and the reason for all this inventiveness and backbreaking toil was the fact that the rider was the exalted leader of his people , his eminence apparent not only in their blind , frantic wish to please him and do his every bid , but also in the riders girth a veritable mound of human flesh that no garment could stop from bursting out of the seams and overspilling in thick , long folds of grimy fat which rendered walking impossible .