The horses are small, and some of them are finely shaped, though little attention is paid to the improvement of the breed. Great stress is laid upon the colour, in the choice of these animals; some colours being accounted more demonstrative of strength than others. Thus a cream-coloured horse, with a tail and mane of the same colour, is rejected for the pack-saddle, or for any kind of severe labour; and if horses of this description are sold for these purposes, the price is lower than that of an animal of an equally promising appearance in form and size, of any other tinge: they are much esteemed if well shaped, as saddle-horses, for short distances. A cream-coloured horse, with a black tail and mane, is reckoned strong. The horses that have one fore-leg white, and the other of the colour of the body, are supposed to be liable to stumble. The usual colours are bay and grey; but chesnut, black, and cream-colour are less common; those most esteemed for work are dark bays, with black tails and manes, and greys dotted with small bay spots. Stallions are broken in both for the saddle and for carrying loads in the neighbourhood of the towns; but the Sertanejos, both from necessity and from their knowledge of their superior ability to perform hard labour, make use of geldings. It is not always safe to ride a high-spirited horse in the Sertam, because when he begins to neigh, instances have occurred of some master horse coming to give him battle, and as both are equally desirous of fighting, the rider may perhaps find himself under the necessity of placing himself at a distance from the combatants. However, if he should chance to have a good stick in his hand, and can prevent his own horse from rearing as the wild horse approaches, he may come off in safety. Sheep are kept upon every estate for their flesh, when that of a more esteemed kind fails; that is, either when the oxen are in a meagre state, owing to a long continuance of dry weather; or that the herdsman is too much occupied at home, or too lazy to go out and kill one. The mutton is never well-tasted, and though it is true that in the Sertam no care whatever is taken in rearing or feeding the sheep, still I do not think that this kind of meat is to be brought to any great perfection[51]. The lambs are covered with fine wool, and this continues until they are one year and a half or two years old; but after this age, it begins to drop, and is replaced by a species of hair. Although the wool should remain longer in some instances, it appeared to me that it was coarse and short[52]. A wound upon the body of this animal is more difficult to heal than upon that of any other, and the flesh of it is of all others the most rapid in its advances to putrefaction.