[Note:  I’ve divided this lengthy article into three parts to make the file sizes a bit more manageable.  This is the third file] 

 

SUPPLEMENT.

 

            WE have already described the manner in which the horses of Arabia are treated, and given in detail of the pains and attention bestowed on their education.  This dry and warm country, which appears to be the original climate of this beautiful animal, and most conformable to its nature, permits or requires a number of usages that cannot be practised [sic], with equal effect, in any other region.  In France, and other northern nations, it is impracticable to train and feed horses in the same way as is done in warm climates.  But men, who are interested in these useful creatures, will not be displeased to learn how they are managed in countries less favoured by heaven than Arabia, and how they conduct themselves, when they are independent of the human species, and when left entirely to their own disposition and instincts.

 

            Horses are differently fed, according to the different countries to which they are transported, and the different uses to which they are destined.  Those of the Arabian races intended for hunting in Arabia or Barbary, seldom eat herbage or grain.  Their common food, which consists of dates and camels [sic] milk, is given them every morn- [385] ing and night.  These aliments, instead of fattening them, render them meagre, nervous, and very fleet.  They spontaneously suck the she-camels, whom they follow* till the time they are ready for mounting, which is not before the age of six or seven years.

 

            In Persia, the horses are exposed night and day to the open air. But, to protect them from the injuries of the weather, from damp vapours, and from rain, they are covered, especially in winter, with clots; and sometimes an additional covering is added, which is made of hair, and very thick.  A spot of dry even ground is prepared for them, greater or smaller according to their number, which is swept and kept extremely clean.  Here they are all tied to a long rope, which is well stretched, and firmly fixed at each end to two iron rods stuck in the earth.  Their halters, however, sufficiently free to allow them to move with ease.  To prevent them from hurting each other, their hind-legs are tied with a rope, which has iron buckles at each extremity; these are brought about to the fore part of the horses, and fastened to the ground by pegs, but loose enough to allow them to lie down or to rise at their pleasure.  When put into stables, they are managed in the same manner.  Xenophon informs us, that this practice was observed in his days; and it is alledged, that, by this means, the animals are rendered [386] more gentle, and tractable, and less peevish among themselves; qualities extremely useful in war, when vicious horses, tied up in squadrons, often injure one another.  For litter, the Persians use only sand or dry dust, upon which their horses lie down and sleep as well as if it were straw.*  In other countries, as Arabia and the Mogul empire, the horses are littered with their own dung, well dried and reduced to a powder.+  The eastern horses are never allowed to eat from the ground, or even from a rack; but are served with barley and cut straw in pocks tied to their heads; for, in these climates, no hay is made, nor do the natives cultivate oats.  In spring, they are fed with grass or green barley, and great care is taken to give them only as much as is barely necessary; for too much nourishment makes their legs swell, and soon renders them useless.  These horses, though ridden without bridle or stirrups, are easily managed.  They carry their heads very high, by means of a simple snaffle, and run with great rapidity, and sureness upon the worst roads.  The whip and spur are very seldom employed.  The latter, when used, consists only of a single point fixed to the heel of the boot.  Their common whips are made of small strips of parchment knotted and twisted.  A few lashed with this whip are sufficient for every purpose of the rider.  [387]

 

            Horses are so numerous in Persia, that, though excellent, they sell cheap.  Some of them are very tall and heavy; but all of them are more remarkable for strength, than for gracefulness and beauty.  For easy travelling, the Persians use pacing horses, which are taught this motion by tying the fore-foot to the hind-foot on the same side:  When young, their nostrils are slit, from a notion that it makes them breathe more freely.  These horses travel so well, that they perform with ease a journey of eight leagues without stopping.*

 

            But Arabia, Barbary, and Persia, are not the only climates which produce good and handsome horses.  Even in the coldest countries, if not too moist, these animals succeed better than in very warm climates.  The beauty of the Danish horses, and the excellence of those of Sweden, Poland, &c. are universally known.  In Iceland, where the cold is excessive, and where often no other food can be had than dried fishes, the horses, though small, are extremely vigorous;+ some of them are indeed so diminutive as to be fit for carrying children only.3 [388] Besides, they are so plentiful in this island, that the shepherds tend their flocks on horseback.  Their number is not expensive; for their food costs nothing.  Such as the owners can apply to no immediate use, they mark, and turn out to the mountains.  There they soon become wild; and, when wanted, are hunted in troops, and caught with long ropes.  When the mares foal in the mountains, the proprietors put their peculiar marks on the young, and leave them there for three years.  Those horses which are brought up in the mountains, are generally more handsome, bold, and fleet, than those raised in stables.*

 

            The Norwegian horses are likewise small, but well-proportioned.  Most of them are yellow, with a black line running the whole length of the back.  Some of them are chesnut [sic], and others of an iron-gray colour.  These horses are very sure-footed, travel with great caution through the rough paths of the mountains, and slide down steep declivities, by bringing their hind-feet under their bellies.  They defend themselves against the assaults of the bear. When a stallion, in company with mares or foals, perceives this voracious animal, he makes them stay behind, approaches, and boldly attacks the enemy, whom he beats with his fore-feet, and generally kills.  But, if the horses attempt to defend themselves by striking with their hind-feet, they are infallibly gone; for the bear leaps upon their backs, where he sticks with such force as suffocates them in a short time.+

 

            The horses of Nordland never exceed four feet and a half in height.3  The nearer we ap- [389] proach to the pole, we find that horses become smaller and weaker.  Those of West Nordland are of a singular form.  They have large heads and eyes, short necks, large poitrels, narrow withers, long thick bodies, short loins; the upper part of their legs is long, and the under short and naked; their hoofs are small and hard; their tails and manes are large and bushy; and their feet are small, but sure, and never defended with shoes.  These horses are good, seldom restive or stubborn, and climb with patience the highest mountains.  The pasture in Nordland is so excellent, that, when horses are brought from thence to Stockholm, they seldom remain above a year without losing their flesh and their vigour.  On the contrary, when horses are carried from more northern countries to Nordland, though sickly for the first year, they recover their strength.*

 

            Excess of heat or of cold seems to be equally hostile to the stature of horses.  The Japanese horses are generally small, though some of them are of a tolerable size.  The latter probably come from the mountains of that country.  The same remark applies to the horses of China.  We are assured, however, that those of Tonquin are nervous, of a good size, gentle, and easily trained to any kind of exercise.+  [390]

 

            It is well known, that horses bred in dry warm climates degenerate, and even cannot live, in moist countries, however warm.  But they succeed very well in all the mountainous countries of our continent, from Arabia to Denmark and Tartary, and, in America, from New Spain to the lands of Magellan.  It is, therefore, neither heat nor cold, but moisture alone, that is noxious to these animals.

 

            There were no horses in America when it was discovered.  But, in less than two centuries after a small number of them had been transported thither from Europe, they multiplied so prodigiously, especially in Chili, that they sold at very low prices.  Frezier remarks, that this great increase was still more surprising, because the Indians eat horses, and kill many of them by fatigue and bad management.*  The horses carried by the Europeans to the most eastern parts of our continent, as the Philippine islands, have likewise multiplied exceedingly.+

 

            In the Ukraine,3 and among the Cossacks along the river Don, the horses live wild in the fields and forests.  In that large and thinly [391] peopled country comprehended between the Don and the Nieper, the horses go in troops of three, four, or five hundred, and have no shelter even when the ground is covered with snow, which they remove with their fore-feet in quest of food.  These troops are guarded by two or three men on horseback; and it is only in severe winters that they are lodged for a few days in the villages, which, in this country, are very distant from each other.  These troops of horses give rise to some remarks, which seem to prove that men are not the only animals who live in society, and obey, by compact, the commands of one of their own number.  Each of these troops have a chief whom they implicitly obey; he directs their course, and makes them proceed or stop at his pleasure.  This chief likewise gives order for the necessary arrangements and motions, when the troop is attacked by robbers or by wolves.  He is extremely vigilant and alert:  He frequently runs round the troop; and, when he finds any horses out of their rank, or lagging behind, he gives them a push with his shoulder, and obliges them to take their proper station.  These animals, without being mounted or conducted by men, march in nearly as good order as our trained cavalry.  Though at perfect liberty, they pasture in files and brigades, and form different companies, without ever mixing or separating.  The chief occupies this important and fatiguing office for four or five years.  When [392] he becomes weaker and less active, another horse, ambitious of command, and who feels his own strength, springs out from the troop, attacks the old chief, who, if not vanquished, keeps his command; but, if beat, enters with shame into the common herd; and the conqueror takes the lead, is recognised [sic] as sovereign, and obeyed by the whole troop.*

 

            In Finland, when the snows are dissolved in the month of May, the horses depart from their masters, and go into certain districts of the forests, as if they had previously fixed a rendez-vous.  There they form different troops, which never separate or intermix. Each troop take a different district of the forest for their pasture.  To this territory they confine themselves, and never encroach on the lands belonging to other troops. When the grass is exhausted, they decamp, and take possession of a fresh pasturage in the same order as before.  The police of their society is so well regulated, and their marches so uniform, that their owners always know where to find their horses, when they have occasion for them; and those which are carried off, after having performed their task, return, of their own accord, to their companions in the woods.  In the month of September, when the weather turns bad, they quit the forest, march [393] home in troops, and each takes possession of his own stable.

 

            These horses are small but good and spirited, without being vicious.  Though generally very docile, some of them resist when their owners offer to take them, or to yoke them in carriages.  When they return from the forests, they are fat and in fine order.  But the perpetual labour they undergo during the winter, and the small quantity of food they receive, soon make them lose their flesh.  They roll on the snow as other horses do on the grass.  They pass the night, indifferently, either in the court or in the stable, even during the most violent frosts.*

 

            These horses, which live in troops, and are often removed from the dominion of man, form the link or shade between domestic and wild horses.  Of the latter there are some in the island of St Helena, which, after being transported thither from Europe, became so savage and ferocious, that, rather than suffer themselves to be taken, they leap over the highest precipices into the sea.+   In the environs of Nippes, some of them are not larger than asses; but they are rounder, and well proportioned.  They are vivacious, indefatigable, and possess a strength and desterity eyond what could be expected from them.  In Santo Domingo, the horses are of a middle stature, and much esteemed.  Numbers [394] of them are taken with snares and ropes; but most of these continue to be extremely restless and skittish.*  There are also horses in Virginia, which, though sprung from the domestic kind, have become so ferocious in the woods, that it is difficult to approach them, and, when taken, they belong to the person who apprehends them.  They are commonly so stubborn that it is no easy matter to tame them.+  In Tartary, and particularly in the country between Urgenz and the Caspian sea, birds of prey are employed in hunting wild horses.  These birds are trained to seize the horse by the neck and head, who fatigues himself by running, but is unable to disengage himself3 from his tormentor.  The wild horses in the country of the Mongous and Kakas Tartars, differ not from those which are tame.  They are found in great numbers upon the western coast; and some appear in the country of the Kakas which borders on the Harni.  These wild horses are so swift, that they often escape the arrows of the most dexterous hunters.  They march in numerous troops; and, when they chance to meet with tamed horses, they surround them and oblige them to fly.4  In Congo, considerable numbers of wild horses are still to be found.5  They are sometimes [395] seen also in the environs of the Cape of Good Hope; but they are seldom taken, because the inhabitants prefer the horses transported from Persia.*

 

            When formerly treating of the horse, I remarked, that, from all the observations of the breeders of horses, the male appeared to have greater influence upon the offspring than the female; and I then gave some reasons which rendered the universality of this fact doubtful, and even made it probable that the influence of the male and female were equal.  But numerous experiments and observations have now convinced me, that, not only in horses, but in man and every other animal, the male has more influence on the external form of the young than the female, and that, in every species, the male is the principal type of the race.

 

            I have said,+ that, in the common order of Nature, it is not the males, but the females, which constitute the unity of the species:  But this prevents not the male from being the true type of each species; and, what I have advanced concerning unity, ought to be extended only to the greater facility of representing the species possessed by the female, though she submits to the embraces of different males.  This point I have fully discussed in my history of birds,3 [396] and, in the present work, under the article Mule; from which it appears, that, though the female seems to have more influence upon the specific character of the breed, she never improves it, the male alone enjoying the faculty of supporting the purity of the race, and of rendering it more perfect.  [397]

Notes

 

*  Voyage de Marmol, tom. 1. p. 50 [back to page 386].

 

*  Voyage della Valle, tom. 5. p. 284.

+  Thevenot, tom. 3. p. 129 [back to page 387].

 

*  Della Valle, tom. 5. p. 284.

+  Recueil des voyage. Du Nord, tom. 1. p. 18.

3.  Anderson’s descripton of Iceland, p. 79 [back to page 388].

 

*  Hist. gen. des voyag. tom. 18. p. 19.

+  Pontoppidan, hist. nat. of Norway.

3.  12 1 half hands  [back to page 389].

 

*  Hist. gen. des voyage. tom. 19. p. 561.

+  Hist. de Tonquin, par le P. de Rhodes, p. 51 [back to page 390].

 

*  Voyage de Frezier dans la mer sud, p. 67.

+  Voyage de Gemelli Careri, tom. 5. p. 162.

3.  There are horses in the Ukraine which go in troops of five or six hundred.  They are fit for no service, but make good eating.  Their flesh is agreeable, more tender than veal, and the natives eat it with pepper.  The old horses are fattened for the market, and are sold to the Tartars as dear as beef or mutton; Descript. de l’Ukraine, par Beauplan [back to page 391].

 

*  Extract from a Memoir communicated to M. de Buffon, by M. Sanchez, formerly chief physician to the Russian army [back to page 393].

 

*  Journ. d’un Voyag. au Nord, par M. Outhier.

+  Mem. pour server à l’histoire des Indes Orientales, p. 199 [back to page 394].

 

*  Nouveau voyag. aux isles de l’Amerique, tom. 5. p. 192.

+  Hist. de la. Virginia, p. 406.

3.  Hist. gen. des voyag. tom. 8. p. 156.

4.  Ib. tom. 6. p. 602.

5.  Il genio vagante del Conte Aurelio degli Auzi, tom. 2. p. 475 [back to page 395].

 

*  Description du Cap, par Kolbe, tom. 3. p. 20.

+  See below, vol. 8. art. Degeneration of of animals.

3.  Hist. Nat. des oiseaux, tom. 4 [back to page 396].