THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 87 



is, sprung from a tame stock), for no other reason 

 than because they are not very unlike our ordinary 

 domestic breeds. Colonel Hamilton Smith, a writer 

 of great authority, has combated these notions with 

 great force. 



" Whatever," he says, "may be the lucubrations of 

 naturalists in their cabinets, it does not appear that 

 the Tahtar or even the Cossack nations have any 

 doubt upon the subject ; for they assert that they can 

 distinguish a feral breed from the wild by many 

 tokens, and naming the former takja and muzin, they 

 denominate the real wild horse tarpan and tarpani. 

 We have had' some opportunity of making personal 

 inquiries on wild horses among a considerable number 

 of Cossacks of different parts of Russia, and among 

 Bashkirs, Kirguise, and Kalmucs, and with a sufficient 

 recollection of the statements of Pallas and Buffon's 

 information obtained from M. Sanchez, to direct 

 the questions to most of the points at issue* From 

 the answers of Russian officers of this irregular 

 cavalry, who spoke French: or German, we drdw the 

 general conclusion of their general belief in a true 

 wild and untamable species of horse, and in herds 

 that were of mixed origin. Those most acquainted 

 with a nomadic life, and in particular an orderly 

 Cossack attached to a Tahtar chief as Russian inter- 



