Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 2.djvu/36

 side and a sampan on the other neutralizes both bad and good qualities.

The panch kalian. The natives admire a patch-kalian, as they call it, very much, that is, a horse with five marks, as follows:—all four legs white to the knees, stockings as they are called, and a white muzzle with a white blaze from the muzzle up the forehead. According to my idea, such a horse in appearance is only fit for a butcher's tray. Nevertheless, the natives admire them, and I have seen many good horses of this description.

The sampan. When the feather on the neck of a horse on either side turns towards the rider, it is called sampan; this is a very bad mark, indeed the worst; but, if there be two sampans, one on each side the neck, have nothing to say to the animal, he is an Harāmzāda, given to rearing and squalling; is vicious, and will be the death of his rider.

The siyah-tālū or black palate is a very bad sign; such horses are regularly bad, and are never to be depended upon: no native will purchase an animal having, as it is usually called, the shatāloo.

Small eyes are the sign of a sulky horse.

The star on the forehead. No native will purchase a horse if he can cover the star on the forehead with the ball of his thumb. And in buying a horse from a native, look to that mark, as they take the white hairs out with a certain application. A large star is a good sign. No star at all is of no consequence; but a few white hairs proclaim a bad horse, and no native will buy him.

With respect to the colour of horses, they are fanciful. Greys are admired: black horses are also considered handsome: bays are good: chestnuts very bad.

With regard to Arabs, they are extremely particular as to the perfect straightness of the forehead, from the top of it down to the nose; the slightest rise on that part proving in their ideas a want of perfect pedigree. The deep hollow under the jaw is absolutely necessary; the small mouth, and the open, large, thin-skinned nostrils; the eyes large and fine; the hoof small, black, and hard; and the long tail. These points attract the