88 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



preter, furnished us with the substance of the follow- 

 ing notice. The tarpani form herds of several 

 hundreds, subdivided into smaller troops, each headed 

 by a stallion ; they are not found unmixed excepting 

 towards the borders of China ; they prefer wide, open, 

 elevated steppes, and always proceed in lines or files, 

 usually with the head to windward, moving slowly 

 forward while grazing, the stallions leading, and 

 occasionally going round their own troop. Young 

 stallions are often at some distance, and single, 

 because they are expelled by the older, until they can 

 form a troop of mares of their own ; their heads are 

 seldom observed to be down for any length of time ; 

 they utter now and then a kind of snort, with a low 

 neigh somewhat like a horse expecting its oats, but 

 yet are distinguishable by the voice from any domestic 

 species, excepting the woolly Kalmuc breed. They 

 have a remarkably piercing sight, the point of a 

 Cossack spear at a great distance on the horizon, seen 

 behind a bush, being sufficient to make a whole troop 

 halt ; but this is not a token of alarm ; it soon resumes 

 its march, till some young stallion on the skirts begins 

 to blow with his nostrils, moves his ears in all direc- 

 tions with rapidity, and trots or scampers forward to 

 reconnoitre 1 , the head being very high, and the tail 

 out; if his curiosity is satisfied, he stops and begins to 



