At a village boasting the queer name of Fiasco, we took up our last relay of horses, and our fifth coachman. He was a young fellow with a gentle, smiling face and courteous manner. His horses were, contrary to most of the diligence horses, in excellent condition. They had not a rough or a sore place upon them apparently, which was more than could be said for any of the others; and their driver neither required nor used his long whip, nor did he indulge in the various and inharmonious yells of the other four coachmen.
This young man was afterwards introduced to us by a fellow-driver as a nephew and great admirer of the two Bella Coschia bandits.
"He looks kind," said I.
"He is a 'brave homme,'" was the warm reply; "and would not injure a fly"—which, I have no doubt, was true.
The barbarous condition in which horses, and especially mules, are driven in Corsica, is much to be deplored. It is a rare exception to meet with a mule without one or more sores upon its back or legs; and we sometimes saw them at work with an open wound the size of a saucer upon them. The flies in summer must be a terrible aggravation to the sufferings of these poor beasts.
As a rule, however, it is only the draught mules which are thus wounded; and the riding mules are generally whole and well-looking.
There is great excuse for the condition of the animals in the steep roads and the wretched pay received by their owners, the charettiers.
Forced to bring heavy loads of wood down mere mountain paths, dangerously steep and twisting, working often night and day for very insufficient pay, and often at risk of life and limb to themselves, these poor charettiers are constrained to overwork their mules, as they are themselves overworked, and have neither the power nor the inclination to spare them ill-usage.
Yet, I do not think the Corsican is often a voluntarily cruel driver. I never, or rarely, saw one of these wood-carters beating or personally ill-treating his mules. But all over the island there is a tacit indifference to animal suffering.
I wish the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals would establish a branch for the service of mules and horses in Corsica. But they would probably find it hot work at first, as these are not a people who approve of interference in any quarter.