sufficiently strong to ward off the shock of a spear. Their horses'
heads are also defended by plates of iron, brass, and silver, just
leaving room for the eyes of the animal; and not unfrequently they are
hung over with charms, enclosed in little red leather parcels, strung
together, round the neck, in front of the head, and about the saddle.

[Illustration]

Their appearance is altogether of a warlike character, the horses being
well caparisoned, and the riders well clothed for personal defence; and
though their equestrian evolutions be somewhat wild, the lance or spear
is doubtless a formidable weapon in their hands. The savage splendour of
their dress, together with the pawing and snorting of their fiery
steeds, render them appropriate auxiliaries to royalty, in countries
where such attributes of power are requisite to impress the people with
the importance of their rulers, and where the milder aids of
civilization and refinement are wanting to protect the sovereign from
violence.

The second engraving, copied from the same authentic source as that
preceding it, is a somewhat grotesque portraiture of one of the _Lancers
of the Sultan of Begharmi_, described, in an historical and geographical
account by a native prince, as an extensive country, containing woods
and rivers, and fields fit for cultivation; but now desolated, as the
inhabitants say, by the "misconduct of the king, who, having increased
in levity and licentiousness to such a frightful degree, as even to
marry his own daughter, God Almighty caused Saboon, the prince of
Wa-da-i, to march against him, and destroy him, laying waste, at the
same time, all his country, and leaving the houses uninhabited, as a
signal chastisement for his impiety."