THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 117 



presents itself. The traveller, who has left his horses 

 to graze during the night, or the villager, who has 

 allowed his cattle to wander away from his house, 

 will do well to ascertain that there be no taboon in 

 the vicinity, or in the morning he will look for them 

 in vain. The tabunshick, meanwhile, takes care to 

 rid himself, as soon as possible, of his stolen goods, by 

 exchanging them away to the first brother herdsman 

 that he meets, who again barters them away to another ; 

 so that in a few days, a horse that was stolen on the 

 banks of the Dniepr, passes from hand to hand till it 

 reaches the Bug or the Dniestr; and the rightful owner 

 may still be inquiring after a steed, which has already 

 quitted the empire of the Czar, to enter the service of 

 a Moslem, or to figure in the stud of a Hungarian 

 magnate. The tabunshicks have constantly little 

 affairs of this kind to transact with one another, for 

 which the Mongolian tumuli, scattered over the Steppe, 

 afford convenient places of rendezvous. 



Accustomed to a life of roguery and hardship, and 

 indulging constantly in every kind of excess, the 

 tabunshick comes naturally to be looked upon, by the 

 more orderly class, as rather a suspicious character; 

 but his friendship is generally worth having, and his ill- 

 will is always dreaded. His very master stands a little 

 in awe of him, for a tabunshick is not a servant that 



