ANECDOTES OF HORSES. 
5S7 
Captain Brown next describes the different varieties of the 
horse. He begins with the Arabian, and first in his native country, 
and gives us all the interesting-anecdotes usually related of that 
noble animal, with some which were new to us. Among* these 
is the strang-e account of the Kohl an or superior breed. The 
author gives the authority of Count Rzeiousky for the marvellous 
relation. 
“ Above all the horses in the world, the Kohlan is distin¬ 
guished for the goodness of his qualities and the beauty of his 
form. 
“ An uncommon mildness of temper; an unalterable faithful¬ 
ness to his master; a courage and intrepidity, as astonishing as 
they are innate in his noble breast; an unfailing remembrance 
of the places where he has been, of the treatment he has re¬ 
ceived ; not to be led, not to be touched, but by his master; 
in the most horrid confusion of a battle, cool and collected, he 
never forgets the place he came from, and, though mortally 
wounded, if he can gather up sufficient strength, he carries back 
his desponding- rider to his defeated tribe. His intelligence is 
wonderful: he knows when he is sold, or even when his master 
is bargaining to sell him. When the proprietor and purchaser 
meet for that purpose in the stables, the Kohlan soon guesses 
what is going on, becomes restless, gives from his beautiful eye 
a side-glance at the interlocutors, scrapes the ground with his 
foot, and plainly shews his discontent. Neither the buyer, nor 
any other, dares to come near him; but, the bargain being struck, 
when the vender, taking the Kohlan by the halter, gives him up 
to the purchaser, with a slice of bread and some salt, and turns 
away, never more to look upon him as his own—an ancient custom 
of taking leave of a horse, and his recognizing a new master— 
it is then that this generous and noble animal becomes tractable, 
mild, and faithful to another, and proves himself immediately 
attached to him whom his passion, a few minutes before, might 
have laid at his feet, and trampled under his hoof. This is not 
an idle story; I have been a witness of, and an actor in, the in 
teresting scene, having bought three Kohlans in 1810 and 1811 
from Turkish prisoners. I made the bargain in the stables, and 
received personally, and led off the most fierce but intelligent 
animals, which, before the above-mentioned ceremony, I should 
not have dared to approach.”—Page 170. 
To this succeed sketches of the most celebrated of the eastern 
horses, for which he is indebted to John Lawrence, Smith, and 
others, w hile there is the same disingenuous mode of concealing 
the obligation. Take a sample or two. 
