THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 115 



His pay therefore is proportionably high ; for every 

 tabunshick is a hired servant, as no serf could be 

 impelled by any dread of punishment to exert that 

 constant vigilance, without which the whole taboon 

 would be broken up in a few days. What the fear 

 of the whip, however, cannot effect in a slave, the 

 hope of gain may insure from a freeman. The wages 

 of a tabunshick are regulated by the number of horses 

 committed to his care. For each horse he usually 

 receives five or six rubles a year ; so that the guardian 

 of a full taboon may earn his six thousand rubles 

 annually (275), if he can keep the wolf and thief at 

 bay ; but every horse that is lost the tabunshick must 

 pay for ; and horse stealing is carried on so largely and 

 dextrously on the Steppe, that he may sometimes 

 lose half a year's wages in a single night. He must 

 also pay his assistants out of his own wages, and three 

 assistants at least will be required to look after a 

 taboon of a thousand horses. Notwithstanding all 

 these drawbacks, however, the tabunshick, if he were 

 vigilant and careful, might always save money; but 

 few of them do so, and it rarely happens, that when 

 invalided, they have hoarded together a little capital 

 to enable them to embark in any more quiet occupation. 

 The hardships to which they are constantly 

 exposed, and the high wages which they receive, make 



