Note 117 — APPENDIX.

If you are attacked by a dog when you have the good fortune to be armed with a shilelagh, do not hit him across the head and eyes; bear in mind that the front part of his fore-legs is a far more vulnerable and sensitive spot. One or two well applied blows upon that unprotected place will generally disable the strongest dog. Consider how feelingly alive your own shins are to the slightest rap. I have in India seen a vicious horse quite cowed under such discipline, and a really savage nag in that country is, to use an expression common among the natives, a fellow who would “eat one to the very turban.” They will sometimes cure a biter by letting him seize a leg of mutton burning hot off the fire—not so expensive a remedy as you may think, where sheep, wool, or rather hair and all, are constantly sold at 2s. each,—I will not describe how poor,—I have lifted them up, one in each hand, to judge of their comparative weight. A country bred horse may be conquered by harsh means; but a true Arab never. It is rare to find one that is not sweet-tempered; but when he is vicious, his high spirit and great courage make him quite indomitable.

With a stout stick, a better defence than you may at first imagine can be made against the attack of a vicious bull. Smart blows struck on the tip of his horns seem to cause a jar painfully felt at the roots. Mr. B——n, of A——n, when he was charged in the middle of a large field by a bull which soon afterwards killed a man, adopting this plan, beat off the savage animal, though it several times renewed its attacks.