The Native method of confining horses in their sheds or stables appears somewhat remarkable to a European. The halter is staked in the ground, and the two hind legs have a rope fastened to each; this is also staked in the ground behind. The ropes are left sufficiently long to allow of the animal lying down at his pleasure.
The food of horses is fresh grass, brought from the jungles daily, by the grass-cutters, who are kept solely for this purpose. In consequence of these men having to walk a distance of four or more miles before they reach the jungles, and the difficulty of finding sufficient grass when there, one man cannot procure more grass in a day than will suffice for one horse; the consequence is, that if a gentleman keep twenty horses, there are forty men to attend them; viz., twenty grooms, and as many grass-cutters. The grass of India, excepting only during the rainy season, is burnt up by the heat of the sun, in all exposed situations. In the jungles and forests of mango-trees, wherever there is any shade, the men search for grass, which is of a different species to any I have seen in Europe, called doob-grass,[21] a dwarf creeper, common throughout India; every other kind of grass is rejected by the horse; they would rather eat chaff in the absence of the doob-grass. The refuse of the grass given for food, answers the purpose of bedding; for in India straw is never brought into use, but as food for the cows, buffaloes, and oxen. The nature of straw is friable in India, perhaps induced by climate by the wise ordering of Divine Providence, of which indeed a reflecting mind must be convinced, since it is so essential an article for food to the cattle where grass is very scarce, excepting only during the season of rain.
When the corn is cut, the whole produce of a field is brought to one open spot, where the surface of the ground is hard and smooth; the oxen and their drivers trample in a continued circuit over the whole mass, until the corn is not only threshed from the husks, but the straw broken into fine chaff. They winnow it with their coarse blankets, or chuddahs[22] (the usual wrapper of a Native, resembling a coarse sheet), and house the separate articles in pits, dug in the earth, close to their habitations. Such things as barns, granaries, or stacks, are never seen to mark the abode of the Native farmers as in Europe.
An invading party could never discover the deposits of corn, whilst the Natives chose to keep their own secret. This method of depositing the corn and chaff in the earth, is the only secure way of preserving these valuable articles from the encroachment of white ants, whose visits to the grain are nearly as destructive, and quite as much dreaded, as the flights of locusts to the green blades.
The corn in general use for horses, sheep, and cattle, in called gram;[23] the flavour resembles our field pea much more than grain. It is produced on creepers, with pods; and bears a pretty lilac blossom, not unlike peas, or rather vetches, but smaller; the grain, however, is as large as a pea, irregularly shaped, of a dark brown skin, and pale yellow within. There are several other kinds of grain in use amongst the Natives for the use of cattle; one called moat,[24] of an olive green colour. It is considered very cooling in its nature, at certain seasons of the year, and is greatly preferred both for young horses and for cows giving milk.
Horses are subject to an infectious disease, which generally makes its appearance in the rainy season, and therefore called burrhsaatie.[25] Once in the stable, the disorder prevails through the stud, unless timely precautions are taken to prevent them being infected—removal from the stable is the most usual mode adopted—so easy is the infection conveyed from one animal to the other, that if the groom of the sick horse enters the stable of the healthy they rarely escape contagion. It is a tedious and painful disorder and in nine cases out of ten the infected animal either dies, or is rendered useless for the saddle. The legs break out in ulcers, and, I am informed, without the greatest care on the part of the groom, he is also liable to imbibe the corruption; if he has any cut or scratch on his hands, the disease may be received as by inoculation.
The Natives have the greatest aversion to docked-tailed horses, and will never permit the animals to be shorn of the beauty with which Nature has adorned them, either in length or fulness; besides which, they think it a barbarous want of taste in those who differ from them, though they fancy Nature is improved when the long tail and mane of a beautiful white Arab are dyed with mayndhie; his legs, up to the knees, stained with the same colour, and divers stars, crescents, &c., painted on the haunches, chest, and throat of the pretty gentle creature.[26]
When the horses are looking rough, the Natives feed them with a mixture of coarse brown sugar and ghee, which they say gives sleekness to the skin, and improves the constitution of the horse. When their horses grow old, they boil the gram with which they feed them, to make it easy of digestion; very few people, indeed, give corn at any age to the animal unsoaked, as they consider it injudicious to give dry corn to horses, which swells in the stomach of the animal and cannot digest: the grain swells exceedingly by soaking, and thus moistened, the horse requires less water than would be necessary with dry corn.
The numberless Native sports I have heard related in this country would take me too long to repeat at present; describe them I could not, for my feelings and views are at variance with the painful tortures inflicted on the brute creation for the perverted amusements of man, consisting of many unequal contests, which have sickened me to think they were viewed by mortals with pleasure or satisfaction. A poor unoffending antelope or stag, perhaps confined from the hour of its quitting its dam in a paddock, turned out in a confined space to the fury of a cheetah[27] (leopard) to make his morning's repast. Tigers and elephants are often made to combat for the amusement of spectators; also, tigers and buffaloes, or alligators. The battle between intoxicated elephants is a sport suited only for the cruel-hearted, and too often indulged. The mahouts[28] (the men who sit as drivers on the neck of the elephant) have frequently been the victims of the ignoble amusement of their noble masters; indeed, the danger they are exposed to is so great, that to escape is deemed a miracle. The fighting-elephants are males, and they are prepared for the sport by certain drugs mixed up with the wax from the human ear. The method of training elephants for fighting must be left to abler hands to describe. I have passed by places where the animal was firmly chained to a tree, in situations remote from the population of a city, as danger is always anticipated from their vicinity; and when one of these infuriated beasts break from their bonds, serious accidents often occur to individuals before they can again be secured.
Amongst the higher classes tigers and leopards are retained for field sports, under the charge of regular keepers. In many instances these wild inhabitants of the jungle are tamed to the obedience of dogs, or other domestic animals. I have often seen the young cubs sucking the teats of a goat, with which they play as familiarly as a kitten with its mother. A very intimate acquaintance of ours has several tigers and leopards, which are perfectly obedient to his command; they are led out by their keepers night and morning, but he always feeds them with his own hands, that he may thereby make them obedient to himself, when he sports in the jungles, which he often does with success, bringing home stags and antelopes to grace the board, and distribute amongst his English friends.