Page:Leaves from my Chinese Scrapbook - Balfour, 1887.djvu/87

 by the native cavalry inspectors, that, when the Yuens were ousted in their turn, they actually found themselves without sufficient horses on which to take to flight.

Such being the violent fluctuations which have characterised the fortunes of the horse in China, it may not be uninteresting to turn to the theories current among the Chinese with respect to the proper treatment of the animal. Horses, be it first observed, are said to be subject to the principle Yang, and under the influence of fire. It is therefore necessary that all their stables should face the south. It is also obvious that, for the same reason, no horse should ever be reared in the neighbourhood of silkworms; for silkworms are subject to the opposing principle Yin, and under the influence of stars whose action is at direct variance with that of the stars which govern horses; and it is impossible to say what dire results might accrue to both were these hostile agencies ever allowed to clash. Indeed, a man has only to rub a horse's teeth with silkworms' droppings to prevent him from masticating his hay, while a few mulberry-leaves will, if placed in his mouth, deprive him of the power of eating for ever afterwards. The smallness of a horse's ears, say the Chinese naturalists, indicates a corresponding smallness of his liver; the size of his nostrils, that of his lungs, and consequent staying power in a race; the largeness of his eyes, that of his heart—arguing courage and spirit; while a small stomach is a sure sign that he requires but little food. A horse has no gall; which, it is scarcely necessary to add, is the reason he is so constantly subject to sore eyes. He hates galloping with the wind behind him, but enjoys it when it