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MEN, MONKEYS, HOKSES, AND SOTS. 149
instructed us. Big teeth denoted poor, small teeth
good, eyesight. Rice-straw as a steady diet produced
spavin, mulberry leaves cured blindness, certain
spots on the knees betokened a good "night eye,"
or power to see well in the dark. Horses were not
curried, but combed, washed in warm water, and
carefully wiped. It was the custom to bind the
forelock so as to make it stand erect in tufts like
pompons, and to encase the tail in a silk bag. The
art of equine hair-dressing was professed by specialists.
To make the tail droop gracefully, the sinew
beneath the root must be cut. As there are few
flies in Japan a fly-brush was not necessary.
It is said by those who have ridden fine animals
in other countries that the Japanese horse "is
without a single virtue ;
" and though this is, as the
Japanese say, "blowing a conch," that is, telling a
snorting exaggeration, yet
little can be said in his
praise except that he is tough, patient, enduring,
sure-footed, and can live cheaply on poor fare.
A great many even of the saddle-horses in
Echizen were badly broken in, and all the natural
troubles of an unskilled rider were much increased
by a multitude of uncanny and undesirable tricks
which the creature began to play as soon as he
discovered the character of his human burden and
the quality of his arm. When Mr. Honda first
taught his son Jiro to ride he used gentle horses,
but as he advanced in skill he put hard-mouthed
animals under him. For bold riders vicious horses
were purposely chosen and ridden by ambitious