Great Complaints Are Made About The High Price And The Inferiority Of
The Horses Purchaseable In Bombay, A Place In Which The Arab Is Not
So Much Esteemed As I Had Expected.
Some difficulty was experienced
in obtaining very fine specimens of this far-famed race for the Queen,
who gave a commission for them.
I had the pleasure of seeing four that
are going home in the Paget, destined for her Majesty's stables.
The Imaum of Muscat lately sent a present of horses to Bombay, but
they were not of high caste; those I have mentioned, as intended for
the Queen, being of a much finer breed. They are beautiful creatures,
and are to be put under the care of an English groom, who has the
charge of some English horses purchased in London for a native Parsee
gentleman. From the extent of the Arab stables, and the number of Arab
horse-merchants in Bombay, it would appear easy to have the choice
of the finest specimens; but this is not the case, while various
circumstances have combined to reduce the numbers of native horses,
which were formerly readily procurable. Thus, the fine breed of
Kattywar is not now attainable, and the same value does not appear to
be set upon horses from Kutch and the Deccan, which in other parts
of India are esteemed to be so serviceable. Persian horses are
little prized; and those imported from England, though very showy and
handsome, will not do much work in this climate, and are therefore
only suited to rich people, who can keep them for display. The
stud-horses bred near Poonah do not come into the market so freely as
in the Bengal presidency, where they are easily procurable, and are
sought after as buggy and carriage horses. Old residents, I am told,
prefer the Arabs, the good qualities of these celebrated steeds
requiring long acquaintance to be justly appreciated, while persons
new to the country can see nothing but faults in them.
A novel feature in Bombay, to persons who have only visited the other
side of India, is found in the hay-stack, the people having discovered
the advantage of cutting and drying the grass for future use. Immense
numbers of carts, drawn by bullocks and loaded with hay, come every
day into the island; this hay is stacked in large enclosures built
for the purpose, and can be purchased in any quantity. There are large
open spaces, near tanks or wells, on the road-side, which give the
idea of a hay-market; the carts being drawn up, and the patient
bullock, always an accompaniment to an Indian rural scene, unyoked,
reposing on the ground. The drivers, apparently, do not seek the
shelter of a roof, but kindle their cooking-fires on the flats on the
opposite side of the road, and sleep at night under the shelter of
their carts. The causeway which unites the island of Bombay with
its neighbour, Salsette, affords a safe and convenient road, greatly
facilitating the carriage of supplies of various kinds necessary for
the consumption of so populous a place.
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