9 



Arabians. The horses of the mosaic are, in fact, very ordinary animals, 

 without the smallest show of blood, and so is the modern Persian horse. 



But, besides those already named, there are horses in various 

 parts of Asia which seem to be endemic in the countries in which 

 they are found, and to have received no admixture of foreign 

 blood. Such a race is the squab, strong-, and sure-footed little 

 horse of Butan, called the Tangan, frequently imported into 

 Bengal. The small horse of Tibet is another instance. Like 

 the shawl goat, and all the other animals of the elevated and 

 dry region which it inhabits, it has a double coat of hair, a 

 long shaggy outer one, and at the roots of this a fine woolly one 

 corresponding with that which in the goat is the material of the 

 Cashmere shawl. 



The horses of the plain of Hindustan are of ample height 

 and considerable activity, but wanting in strength, and above all 

 in bottom, and very often vicious. It is remarkable that the best 

 breeds are found towards the south, and especially in Central 

 India, and the worst towards the East, including Bengal and Orissa. 

 As no remarkable care in breeding is anywhere bestowed by the Indians, 

 the superiority of the horses of such countries as Mysore, Cattewar 

 Gujrat, and Malwa, may be attributable to a peculiar suitableness 

 of soil and climate, and probably to the introduction, in 

 remote times, of some portion of Arabian blood. In general, the 

 Indian horse is what the Irish, and sometimes the Scots, call a 

 garron, that is a vulgar hack. At all events his inferiority is 

 declared by the necessity we are ourselves under of going to the 

 Persian and Arabian gulfs, to the Cape, and to Australia, for a 

 better. One flagrant misnomer which Europeans apply to the 

 common Indian horse may be noticed. He is usually known to 

 them under the appellation of Tazi, meaning jade, and almost 

 "screw," whereas the word, which is Arabic, properly signifies a 

 true Arab. 



Proceeding south we have the Burmese or Pegu pony, and 

 among the Islands of the Indian Archipelago, from Sumatra to 

 Timur, a great variety of races, for every island possessing the 

 horse has, at least, one race, and the larger several. Among these 

 the most remarkable is the horse of a certain volcanic island called Sum- 

 bawa, and more especially of a district of it called Gunung Api, which 

 literally signifies " fire mountain," or, in other words, " the volcano." 

 The Sumbawa horse is generally below twelve hands, and its most 



