22 
THE HORSE IN ASIA AND AFRICA. 
such noble race. These horses are of the stock of those 
designated winged (gilts), which yield the palm of speed to 
no one save to Borak from the Prophet. They are fed with 
the golden barley of the Yemen, mingled with spices, and a 
small proportion of dried mutton. Time passes so lightly 
over the heads of these generous animals, that the mare you 
are at present riding upon has seen five times five years pass 
over her head without having lost any of her speed and 
vigour.” 
The Arabians attribute such superiority to mares that 
they honour them wfith the name of faras, w hich literally sig- 
nifies a horse fit for a person of distinction to ride. Probably 
for the same reason, in Hindostan, they often name a mare of 
noble stock, madian : this being, in point of fact, the name of 
a town on the border of a gulf in the Red Sea. The Turks, 
Persians, and Indian Moguls, are alw ays in time of w ar upon 
entire horses ; this arises from the difficulty they would ex- 
perience in obtaining mares. 
In some provinces of Turkey, a considerable number of the 
horses are cut, or have had castration practised ; but if these 
cruel operations, w T hich in a temperate climate weaken horses 
considerably, were to be practised in India, the horses w r ould 
be rendered by them unfit for any service calling for vigour 
and courage. Some means that would answer the purpose 
of castration, without entailing any of the inconveniences 
which are the ordinary consequences of the operation, would, 
even in Europe, become a great boon. 
Certain penitent Indians, in former days, invented a recipe, 
the use of which, how r ever strongly made a person might be, 
rendered him unfit for procreation, not showing the smallest 
sign of virility. From the age of six or seven years, infants 
were taken, destined for this state of penitence. Every day 
they were made to eat a small parcel of the young leaves of 
a tree called mairkousie. They commenced by giving the chil- 
dren only the bulk of a hazel nut of the leaves, augmenting 
the dose up to the age of twenty-five years, in such manner 
that, in the latter years, they partook of them the bulk of a 
hen’s egg. 
An ancient orthodox patriarch of Constantinople informs 
us, that some fanatic monks of Palestine came naked through 
the streets and fields, without evincing any signs of virility. 
The author cannot vouch for the truth of these tales, 
though he has been assured of their veracity. One interest- 
ing fact is said to be ascertained in regard to the specific, 
which is, that in producing absolute impotence, far from 
diminishing the strength, or altering the form of a w r ell-made 
