REVIEW — HORSE TAMING. 
295 
through his hands, until the horse fails for want of breath, and 
lies helpless on the ground. The Indian advances slowly towards 
the horse’s head, keeping the laso tight upon his neck, until he 
fastens a pair of hobbles on the animal’s two fore feet, and also 
loosens the laso, giving the horse a chance to breathe, and pass- 
ing a noose round the under jaw, by which he gets great power 
over the affrighted animal, that is rearing and plunging when 
it gets breath, and by which, as he advances hand over hand to- 
wards the horse’s nose, he is able to hold it down, and prevent it 
from throwing itself over on its back. By this means he gradu- 
ally advances, until he is able to place his hand on the animal’s 
nose and over its eyes, and, at length, to breathe into its nostrils, 
when it soon becomes docile and conquered ; so that he has little 
else to do than to remove the hobbles from its feet, and lead or 
ride it to the camp. The animal is so completely conquered, that 
it submits quietly ever after, and is led or rode away with very 
little difficulty.” 
Mr. Ellis soon had the opportunity of putting the veracity of this 
account to the test. His brother-in-law had a filly, not yet a year 
old, that had been removed from her dam three months before, 
and since that time had not been taken out of the stable. A 
great amateur in every thing relating to horses was present, and 
at his request it was determined that the experiment of the effi- 
cacy of breathing into the nostrils should be immediately put to 
the test. The filly was brought from the stable, the amateur 
leading her by the halter. She was quite wild, and bolted and 
dragged the amateur a considerable distance. He had been using 
a short halter ; he changed it for a longer one, and was then able 
to lead the little scared thing to the front of the house. The ex- 
periment was tried under manifest disadvantage, for the filly was 
in the open air, several strangers were about her, and both the 
owner and the amateur were seeking rather amusement from the 
failure than knowledge from the success of their experiment. 
The filly was restive and frightened, and with great difficulty 
the owner managed to cover her eyes. At length he succeeded, 
and bleio into the nostrils. No particular effect seemed to follow. 
He then breathed into her nostrils, and the moment he did so, 
the filly, who had very much resisted having her eyes blind- 
folded and had been very restive, stood perfectly still and 
trembled. From that time she became very tractable. The 
amateur also breathed into her nostrils, and she evidently enjoyed 
it, and kept putting up her nose to receive the breath. 
On the following day she was led out again. She followed 
the amateur about with a loose halter. She was perfectly 
tractable, and it seemed to be almost impossible to frighten 
her. 
