Quadrupeds of Ceylon. - 2Q5 
of sheep and horses, and as a great proportion, particularly of 
the former, die on being landed in the island, these animals are 
in consequence much dearer here than in any other part of In- 
dia. Sheep sometimes fetch ten and even twenty times the 
price they do on the opposite 'coast of CoromandeL 
In Ceylon, or indeed in any part of India, horses are never 
employed in servile work, or for drawing burthens. As they 
are scarcely ever castrated, they are indeed so spirited and vici- 
ous as in some degree to be unfitted for these purposes. The 
care and attendance which they require is also too great to 
allow their being kept by any but the wealthy for pleasure. 
Two attendants are constantly attached to each horse i one of 
them is employed in cutting and fetching him as much grass as 
he requires to eat ; while the other takes care of him, cleans him, 
feeds him, and makes him ready for his master to mount. The 
last attendant never quits his horse, but follows him wherever 
he goes, and is ready on all occasions to take charge of him. 
I 
I have seen some of these horse-keepers, as they are called, keep 
up with my horse for twenty or thirty miles together, while I 
was proceeding at the rate of five or six miles an hour. 
The Indian horses are extremely spirited, and often defend 
their riders ae'ainst the attack of other animals. I was once 
myself indebted to their prowess for my preservation from the 
fury of a buffalo, which I accidentally encountered at Ramnad 
on the Coromandel coast. It is only when so vicious as to be 
perfectly unmanageable, that these animals are ever castrated 
in this quarter of the world ; and in this mutilated state they 
decrease greatly in value, as they are then by no means so ca- 
pable of enduring the heat of the climate, and the violent fath 
gue which must be occasioned by exertion in these countries,. 
