AMATEURS AND HUNTSMEN 95 



the new vernacular terms a " fox-catching horse" of him. 

 What he may arrive at in the course of a few generations 

 I dare not hazard an opinion, prejudiced as I am, from 

 Indian experience, in favour of his extraordinary pluck 

 .md endurance. But, were I making the experiment in 

 the first generation, 1 should begin (if I may volunteer the 

 remark) by treating him as I would a native-born farmer's 

 colt, viz. by docking his tail hunter-fashion. Until to-day 

 1 should have done it merely as a first step towards " con- 

 dition," or at any rate as a move towards befitting appear- 

 ance, just as I should hint to my younger brother that he 

 ought to smoke a cigar in the hunting-field rather than a 

 pipe, or my sister that she should carry her stirrup-leg 

 forward when she is galloping rather than curl it, as so 

 frequently obtains, round the back of her saddle. I might, 

 in my soberer moments, and from a breeder's point of 

 view, recommend the operation, on the principle of root- 

 pruning, viz. in order to develop growth and vigour in 

 the parent stem. But I have a more immediate reason, 

 from to-day. The farmer had built up his gap with heavy 

 thorns. The little Arab took his turn with a light heart, 

 and with a whisk of his tail as if to brush away a mosquito. 

 The latter effort tied him tight to a thorn-bush that had 

 half filled the gap, but that was readily uprooted by the 

 impetus. His owner found speed gradually slackening ; 

 but not till half across the field was he brought absolutely 

 to an anchor. Spurring was no use. The ready courage 

 that would have faced a charging boar, or delighted in a 

 polo scrimmage, had suddenly vanished in mid-field. The 

 desert steed was paralysed. And why ? Only because he 

 had carried his fence away with him in his tail, and could 

 draw it no further. Surely we might be excused for our 

 Ljentie laughter. 



CHAPTER XV 



AMATEURS AND HUNTSMEN 



IVcdnesday Night, March 30, 1892. — 1 am dull, I am dull. 

 Not merely because I was born so, not only because I 



