RESIDENCE OF THE MISSION AT BUSHIRE. 
63 
to us for sale: the first, by the people of the Shiraz officer, who asked 
immense prices, and when refused, departed in apparent ill-humour, but 
generally returned and took the reduced sum which was offered. In 
this way also we purchased a lot of forty horses, principally of the 
Turcoman breed, which had been destined for the Indian market, and 
for which an average price of three hundred and twenty piastres for each 
horse had been asked at Bushire , but which at the end of the month 
were sold to us for two hundred and fifty. The distinct and charac¬ 
teristic value of the horses of the country, was exemplified in a present 
of two, which the Envoy received from the Sheik of Bushire. One was 
a beautiful Arab colt, of the sweetest temper I ever knew in a horse, 
frisking about like a lamb, and yet so docile, that though now for the 
first time mounted, he seemed to have been long used to the bit, a sure 
proof in the estimation of the country of the excellence of his breed. 
The other was a Persian colt of the most stubborn and vicious nature ; 
to the astonishment and admiration however of the Persians, the Envoy's 
Yorkshire groom by mere dint of whip and spur, subdued the creature 
and rendered him fit to ride: a triumph which established the groom's 
reputation readily, among a people peculiarly alive to the superiority of 
their own horsemanship. A horse more than ordinarily vicious was 
tamed in a singular manner by the people of the country. Fie was 
turned out loose (muzzled indeed in his mouth, where his ferociousness 
was most formidable) to await in an enclosure the attack of two horses, 
whose mouths and legs at full liberty were immediately directed against 
him. The success was as singular as the experiment; and the violence 
of the discipline which he endured, subdued the nature of the beast, and 
rendered him the quietest of his kind. The horses are fastened in the 
stables by their fore legs, and pinioned by a rope from the hind leg to 
stakes at about six feet distant behind, so that although the animals are 
well inclined to quarrel, and are only four or five feet asunder, they can 
scarcely in this position succeed in hurting each other : frequently how¬ 
ever they do get loose, and then most furious battles ensue. I have 
