RESTIFFNESS. 
369 
remarks, that although the following circumstances appear 
almost incredible, jet they are nevertheless true, as he was 
an eje-witness to them :—“ James Sullivan was a native of 
the county of Cork, and an awkward, ignorant rustic of the 
lowest class, generally known by the appellation of the 
whisperer; and his profession was horse-breaking. The 
credulity of the vulgar bestowed that epithet upon him 
from an opinion that he communicated his wishes to the 
animal by means of a whisper, and the singularity of his 
method gave some colour to the superstitious belief. As far 
as the sphere of his control extended, the boast of vem , 
vidi, vici, was more justly claimed by James Sullivan than 
by Caesar, or even Buonaparte himself. How his art was 
acquired, or in what it consisted, is likely to remain for ever 
unknown, as he has lately left the world without divulging 
it. His son, who follows the same occupation, possesses but 
a small portion of the art, having either never learned the 
true secret, or being incapable of putting it in practice. 
The wonder of his skill consisted in the short time requisite 
to accomplish his design, which was performed in private, 
and without any apparent means of coercion. Every de¬ 
scription of horse, or even mule, whether previously broke 
or unhandled, whatever their peculiar vices or ill habits 
might have been, submitted without show of resistance to 
the magical influence of his art, and, in the short space 
of half-an-hour, became gentle and tractable. The effect, 
although instantaneously produced, was generally durable. 
Though more submissive to him than to others, yet they 
seem to have acquired a docility unknown before. When 
sent for to tame a vicious horse, he directed the stable in 
which he and the object of his experiment were placed, to 
oe shut, with orders not to open the door until a signal was 
given After a tete-a-tete between him and the horse for 
