I Have Neither
Been Kicked, Bitten, Nor Pitched Off, However, For Mares Are Used
Exclusively In This District, Gentle Creatures About Fourteen Hands
High, With Weak Hind-Quarters, And Heads Nearly Concealed By Shaggy
Manes And Forelocks.
They are led by a rope round the nose, and go
barefoot, except on stony ground, when the mago, or man who leads
them, ties straw sandals on their feet.
The pack-saddle is
composed of two packs of straw eight inches thick, faced with red,
and connected before and behind by strong oak arches gaily painted
or lacquered. There is for a girth a rope loosely tied under the
body, and the security of the load depends on a crupper, usually a
piece of bamboo attached to the saddle by ropes strung with wooden
counters, and another rope round the neck, into which you put your
foot as you scramble over the high front upon the top of the
erection. The load must be carefully balanced or it comes to
grief, and the mago handles it all over first, and, if an accurate
division of weight is impossible, adds a stone to one side or the
other. Here, women who wear enormous rain hats and gird their
kimonos over tight blue trousers, both load the horses and lead
them. I dropped upon my loaded horse from the top of a wall, the
ridges, bars, tags, and knotted rigging of the saddle being
smoothed over by a folded futon, or wadded cotton quilt, and I was
then fourteen inches above the animal's back, with my feet hanging
over his neck.
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