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HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

Paganism. The wandering tribes of Northern Asia have preserved a marvelous liking for horseflesh, for it is their favorite dish, notwithstanding they possess innumerable herds and flocks. The inhabitants of South America esteem the horse the best of food, and prefer it to the wild cattle which they possess in such abundance. The Danes, as late as the year 1807, during the siege of Copenhagen, authorized the sale of this meat in the butchers’ stalls, and since that time, it is said, the horse has not ceased to supply the slaughter-pens. Hazzard the elder—a veterinary surgeon at the end of the eighteenth century—has stated that, during the scarcity which marked the French Revolution, the greater portion of the meat consumed in Paris for six months was supplied by horses, and that the public health suffered no diminution in consequence. In the campaigns of the Rhine, of Catalonia, and of the Maritime Alps, the celebrated Larrey had recourse to this kind of aliment for his wounded. He “derived from it much advantage at the siege of Alexandria, in Egypt, and was in a great measure indebted to its use for the speedy cure of the sick.” We knew “a jolly good fellow of an officer” in the United States Army, who, with his men, was driven, by the perils of the Florida war, to devour a pair of carriage-horses, and although rather famed as a bon-vivant, he was accustomed to speak of his equine entertainments with much enthusiasm—the only regret being that the government would not allow him the price of one of the animals thus consumed, because it was his private property. Belgium may be quoted as having partially followed the example set by Copenhagen, and the Austrian Government has recently authorized the sale of the same alimentary material. In Sweden the use of horse flesh is common, the wealthy classes eating a sandwich composed of bread and a piece of the animal, highly salted, just before dinner, to excite an appetite. We are all shocked at these developments, and yet we eat our Bologna sausages without a wry face, and have been thus for years initiating ourselves into the mysteries of consuming horse-meat—a custom which, at first mention, we heartily condemn.

The horse is distinguished from all other animals in having an undivided hoof, and in the singular property of breathing through the nostrils only, and not through the mouth; for in the severest exercises the mouth is never seen to open, unless the lower jaw is brought down violently by force of the bit. This will account for the “speaking-trumpet” nostril seen after hard riding. It is also singular of the horse, that, although one of the most delicate animals in the choice of food, he disturbs the water before he will drink, and his ears, in a wild state, have a tendency to hang down, and only assume their pointed and erect appearance while under the guardianship of man. In this last respect the horse differs from all other animals, for with them the erect ear is the sign of the savage, the falling ear the evidence of civilization. To us

the argument seems plain, that the true physical beauty of the horse, as well as the production of his full speed, are alone accomplished under the watchful care of his human master.

A horse, in venturing to make a leap, measures the distance to be passed with his eye, and nothing will compel him to attempt it, if he thinks he can not succeed. In Alpine countries, horses accustomed to the difficult passes in the mountains seldom make a false step, or venture on a place where the footing is not secure. It is thus that a horse accustomed to marshy countries may be safely trusted in crossing bogs; they will not go, if left to themselves, where there is danger of being mired.

One of the most difficult things ever attempted by the artist is to represent a horse in actual motion. The rapidity with which he approaches and passes you renders it impossible to receive a correct and permanent impression of what is before you. All pictorial representations, however dexterously treated, are, after all, in repose, and it is a great tax upon the imagination to suppose we behold locomotive energy. The horse, in galloping, does not strike two feet at any instant together on the ground, but the hoofs pommel the hard earth in a perfect succession of sounds, like the roll of the drum. A race-horse will clear from twenty to twenty-four feet at a bound. The impression he makes on the turf is not of feet in pairs, but one foot following the other—thus :

By listening to a horse galloping upon a hard road, you will find the sounds made accurately imitated by placing your finger on the table and causing the other three to follow in quick rotation—then let there be a pause for the bound, and the 1, 2, 3, 4 again in regular succession. Virgil combines the sense and the sound thus: Quadrupe|dante pu|trem soni|tu quatit|angula|campum. Which may be thus imitated in English:

The age of a horse, up to eight or ten years, is correctly given by an examination of the teeth, those useful appendages, through that period of time, undergoing more transformations than in any other animal. When well treated, the horse lives to a great age, but, from the abuse he receives, his best years are from five to ten. Instances are numerous of his being serviceable for twenty years, and for even a longer period of time. An authentic instance is recorded of a horse reaching the wonderful age of seventy years. They weigh, ordinarily, from eleven to thirteen hundred pounds. Barclay, Perkins, and Company, brewers of London, have long possessed a horse weighing a ton ! the heaviest, probably, in the world. The height of the horse is measured by what is termed hands, each hand being equal to four inches. Horses vary in height from the Shetland pony, not much larger than the Newfoundland dog, to the high-mettled