17 June.--This morning, as I was sitting on the edge of my bed cudgelling my brains, I heard without a crackling of whips and pounding and scraping of horses' feet up the rocky path beyond the courtyard. With joy I hurried to the window, and saw drive into the yard two great leiter-wagons, each drawn by eight sturdy horses, and at the head of each pair a Slovak, with his wide hat, great nail-studded belt, dirty sheepskin, and high boots. They had also their long staves in hand. I ran to the door, intending to descend and try and join them through the main hall, as I thought that way might be opened for them. Again a shock, my door was fastened on the outside.
Then I ran to the window and cried to them. They looked up at me stupidly and pointed, but just then the "hetman" of the Szgany came out, and seeing them pointing to my window, said something, at which they laughed.
Henceforth no effort of mine, no piteous cry or agonized entreaty, would make them even look at me. They resolutely turned away. The leiter-wagons contained great, square boxes, with handles of thick rope. These were evidently empty by the ease with which the Slovaks handled them, and by their resonance as they were roughly moved.
When they were all unloaded and packed in a great heap in one corner of the yard, the Slovaks were given some money by the Szgany, and spitting on it for luck, lazily went each to his horse's head. Shortly afterwards, I heard the crackling of their whips die away in the distance.
“…two great leiter-wagons, each drawn by eight sturdy horses, and at the head of each pair a Slovak…
Today, this would be an impressive display: not one but two eight-horse hitches, each pulling a large wagon. Also, instead of being driven from the wagon, each pair of horses is led by a man on foot.
When I looked for an image similar to this, I came up with two interesting ones. It seems that horses pulling Romani caravans are sometimes led by a person on foot rather than being driven by someone riding on the caravan. But caravans are usually pulled by a single horse.
In the United States, some military funerals have a six-horse team pulling a caisson. (A caisson is similar to a leiter-wagon in that both are very open, multi-purpose cargo platforms.) The caisson’s team is not driven with reins from the wagon, but instead a soldier rides one horse of each pair to guide it. A caisson was originally a wagon to carry artillery supplies such as ammunition and spare wheels, but now it is most frequently used to carry coffins.
On a lighter note, probably the best-known eight-horse hitch today belongs to Budweiser
Posted by: Most Significant | June 17, 2023 at 04:30 AM