8o SHANDROVKA 



occasions, Englishmen, Colonials, Americans and Africanders, 

 instead of offering me only a lighted match, have supple- 

 mented it with an excellent cigar and a request to know what 

 I would drink. That supposed test of nationality reminds 

 me of the equally stupid English story that one can tell from 

 what country a man comes, by the way he comports himself 

 with a glass of beer in which there is a fly ; for a French- 

 man will remove the insect and drink the malt, a German 

 will drink both, and a Britisher will throw the beer away 

 and have a fresh glass. My experience of the world, which 

 is a great deal wider than that of General Derfelden, is that 

 neither virtues nor vices are the monopoly of any nation. 



At last we arrived in the early morning at the small 

 station of Varvarovka, which is on the Lozovaya-Savastopol 

 line, and then a bitterly cold drive of about eighteen miles 

 over a rough bridle track brought us to Shandrovka, where 

 we were hospitably received by the colonel in charge. 

 Shandrovka is in the desolate steppes of the Dnieper, far 

 away from any town, and consists only of a few officers' 

 houses, some huts for the men, stables and paddocks. After 

 luncheon, we adjourned to have a walk through the paddocks, 

 which contained about five hundred freshly caught remounts. 

 Being anxious to get to work, I was only too glad to accept 

 General Derfelden's suggestion to show him something, and 

 accordingly demonstrated in a practical manner how steppe 

 horses could be caught and haltered without being lassoed. 

 The horses of the steppes may be divided into two classes, 

 namely, semi-wild animals like those on the Kirgis and 

 Kalmouk steppes, and horses at liberty, though under more 

 or less supervision, like those of the Don and its affluents. 

 On the Kirgis and Kalmouk steppes, each stallion has his 

 kossiak or troop of fifteen to twenty brood mares, which are 

 generally chosen by the stallion and are protected by him. 

 The young mares which have not had a foal and the geldings 



