68 
THE NEW HORSE. 
boiled grain, sugar, and masaulah, the dealers throw down 
dry stalks of kirleg, of bajeraor joowar, the seeds of which are 
known under the name of millet. (The official names I cannot 
now remember.) 
I have known dealers not satisfied with green barley alone, 
but also cram the horse as before stated. The natives of 
India are acknowledged to rival the European dealers in the 
fattened state and condition of their animals, whether horses 
or oxen. 
THE NEW HORSE. 
Few things afford the man who keeps horses more pleasure, 
for the time being, than a fresh-purchased steed. Coming 
either from the yard of a dealer, who declares he never sold 
a faulty horse ; or from the hand of an auctioneer, who as- 
severates he never knocked down any other but a good horse ; 
or, with more assurance still, from the stable of a friend, who 
most friendlily has taken care to paint so vividly all the 
animaFs good qualities, that the bad ones are either thrown 
into the shade, or else forgotten to be mentioned; the “new” 
horse arrives in the stable of his new master with all the 
perfections of an Eclipse upon his head, or, at all events, 
with the brightest prospects of fulfilling the purposes for 
which he has been specifically purchased. Every visitor to 
the house of his fresh master must come and see “my new 
horse ; 35 “ Is 3 nt he a famous shaped one ? See, what legs 
he has ! — What a head ! — What a girth ! — What a bread- 
basket to kick against! He is as strong as Hercules; and, 
as for his durability, he will surely last my time, so that I 
shall never want another horse.” 
Such is the pleasing side of the picture — the gilt upon the 
gingerbread — thin enough, perhaps, to be seen through at 
the first trial by a real “judge” of such matters; too thin, 
probably, to conceal for any great length of time even from the 
blind or too partial eye of his master, the failings, one or many, 
from which this new-purchased prodigy cannot, in the course 
of nature, be expected to be exempt, and of which, in all human 
probability, he is in possession of a very fair share. The 
axiom — 
“ Nemo nascitur sine vitiis,” 
is as applicable to horses as to men. Who ever saw a perfect 
horse? Many a man may imagine he has such a horse, and 
