For thousands of years, man could only rely on sturdy quadrupeds to lighten the fatigue of covering long distances on land, of assisting in the carriage of heavy objects and of performing tasks that required more than the bare brawn of human muscle.

A greengrocer on wheels, 1930s

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A bread cart in the 1930s

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Over the centuries, in Malta, the choice fell on a limited number of four-legged creatures – horses, mares, donkeys, mules, oxen and, but only exceptionally, dogs. Other beasts of burden, like camels, elephants and reindeer, do not feature in the Maltese landscape.

Horses dominated. At first for trekking distances, carrying loads, policing, in battle and for sports.

Cavalry warriors already featured in the 1565 Great Siege, and jousting on horseback also seemed familiar. In Hospitaller times, the number of equines to a carriage denoted the status of the passenger – only the grand master could have six. Lesser dignitaries had to make do with four, two or even one. Horse and donkey racing (Strada dei giannetti) featured prominently in old, popular festivities.

A post-war sulky used for trotting and racing

An ambulant blade-sharpener serving towns and villages

Up to relatively recently, karrettuni drawn by horses, mares, donkeys or mules served most street hawkers, ice cream or kerosene vendors, blade-sharpeners, bread carts, water carriers or road sprinklers, used daily in hot summers to settle the dust on non-asphalted roads. I am only listing a few. 

Landau carriage used by the governor's family, c. 1890

Today, horses mostly appear harnessed to sulkies in trotting races and as tired folklore in the tourist-nostalgia karozzin, which boasted many Victorian ancestors, two or four-wheeled, like the kaless, the Landau and the dozen variants of the gentleman’s traps or carts.

Upper class horse-drawn carriage, c. 1900

A horse-drawn luxury hearse, 1930s

A gentleman's cart, also known as xarretta, c. 1910

On the other hand, oxen and mules dominated heavier agricultural functions, like ploughing the fields, going round in windmills threshing wheat or working the waterwheel (is-sienja).  Photographers and postcard publishers relished the pairing of man with beast, and many pre-war records thankfully survive.

The Maltese kaless, a 1910s postcard from the series of Maltese customs

A live poultry vendor in Sliema, early 1930s

A waterwheel in a field operated by a horse, c. 1920

Moving furniture by natural horse-power, near Castille, c, 1920

Pre-war cart of a kerosene seller ‘tal-pitrolju’

An ox drawing a plough tilling the fields, c. 1910

All images from the author’s collection

A boy selling ice cream, 1930s