ; and this the Dam devours as soon 

 as the Colt is born ; and if it chance that any Person hath 

 managed to secure it before her, she will not permit the Foal 

 to suck her. Horses are driven into Madness by the Smell. 

 If a young Foal lose her Dam, the other Mares of the com- 



1 Lib. xxviii. 11. The Hippomanes was a sort of poison famous 

 among the ancients as an ingredient in amorous philters, or love-charms. 

 At the end of Bayle's Dictionary is a very learned dissertation on the 

 Hippomanes, and all its virtues, both real and imaginary. ^Elian (B. xiv. 

 c. 18) says that this caruncle was either affixed to the forehead, loins, or 

 KU.TOC. TOV otiSoiov. But the virtues ascribed to it were so singular, that, 

 credulous as this author commonly is, he is compelled to express some 

 doubts of their truth. Wern. Club. 



