Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

Fortune is never worshipped by the wise; But she, by fools set up, usurps the skies. "Yet the temples that have been consecrated to her, and the names that she has had, are innumerable: the chief of them are the following.

"She was styled Aurea, or Regia Fortuna, and an image of her so called was usually kept in the emperor's chamber; and when one died, it was removed to the palace of his successor.

"She is also called Caca, 'blind.' Neither is she only, says Cicero, blind herself, but she many times makes those blind that enjoy her.

"She was called Muliebris, because the mother and the wife of Coriolanus saved the city of Rome. And when his image was consecrated in their presence, it spoke these words twice: 'Ladies, you have dedicated to me as you should do.'

"Servius Tullus dedicated a temple to Fortuna Obsequens, because she obeys the wishes of men. The same prince worshipped her, and built her chapels; where she was called Primigenia, because both the city and the empire received their origin from her;

also Privata or Propria, because she had a chapel in the court, which that prince used so familiarly, that she was thought to go down through a little window into his house.

"Lastly, she was called Viscata, or Viscosa, because we are caught by her, as birds are with birdlime; in which sense Seneca says, "kindnesses are birdlime."

[graphic]

THE TITHE SYSTEM IN IRELAND.

The Waterford Chronicle contains a case furnished by a correspondent, who offers his name to any one desirous of getting it. The case is this. "Catharine Carrol is a poor woman living at Sally truckle, on the Kil Saint Laurence road, in a wretched cabin, and until this year she was never called upon to pay incumbent money. The hand of affliction was heavy upon this poor creature; her son lay in bed sick-ít proved his death bed-if bed it may be called, the wretched wad of straw upon which he lay. A daughter, too, was lying down ill of a severe cold, with lumps in her throat. The collector called to demand the tax. The wretched woman had not the means of paying it.What was to be done? The whole house did not contain sufficient distraint; but-let me restrain my indignation while I tell it-the poor woman had just taken advantage of her children's illness, of their confinement to their bed, to take off the only shirt and shift they possessed, to wash them, and she had them unfortunately upon a bush at the door drying at that moment. The eye of an ecclesiastical tax-gatherer is comprehensive-it takes in every thing. He saw the prize, and at one fell swoop carried off the shirt of the boy! the shift of the girl!! the trowsers of the poor man!!! his stockings!!!! a waistcoat belonging to another child!!!!! and an apron belonging to another daughter!!!!!! All, all, all, sir, went to make nectar of the wine of a pampered ecclesiastic. But I have not done. The boy died yesterday, and, on the bed of death, although this worse than Turkish act occurred on Friday week, this unhappy child knew not the comfort of a shirt, owing to the ruthless system of the church establishment. His little corpse is now lying naked. The poverty of the parents is excessive." Read that-and let any man say it is to be wondered at that Ireland should be agitated to its very centre, by the workings of the Law Church-and what man after reading it will say that the church ought not to be placed on its own bottom? Why should Catholics and Dissenters be coerced to support it?

A WILD MAN.

For more than two years past, the females of Wallingford, (England,) have been kept in perpetual alarm and excitement by the frequent appearance of a wild man, who haunted the fields and meadows in the vicinity of the borough. Dark and dreadful were the tales of the timid respecting the nature of this mysterious visitant; at one time he was represented as a baboon or ourang outang, covered with hair; at another the superstitious held him forth as a troubled spirit that only required some authorized clerk for its exorcism. Although he had been seen by a host of females whose veracity was unimpeachable, he had the adroitness on all occasions (except the fatal one) to brush at the approach of man. About a fortnight or three weeks ago, as two girls were working in a field near Benson, little dreaming of supernatural agencies, suddenly the wild man stood before them. He did not perceive the approach of three strapping fellows who happened at that instant to be passing near the spot. Upon one of the women, however, appealing to them, he instantly caught the alarm and scampered off, the men of course following, and such a chase has not been seen for many a day. The wild man bounded along, cutting the air like an eagle, as though his ears had been seethed in bear's grease, the pursuers following like a leash of beagles.

In a recent discussion at Rouen, relative to the sale of public property, the women entered the hall, and put an end to the same by extinguishing the candles. This certainly was a Gothic, though harmless mode of resisting the public authorities.

The celebrated traveller, Capt. James Ross, had passed through Copenhagen on his way to Sweden, on matters relative to his northern expedition; on his return he was to undertake a voyage to the South Pole.

At length, however, after a run of two miles, the ghost, if ghost it were, or wild man, or whatever else it might be, fell exhausted to the earth, and on being raised, and the lather removed from his face, he was found to be a barber of some standing in Wallingford! At his earnest request, the honour of being led captive into town with a rope round his neck was dispensed with. The magistrates of Oxfordshire are said to have issued a The Globe of London says, the great battle of European prinwarrant for his apprehension, but he had previously ciples has been fought in Portugal. It was the struggle between decamped, and it is rumoured that he has since embar-arbitrary government and constitutional institutions, and the last have obtained a signal victory. Don Miguel was the type of despotic government on the continent. It is for this the tories have admired him so much. Happily for civilization he has fallen, and it is to the administration of Lord Grey we are indebted for this triumph.

ked for America. What renders the whole proceeding most unaccountable is, that he is a married man, with a family.-Reading (Eng.) Mercury.

ENCOURAGEMENT TO PERSONS OF MATURE
AGE TO CULTIVATE THE MIND.

Instances have occurred of individuals, in whom the power of imagination has at an advanced period of life been found susceptible of culture to a wonderful degree. In such men, what an accession is gained to their most refined pleasures! What enchantments are added to their most ordinary perceptions! The mind awakening, as if from a trance, to a new existence, becomes habituated to most interesting aspects of life and of nature; the intellectual eye is "purged of its film ;" and things the most familiar and unnoticed disclose charms invisible before. The same objects which were lately beheld with indifference, occupy now all the powers and capacities of the soul; the contrast between the present and the past serving only to enhance and to endear so unlooked for an acquisition. What Gray has so finely said of the pleasures of viscissitude, conveys but a faint image of what is experienced by the man who, after having lost in vulgar occupations and vulgar amusements his earliest and most precious years, is thus introduced at last to a new heaven and a new earth:

During the late struggle of the Greeks to regain their liberty, a body of Turks were, in 1824, encamped in a part of Greece, and committed every kind of excess upon the inhabitants. One of these barbarians, an officer, had pursued a Greek girl, who took refuge in the house of a widow. The widow met him at the door, and mildly attempted to dissuade him from forcing his way in to seize the girl. Enraged he drew his sabre; but when in the act of attempting to cut down the widow, it snapped in two pieces before it reached the victim. The wretch paused, but drew a pistol, to accomplish his purpose in that manner; but it missed fire and when in the act of of drawing a second, he was forcibly dragged away by one of his companions, who exclaimed, "Let her alone. Do not you see that her time is not yet come?" Resolved, however, on taking some revenge, he carried off her infant child to the camp: but, as though Providence designed to complete its work on this occasion, whilst the officer was asleep the child was carried back to the widow by one of his own men.

This anecdote is verified by the Rev. Mr. Arundel, author of "A visit to the Seven Churches of Asia," who was in the village at the time.

ITEMS OF INTELLIGENCE.

In Cochin-China, when a person is supposed to be dying, his friends and relations seize his arms, and assemble around his bed: they flourish their sabres, striking and cutting at the air, and they think that by this means they prevent the approach of the evil demons.

The French Government has built a steam frigate at Toulon of 160 horse power, and given to it the honoured name of our late fellow citizen, FULTON.

The Royal Court of Paris has recently decided that no Frenchman can institute proceedings in the French Courts of Law, against any foreigner whom he may have previously sued in the courts of another country.

I have never yet seen a man drunk in France, even among the lowest of the people.-Thos. Jefferson.

The salary of the Lord Chief Justice of England is $44,444. The salary of the Chief Justice of the United States is $5,000.

It is stated that there is a Sabbath School at Manchester, England, which contains 2,500 pupils. We presume there is no other of equal size in the world.

Mr. Buckingham stated in the British parliament, that he had taken the pains to place himself, during a whole day, in a tavern in London, and that he saw enter there for liquor, 2800 men, 1855 women, and 289 children! The proprietor of the establish ment assured him that he sold liquor weekly to 269,450 men, 103,500 women, and 142,450 children!

The African slave trade is very extensively carried on from Cuba. The convention and laws for its suppression seem to be all dead letters. Twenty-four slave vessels were recently lying at Havana, at one time. Some of them bring 500 victims"packed like pickled herring," and the market for them is brisk. The Charleston, (S. C.) Roman Catholic Miscellany of June 5th contains the following paragraph:-"There will be an Office and High-mass in the Cathedral on Monday, 30th inst. for the repose of the soul of La Fayette. The Office to commence at 8

o'clock."

A bill is on foot, and will in due time come before Congress, authorizing the Secretary to take steps for the further suppres sion of intemperance in the Navy. In the investigations in which the bill originated, it appeared that Commodore Rogers never to his knowledge tasted ardent spirits--Commodore Chauncey has not in the last thirty years-Commodore Morris not for many years, and the Secretary of War has never tasted it. Young men, who aspire to situations of honour, remember these examples.

The Charleston (S. C.) Sun says:-"A young black child, that had lost its mother when two months old, has since that from a bull slut. He speaks plain, and whenever he wishes suck, period, nearly two years, lived principally on the suck received he drives away the slut's pups and takes it. Wherever the slut goes the boy follows her, and vice versa. They are both owned by a gentleman on the Neck.

POETRY.

THE LIGHT OF HOME.-MRS. HALE.
My boy, thou wilt dream that the world is fair,
And thy spirit will sigh to roam;
And thou must go; but never, when there,
Forget the light of home.

Though pleasure may smile with a ray more bright,
It dazzles to lead astray:

Like the meteor's flash, 'twill deepen the night,
When thou treadest the lonely way.

But the hearth of home has a constant flame,
And pure as vestal fire:

"Twill burn, 'twill burn, for ever the same,
For nature feeds the pyre.

The sea of ambition is tempest tost,

And thy hopes may vanish like foam
But when sails are shivered and rudder lost,
Then look to the light of home;-

And there, like a star through the midnight cloud,
Thou shalt see the beacon bright;
For never, till shining on thy shroud,
Can be quenched its holy light.

The sun of fame, 'twill gild the name;
But the heart ne'er felt its ray;
And fashion's smiles, that rich ones claim,
Are but beams of a wintry day.

And how cold and dim those beams must be,
Should life's wretched wanderer come!
But, my boy, when the world is dark to thee,
Then turn to the light of home.

SECTION XXI.
XXI

HISTORY.

EGYPT.

The account of the Shepherds, who were expelled from Egypt by Thummosis, retreating to Judea and building Jerusalem, is either fabulous, or else refers to the original inhabitants of Palestine before the days of Moses; because they are represented by Josephus as returning to aid in the subjection of Egypt under Osarsiph, the Moses of Scripture.

After the Egyptians had expelled these invaders, they were governed by their native kings, namely Chebron, Amenophis, Amesses, Mephres, Mephramethosis, Orus, Accenchres; and after them arose Buesiris, who built Thebes or Heliopolis, a city of immense wealth and grandeur, having one hundred gates, the very ruins of which have been the wonder of later ages. Osymandus succeeded him, and was able to raise an army of 400,000 foot, and 20,000 cavalry against the Ethiopians. He greatly adorned Memphis with elegant porticos and temples. He also built a library, and placed over the entrance this inscription: "The Medicine of the

Soul?"

When several monarchs had succeeded him, came the celebrated and cruel Nitocris, the first female who wore the crown of Egypt. She succeeded her brother 1678 B. C. Historians generally place Maris or Ramesses, who dug the lake and built store cities, as the father of the great Sesostris, and consider him the Pharaoh who ruled when the posterity of Abraham_went out of Egypt. Dr. Russel in his recent history of Egypt has concusively shown, that Sesostris was the son of Maris, and that his era is thirteen hundred years before Christ.

The Pyramids of Egypt have long been regarded as one of the wonders of the world, and if we are to follow the opinion of Mr. Wilford and Dr. Russel, the great one was erected by Apachnes, the third Shepherd king, 1800 years before Christ.

The enmity of the Egyptians to the Shepherds was perpetuated for a long period, so that when Joseph's brethren came down to settle among them 250 years after their expulsion, they were allotted to a distant part of the country, the land of Goshen. There they multiplied in about 210 years from twelve families to about three millions of souls.

This astonishing increase greatly excited the fears of the Egyptians, lest they should again be brought under the dominion of another race of shepherds. The Egyptians adored the Ox and the Lamb, while the sons of Jacob ate them both, and thus became obnoxious to their hatred and contempt. To prevent them from aspiring to authority, the Egyptians oppressed the descendants of those to whom they once extended the hospitalities of the nation. Joseph, the saviour of the country in time of the famine, was forgotten, and the servitude of his posterity and people was carried to a brutal pitch.

During the days of the Shepherd kings, Abraham was driven by a famine in Canaan to sojourn for a season in Egypt, and when he came away he was enriched by a present of cattle from the reigning prince. In aftertimes, his grandson Jacob was obliged to send down to this fruitful country for corn for his family; and seventeen hundred years before Christ, Joseph the VOL. II.

21

son of Jacob entered Egypt a slave, and in about 250 years after that, God heard the sighing of his people and raised up Moses and Aaron to be the deliverers of their nation.

Notwithstanding the Egyptians feared and hated the Israelites, yet they were unwilling to allow them liberty to return quietly to their own land.

It was not until ten plagues from heaven successively desolated the land, ending with the destruction of all the first-born in every family, that the proud and stubborn will of Pharaoh, the Ramesses or Mæris of the ancients, consented to their departure.

Then they were hurried away with presents, and urged to be gone. However, they had scarcely gone when the monarch and people returned to their obstinacy, and an army was gathered of horsemen and chariots to pursue and bring them back to slavery and toil. But God had decided otherwise, and accordingly a miraculous passage was opened for them through the red sea, where they all passed in safety. Pharaoh and his host coming up with them, pursued on into the fatal gulf, but before he and his army were landed, the waters returned by the command of Jehovah to their natural channel, and no one escaped "to tell Egypt the story,”

NATURAL HISTORY.

THE HORSE-[Continued.] As all parts of Europe are at present peopled, and almost equally inhabited, wild Horses are no longer found there; and those which we see in America were originally European tame Horses, which have multiplied in the vast deserts of that country. The astonishment and fear which the inhabitants of Mexico and Peru expressed at the sight of Horses and their riders, convinced the Spaniards that this animal was entirely unknown in these countries; they therefore carried thither a great number, as well for service and their particular utility as to propagate the breed. M. de la Salle, in 1685, saw in the northern parts of America, near the bay of St. Louis, whole troops of these wild Horses feeding in the pastures, which were so fierce that no one dared approach them. The author of the History of the Adventures of the Bucaneers, says that, in the island of St. Domingo, Horses may sometimes be seen in troops of upward of five hundred, all running together, and that as soon as they see a man, they will all stop; that one of them will approach to a certain distance, snort, take flight, and then all the rest follow him. To catch them, they make use of nooses made of ropes, which they spread and hang in places which they know they frequent but if they are caught by the neck they strangle themselves, unless the hunter comes time enough to their assistance, who instantly secures them by the body and legs, and fastens them to trees, where they are left for two days without either food or drink. This experiment is sufficient to begin to make them tractable, and in time they become as much so as if they had never been wild; and even if by chance they ever regain their liberty, they never become so again, but know their masters, and suffer them to catch them again without further trouble.

The manners of these animals almost wholly depend on their education. From time immemorial it has been

the custom to separate the Colts from their mothers: Mares are suffered to suckle them five, six, or seven months: for, experience has taught us, that those Colts which are suckled ten or eleven months, are not of equal value with those which are weaned sooner, though they are generally fuller of flesh. After six or seven months sucking, they are weaned, that they may take more solid nourishment than milk; bran is then given them twice a day, and a little hay, of which the quantity is increased in proportion as they advance in age, and they are kept in the stable as long as they seem to retain any desire to return to the Mare; but when this desire ceases, they are suffered to go out in fine weather, and led to pasture; but care must be taken not to suffer them to go out to pasture fasting; they must have bran, and be made to drink, an hour before they are suffered to graze, and are never to be exposed to great cold or rain: in this manner they spend the first winter; in the May following, they are not only permitted to graze every day, but are suffered to lie in the fields all the summer, and even to the end of October, only observing not to let them eat the after-grass; for if they accustom themselves much to it, they will grow disgusted with hay, which ought, however, to be their principal food during the second winter, together with bran mixed with barley, or oats wetted. They are managed in this manner, letting them graze in the daytime during winter, and in the night also during the summer, till they are four years old, when they are taken from the pastures, and fed on hay. This change in his food requires some precaution; for the first eight days, the Colt should have nothing but straw, and it is proper to administer some vermifuge drinks, as worms may have been generated from indigestion, and green food.

Great attention must be paid in weaning young Colts, to put them into a proper stable, not too hot, for fear of making then too delicate and sensible to the impressions of the air. They should frequently have fresh litter, and be kept very clean, by rubbing them down with a wisp of straw. But they should not be tied up and curried till they are two years and a half or three years old: this currying gives them great pain, their skin being as yet too delicate to bear it, and they would fall away instead of growing fat from it; care must also be taken that the rack and manger are not too high, the necessity of raising their heads too high in order to reach their food may possibly produce a habit of carrying it in this fashion, which would give them an awkward appearance.

fed, that is, when they feed on grain and hay, as they are more vigorous, it is remarked also that they are less tractable, and more difficult to break.

The bit and the spur are two means made use of to bring them into order. The mouth does not appear formed by nature to receive any other impressions than that of taste and appetite; there is, however, so great a sensibility in the mouth of a Horse, that in preference to the eyes and ears, we address ourselves to it, to make him understand our pleasure; the smallest motion of pressure of the bit is sufficient to inform and determine the animal; and this organ of sense has no other fault than its perfection. Its too great sensibility must be managed, for if it is abused, the mouth of the Horse is spoiled, and rendered insensible to the impression of the bit; the senses of sight and hearing are not subject to such a change, and could not be dulled in this manner; but it has been found convenient to govern Horses by these organs, and it is generally true, that signs given by the sense of feeling have more effect on animals in general than those conveyed to the eyes or ears; besides, the situation of Horses with relation to those who mount or conduct them, makes their eyes almost useless for this purpose, because they see only straight forward, so that they could only perceive the signs made to them when they turned their heads round; and although they are frequently conducted and animated by the ear, yet in fact, if they are well broken, the smallest pressure of the thighs, or most trifling motion of the bit, is sufficient to direct them; the spur is even useless, or at least it is only made use of to force them to violent motions; and as, through the folly of the rider, it often happens that in giving the spur he checks the bridle, the Horse, finding himself excited on one side, and kept in on the other, only prances and capers, without stirring out of his place.

By means of the bridle we teach Horses to hold up their heads, and place them in a proper manner, and the smallest sign or movement of the rider is sufficient to make the Horse show all his different paces; the most natural is perhaps the trot, but ambling and galloping are more pleasant for the rider, and these are two paces we particularly endeavour to improve.

Horses which cross their legs or strike them against each other, are not sure-footed; and those whose bodies are long, are the most easy for the rider, because he is at a greater distance from the two centres of motion, the shoulders and haunches, and is therefore less sensible of the motion and jolting.

Horses usually gallop on the right foot, in the same manner as they carry the fore right leg in walking and trotting; they also throw up dirt in galloping with the right fore leg, which is more advanced than the left; and also the right hind leg which follows immediately the right fore one, is more advanced than the left hind leg, and that the whole time that the Horse continues to gallop: whence it results, that the left leg which supports all the weight, and which forces forward the others, is more tired; for this reason it would be right to exercise Horses in galloping alternately on the left foot, as well as on the right; and they would consequently bear much longer this violent motion.

At the age of three years, or three years and a half, the rider should begin to break them and make them tractable; they should at first have a light, easy saddle, and ought to wear it two or three hours every day; and they should be accustomed to have a snaffle bit in their mouths, and to lift up their feet, on which they should sometimes receive rather smart strokes, and if designed for coach or draft horses, should wear harness and a bridle. At first a curb should not be used, they should be held by a caveson or leather strap, and be made to trot, on even ground, without a rider, and with only the saddle or harness on the body; and when the saddle Horse turns easily, and willingly follows the person who holds the leather strap, the rough-rider should mount Walking, trotting, and galloping, are the most usual him and dismount again at the same place, without natural paces; but some Horses have another natural making him move, till he is four years old, because, pace, called the amble, which is very different from the before that age, the weight of a man overloads him, but three others, and at the first glance of the eye appears at four years he should be made to walk or trot, a little contrary to the laws of mechanics, and extremely way at a time, with the rider on his back. When a fatiguing to the animal, though the quickness of motion coach Horse is accustomed to the harness, he should is not so great as in galloping, or trotting hard. In be paired with a horse that is thoroughly broken, put- this pace the foot of the Horse grazes the ground still ting on him a bridle, with a strap passed through it, till more than in walking, and each step is much longer. he begins to be used to the draught; after this the But the most remarkable circumstance is, that the two coachman must teach him to back, having the assist- legs on the same side set off at the same time to make ance of a man before, who must push him gently back, a step, and afterward the two other legs move at the and even give him some blows to make him do it: all same time to make another, so that each side of the this should be done before young Horses have changed body alternately is without support, and there is no their food, for when once they are what is called corn-equilibrium maintained between the one and the other •

in motion.

it is therefore only from his almost grazing the earth, | them they are very short: the grinders are not instruand the quick alternate motion, that he can support mental to the knowledge of their age; we form our himself in this pace. There is in the amble, as well as judgment from the front and eye teeth. The twelve the trot, but two times in the motion, and all the dif- front teeth begin to show themselves fifteen days after ference is, that in the trot the two legs which go together the birth of the foal; these first teeth are round, short, are opposite, in a diagonal line: instead of which, in not strong, and drop out at different times, in order to the amble, the two legs on the same side go together: make room for others: at two years and a half the this pace is very easy for the rider, as it has not the four front middle teeth drop out the first, two at top, and jolting of the trot, which is occasioned from the resist- two at bottom; a year after four others fall out, one on ance the fore leg meets with when the hind leg rises; each side of those which are already replaced; at about because, in the amble the fore leg rises at the same time four years and a half, four others drop out, always on with the hind leg on the same side, instead of which, the side of those which have been replaced, these four in trotting the fore leg on the same side rests and assists last milk teeth are replaced by four others, which do the impulse during the whole time that the hind leg is not grow near so fast as those which replaced the first eight; and these four last teeth which are called the The Horse, of all animals, is that which, with great wedges, and which replace the four last milk teeth, are stature, has the most complete proportion and elegance those by which we know the age of a Horse; these are in every part of his body; and compared with every easily known, since they are the third as well at top as other animal, he appears superior in these respects. at bottom, beginning to count from the middle to the The great length of the jaws is the principal cause of extremity of the jaw; these teeth are hollow and have the difference between the heads of quadrupeds and of a black mark in their concavity; at four years and a the human species: it is also the most ignoble mark of half, or five years old, they scarcely project beyond the all; yet, though the jaws of the Horse are very long, gums, and the hollow is plainly seen; six years and he has not, like the ass, an air of imbecility, or of a half it begins to fill up, the mark also begins to distupidity, like the ox. The regularity of the proportions minish and grow narrower, and so continues till seven of his head, on the contrary, gives him an air of years and a half or eight years, when the hollow is sprightliness, which is well supplied by the beauty of entirely filled up and the black mark effaced: after the his chest. The Horse seems desirous of raising him- animal has attained eight years, as these teeth do not self above his state of a quadruped, by holding up his give further information of the age, we generally judge head, and in this noble attitude he looks man in the by the eye teeth or husks; these four teeth are placed face; his eyes are lively and large, his ears well made, at the side of those which I have just now been speaking and of a just proportion, without being short like those of; the eye teeth, as well as the grinders, are not preof the bull, or too long like those of the ass; his mane ceded by others which fall out, those of the inferior suits well his head, ornaments his neck, and gives him jaw usually come out first at three years and a half, and an air of strength and haughtiness; his long bushy the two of the upper jaw at four years, and till they are tail covers and terminates advantageously the extrem- six years old they are very sharp; at ten years old the ities of his body, far different from the short tails of upper ones appear already blunt, worn, and long, because the stag, the elephant, &c. and the naked tails of the they are bare, the gum wearing away with age, and the ass, the camel, the rhinoceros, &c. The tail of the more they are worn away the more aged the horse is: Horse is formed of long, thick hair, which seems to from ten till thirteen or fourteen years, there is hardly come from the rump, because the stump from which it any indication of the age, but then some hairs on the grows is very short; he cannot raise his tail like the eyebrows begin to grow white; but this indication is lion, but it suits him better hanging down, as he can equivocal, since it has been remarked that Horses enmove it sideways; it is very useful to him to drive gendered from old stallions and old mares have the away the flies which incommode him: for though his hair white on the eyebrows at ten years old. There skin is very hard, and is every where furnished with are also Horses whose teeth are so hard that they do a close thick coat, it is, notwithstanding, extremely not wear, and upon which the black mark subsists, and sensible. is never effaced; and others which have the mark in the mouth as long as they live. We may also know, though with less precision, the age of a Horse by the ridges of the palate, which are effaced in proportion to his age.

The head of a well-proportioned Horse should be lean and small, without being too long; the ears at a moderate distance, small, straight, immoveable, narrow, thin, and well placed on the top of the head; the forehead narrow, and a little convex; the hollows filled up; the eyelids thin, the eyes clear, lively, full of fire, rather large, and projecting from the head, the pupil large; the nether jaw thin; the nose a little aquiline, the nostrils large and open, the partition of the nose, and the lips, thin; the mouth of a moderate width; the withers raised and sloping; the shoulders thin, flat, and not confined; the back equal, even, and insensibly arched lengthwise, and raised on each side of the spine, which should appear indented; the flanks full and short; the rump round and fleshy; the haunches well covered with hair; the stump of the tail thick and firm; the fore legs and thighs thick and fleshy, the knee round before, the houghs large and rounded, the sinew loose, the joint next the foot small, the fetlock not thickly covered with hair, the pastern large, and of a middling length, the coronet rather raised, the hoof black, smooth, shining, and high, the quarters round, the heels wide and moderately raised, the frog small and thin, and the sole thick and hollow.

One of the most important things to be known is, the age of the Horse: it is from the teeth that we obtain the most certain knowledge of their age; the Horse has forty; twenty-four grinders, four eye teeth, and twelve incisive teeth: Mares have no eye teeth, or if they have

It has been remarked, that studs situated in dry and light countries produce good-tempered, swift, and vigorous Horses, with nervous legs and hard hoofs; while on the other hand, those which are bred in damp places, and in fat pasturage, have generally the head large and heavy, the legs thick, the hoofs soft, and the feet flat. This difference arises from the climate and food, which may be easily understood; but, what is more difficult to be comprehended, and what is still more essential than any thing that has been said, is, the necessity of always crossing or mixing the breed, if we would prevent their degenerating.

Mares usually go with foal eleven months and some days; they will breed commonly to the age of fourteen or fifteen years, and the more vigorous longer than eighteen years.

The duration of the life of Horses is like that of every other species of animals, in proportion to the time of their growth. Man, who is above fourteen years in growing, lives six or seven times as long, that is to say, ninety or a hundred years. The Horse who attains his full growth in four years, lives six or seven times as long, that is to say, twenty-five or thirty years. There are so few examples to contradict this rule, that we should not even regard them as exceptions from

« PředchozíPokračovat »