THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 99 



steed and of the Taboon horse, scarcely tame ; of the 

 grey oxen, which furnish nearly all our tallow ; of the 

 antelope and the bustard. The wolf, driven to change 

 his habits, burrows in these immense plains like a fox ; 

 the jackal infests portions of them ; and the destroying 

 locust falls like a blight and a curse on the young 

 green grass of the free space, or on the rising harvest 

 of the agricultural pioneer. On some parts of these 

 wide Steppes dwell the most hideous of the human 

 race, the Calmucks and Baskirs ; and on other parts 

 the Circassians, the most beautiful of their species, 

 still sometimes descend in their predatory excursions.* 



* Revelations of Russia. Hommaire de Hell's Steppes of 

 the Caucasus. 



