The food of the Homeric horses,[1147] was little inferior to that of their masters, since, besides the natural delicacies of the meadows, they were indulged with sifted barley and the finest wheat.[1148] The halter with which, while feeding, they were tied to the manger seems usually to have been of leather. Aristotle,[1149] remarks, that horses are fattened less by their food than by what they drink, and that, like the camel,[1150] they delight in muddy water, on which account they usually trouble the stream before they taste it. ----- Footnote 1147: Iliad. θ. 560. Cf. ι. 123, seq. 265, 407. κ. 565, seq. Footnote 1148: Il. ε. 196. On an ancient crystal engraved in Buonaroti a man with cap and short breeches is represented feeding an ass with corn. Osserv. Istorich. sop. alc. Medagl. Antich. p. 345. Footnote 1149: Hist. Anim. viii. 10. Footnote 1150: Phile applies the same observation to the elephant: Ὕδωρ δὲ πίνει πλῆθος ἄφθονον πάνυ· Πλὴν οὐ καθαρὸν, καὶ διειδὲς οὐ θέλει, Ἀλλ’ οὖν ῥυπαρὸν καὶ κατεσπιλωμένον. Iamb. de Animal. Proprietat. c. 39. p. 56, 165, seq. ----- The Greek conception of equine beauty[1151] differed but little from our own, since they chiefly loved horses of those colours which are still the objects of admiration: as snow-white, with black eyes like those of Rhesos, which Plato thought the most beautiful; cream-coloured, light bay, chestnut, and smoky grey. They judged of the breeding of a horse by the shortness of its coat and the dusky prominence of its veins. As a fine large mane greatly augments the magnificent appearance of this animal, they were careful after washing to comb and oil it[1152] while they gathered up the forelock in a band of gilded leather.[1153] The floors of their stables were commonly pitched with round pebbles bound tight together by curbs of iron.[1154] ----- Footnote 1151: Geop. xvi. 2. Philost. Icon. i. 28. p. 804. Notwithstanding the admiration of the Greeks for horses we do not find that they made any attempt to naturalize among them those Shetlands of the ancient world which, according to a very grave naturalist, were no larger than rams. These diminutive steeds were found in India:—Παρά γε τοῖς ψύλλοις καλουμένοις τῶν Ἰνδῶν, εἱσὶ γὰρ καὶ Λιβύων ἕτεροι, ἵπποι γίνονται τῶν κριῶν οὐ μείζους. Ælian. de Animal. xvi. 37. Modern writers relate the same thing of a certain breed of oxen in India: “Naturalists speak of a diminutive breed of oxen in Ceylon, and the neighbourhood of Surat, no larger than a Newfoundland dog, which, though fierce of aspect, are trained to draw children in their little carts.” Hindoos, i. 23. Footnote 1152: Iliad, χ. 281, seq. Footnote 1153: Il. ε. 358. Footnote 1154: Xenoph. de Re Equest. iv. 4. -----