In China, the horse commonly seen is not mud larger than the Shetland pony. It is bony ant strong, but is kept with little care, and presents worse appearance than it would if its hair wer( trinuned, its fetlocks shorn, and its tail untied This custom of knotting the tail is an ancient practice, and the sculptures at Persepolis shoe that the same fashion prevailed among the Persians. The Chinese language possesses a great variety of terms to designate the horse. The differences of age, sex, colour, and disposition are all denoted by particular characters. They are chiefly reared in the province of Kiang-sL In the north also, in the vast plains, the Mongol, Tartar, and Manchurians rear horses, a docile, handsome, and intelligent breed, but do not gene rally exceed 10 or 12 hands ; usually chesnut, bay, and grey. These are generally bred in a wild state, the stallions and mares being allowed to form herds in the plains at their will. Piebald or skewbald horses marked with patches of white and bay are to be seen. Horseflesh is eaten both by the Chinese and Mongolians, as also the flesh of mules and asses in many parts of China.
The horses of Japan average only 13 hands.
In the Archipelago, the horse has been imme morially domesticated by most of the more ad vanced nations, wherever it could be made use of. The chief exceptions are the Malay Peninsula, the eastern seaboard of Sumatra, and nearly the whole of Borneo,—countries in which the people dwell on the marshy banks of rivers, in which there is not even a bridle-path, and fit, therefore, only for the boat and the buffalo. The native horse is always a mere pony, seldom reaching 13 hands high, and more generally of about 12 hands. There are many different breeds, every island having at least one peculiar to itself, and the large islands several.
Sumatra has at least two distinct races,—the Aeheen and Batubara, both small and spirited, but better adapted to draught than the saddle. The small but excellent breed of horses reared in Acheen excel all those of the Archipelago, ex cepting those of .Bhima in Sumbawa. Those of Acheen have fine crests and good strong shoulders ; in which latter particular, as also in height of wither, they differ very much from the horses of Java and the islands to the eastward, which are generally deficient in these points. They are ex ported to Penang and Singapore, and are driven in small carriages. They are occasionally sent to British India.
Of all the countries of the Archipelago, Java is that in which the horse most abounds, and here we find several different breeds, as those of the hill countries, and those of the plains. Generally, the Java horse is larger than that of Sumatra, but, in the language of the turf, has less blood and bottom. The lowland horses, the great majority, are somewhat coarse and sluggish, but the upland are spirited, smaller, and handsomer.
The horse, although of a very inferior breed, is found in the islands of Bali and Lombok; but the next island to these eastward, Sumbarra, produces the handsomest breeds of the whole Archipelago.
They are the Arab of the Archipelago ; yet the blood is not the same as the Arab, for the small horse of Sumbawa, although very handsome, wants the fine coat and the blood head of the Arabian. There are in this island and adjacent islets three different races, that of Tambora, of Bhima, and of Gunong Api, the last being most esteemed.
Next to Java, horses are most abundant in Celebes. These are inferior in beauty to those of Sumbawa, but excel all others of the Malayan portion of the Archipelago, in combining the qualities of size, strength, speed, and bottom.
A very good breed is produced in Samba, called in the maps Sandal-wood Island.
But perhaps the best breed of the whole Archi pelago, although still but a pony, is that of the Philippines. It is superior in size to any of the breeds of the western islands, which it may owe to the superior pastures of the Philippines, and possibly to a small admixture of the. Spanish horses of America, although this last is by no means an ascertained point.
Generally, the horses of the Archipelago are hardy, sure-footed, and docile. The horses are all entire, and the mares used only to breed and as beasts of burden. By the natives of the Archipelago, the horse is only used for the saddle or to carry bur dens, and never for draught, either for plough or wheel-carriage. To see horses drawing a native carriage, except in imitation of Europeans, we must go to the sculptures on ancient temples in Java, where they are thus represented.
In two islands only of the Archipelago is the horse found in the wild state, Celebes and Luzon, the only ones that are known to have extensive grassy plains fit for its pasture, and in these it is caught by the lasso and broke in, as in the Llanos of America. In such situations it is certainly far more likely to have become wild from the domestic state than to be indigenous. In so far as Celebes is concerned, this view is rendered probable by the name being a corruption to the Javanese from one language of that island, the Wugi ; while in another, the Macassar, the horse is called the ' buffalo ' of Java. In the Philippines it is not even alleged that the wild horses are anything else than domesticated ones become so. In Pigafetta's enumeration of the domestic animals of Cebu, he makes no mention of the horse. In the city of Manilla, a pair of good riding horses cost from 100 to 120 dollars, and a pair of carriage horses from 120 to 130. Of course they are much cheaper in the provinces where they are reared. The horses of Sumbawa, Celebes, and Sumba are largely exported to Java, to the British settlements in the Straits of Malacca, and even as far as the Mauritius. In Batavia, a good Bhima, or Batak horse is worth from £10 to £15.