The Essays, vol 8 | Page 7

XI., king of Leon and Castile, died 1350.]--
he who first instituted the Order of the Band or Scarf in Spain, amongst
other rules of the order, gave them this, that they should never ride
mule or mulet, upon penalty of a mark of silver; this I had lately out of
Guevara's Letters. Whoever gave these the title of Golden Epistles had
another kind of opinion of them than I have. The Courtier says, that till
his time it was a disgrace to a gentleman to ride on one of these
creatures: but the Abyssinians, on the contrary, the nearer they are to
the person of Prester John, love to be mounted upon large mules, for
the greatest dignity and grandeur.
Xenophon tells us, that the Assyrians were fain to keep their horses
fettered in the stable, they were so fierce and vicious; and that it
required so much time to loose and harness them, that to avoid any
disorder this tedious preparation might bring upon them in case of
surprise, they never sat down in their camp till it was first well fortified
with ditches and ramparts. His Cyrus, who was so great a master in all
manner of horse service, kept his horses to their due work, and never
suffered them to have anything to eat till first they had earned it by the
sweat of some kind of exercise. The Scythians when in the field and in
scarcity of provisions used to let their horses blood, which they drank,
and sustained themselves by that diet:
"Venit et epoto Sarmata pastus equo."
["The Scythian comes, who feeds on horse-flesh" --Martial, De
Spectaculis Libey, Epigr. iii. 4.]
Those of Crete, being besieged by Metellus, were in so great necessity
for drink that they were fain to quench their thirst with their horses
urine.--[Val. Max., vii. 6, ext. 1.]
To shew how much cheaper the Turkish armies support themselves
than our European forces, 'tis said that besides the soldiers drink
nothing but water and eat nothing but rice and salt flesh pulverised (of
which every one may easily carry about with him a month's provision),
they know how to feed upon the blood of their horses as well as the
Muscovite and Tartar, and salt it for their use.

These new-discovered people of the Indies [Mexico and Yucatan D.W.],
when the Spaniards first landed amongst them, had so great an opinion
both of the men and horses, that they looked upon the first as gods and
the other as animals ennobled above their nature; insomuch that after
they were subdued, coming to the men to sue for peace and pardon, and
to bring them gold and provisions, they failed not to offer of the same
to the horses, with the same kind of harangue to them they had made to
the others: interpreting their neighing for a language of truce and
friendship.
In the other Indies, to ride upon an elephant was the first and royal
place of honour; the second to ride in a coach with four horses; the
third to ride upon a camel; and the last and least honour to be carried or
drawn by one horse only. Some one of our late writers tells us that he
has been in countries in those parts where they ride upon oxen with
pads, stirrups, and bridles, and very much at their ease.
Quintus Fabius Maximus Rullianus, in a battle with the Samnites,
seeing his horse, after three or four charges, had failed of breaking into
the enemy's battalion, took this course, to make them unbridle all their
horses and spur their hardest, so that having nothing to check their
career, they might through weapons and men open the way to his foot,
who by that means gave them a bloody defeat. The same command was
given by Quintus Fulvius Flaccus against the Celtiberians:
["You will do your business with greater advantage of your horses'
strength, if you send them unbridled upon the enemy, as it is recorded
the Roman horse to their great glory have often done; their bits being
taken off, they charged through and again back through the enemy's
ranks with great slaughter, breaking down all their spears."--Idem, xl.
40.]
The Duke of Muscovy was anciently obliged to pay this reverence to
the Tartars, that when they sent an embassy to him he went out to meet
them on foot, and presented them with a goblet of mares' milk (a
beverage of greatest esteem amongst them), and if, in drinking, a drop
fell by chance upon their horse's mane, he was bound to lick it off with
his tongue. The army that Bajazet had sent into Russia was

overwhelmed with so dreadful a tempest of snow, that to shelter and
preserve themselves from the cold, many killed and