CHAP. 67.—MARES IMPREGNATED BY THE WIND.
It is well known that in Lusitania, in the vicinity of the town
of Olisipo[1] and the river Tagus, the mares, by turning their faces
towards the west wind as it blows, become impregnated by its
breezes,[2] and that the foals which are conceived in this way are remarkable for their extreme fleetness; but they never live beyond
three years. Gallicia and Asturia are also countries of Spain;
they produce a species of horse known to us as thieldones,[3]
and when smaller, asturcones;[4] they have a peculiar and not
common pace of their own, which is very easy, and arises from
the two legs of the same side being moved together;[5] it is by
studying the nature of this step that our horses have been taught
the movement which we call ambling.[6] Horses have very
nearly the same diseases as men;[7] besides which, they are
subject to an irregular action of the bladder, as, indeed, is the
case with all beasts of burden.[8]
1. Now Lisbon. See B. iv. c. 35.
2. The accounts given, by Phœnician navigators, of the fertility of Lusitania, and the frequency of the mild western breezes, gave rise to the fable
here mentioned, which has been generally received by the ancients; and
that not merely by the poets, as Virgil, Geor. B. iii. 1. 274, 275, but by
practical writers, as Varro, B. ii. c. 1, and Columella, B. vi. c. 27. Justin,
however, B. xliv. c. 3, attributes the opinion to the great size of the horses,
and their remarkable fleetness, from which they were said to be the sons of
the wind.—B.
3. The origin and meaning of this name is not known.—B.
4. Martial describes the peculiar short, quick step of the "asturco," in
one of his Epigrams, B. xiv. Ep. 199.—B.
5. "Alterno crurum explicatu glomeratio;" it would not be possible to
give a literal translation, but we may judge of the meaning by the context.
—B. He clearly alludes to a movement like our canter.
6. "Tolutim carpere incursus;" Hardouin explains this by a reference
to Plautus, Asinaria, A. iii. sc. 3,1. 116. "Tolutim ni badizas"—"If you
do not amble, lifting up your feet."
7. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 24, gives an account of the diseases
of horses.—B.
8. "Genere veterino;" so called, according to Hardouin, from "vectllra," "carriage," as applicable to horses, asses, and mules; Lemaire, vol.
iii. p. 497.—B.