Among Horses in India. 15 



the desired effect, and is far better than the custom adopted 

 by some of abusing, beating, or fining the man. It is true 

 that numbers of the servants engaged by Englishmen on 

 their first arrival in India are great scoundrels ; but when a 

 sais is paid regularly and is treated with justice and kind- 

 ness, the greatest punishment that can be inflicted is to 

 discharge him, and in the majority of cases he will treat the 

 horse well in order to avoid such a misfortune. I have 

 known an excellent sais made into a bad one by beating, 

 but I never knew a bad one made good by it. 



The custom of beating or abusing is disadvantageous in 

 another way. It prevents respectable men offering themselves 

 as servants, for the character of every officer is known in all 

 the bazaars of a station shortly after his arrival. 



"Where several horses are kept, it often is a good plan to 

 make the oldest sais, if he knows his work well, responsible 

 for the feeding and grooming of all the animals, giving him 

 about two rupees monthly more than the others. Make him 

 also responsible that you be at once informed when any 

 horse has a thrush, a sore back, or other ailment. Many of 

 the natives are either too careless to mention such things, 

 or are afraid to do so lest they should be blamed. They 

 will consequently leave a thrush undressed, until the frog 

 is full of maggots ; or will cover over a sore on the back with 

 cowdung or leaves beaten into a pulp, and place the saddle 

 over it day after day until a large raw hollow has formed in 

 the skin. 



In many private stables it is usual to leave the bedding 

 under the horses all day. A considerable portion of it is 

 then almost constantly saturated with urine, which often 

 causes thrushes in the horses' feet, and the floor is never 

 perfectly dry. The litter should be cleaned out at morning 

 stable-hour, and left all day to be purified by the sun and 

 air. 



Masalih. 



It is a universal custom amongst natives to give horses 

 daily a mixture of spices, nitrate of potash, and salt, called by 



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