118 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



can be dismissed at a day's notice. When the taboon 

 has once become accustomed to him, the animals are 

 not easily brought to submit to the control of a 

 stranger. The tabunshick, moreover, has learned to 

 know his horses ; can tell the worth of each, can 

 advise which to sell and which to keep, and knows 

 where the best pasture ground may be looked for. 

 Such a fellow, therefore, if intelligent and experienced, 

 whatever his moral character may be, becomes neces- 

 sary to his master, and, feeling this, is not long without 

 presuming upon his conscious importance. He plays 

 his wild pranks with impunity, and looks down with 

 sovereign contempt upon the more decent members of 

 society, particularly upon the more honest shepherds 

 and cowherds, whom he considers, in every point of 

 view, as an inferior race. 



At the horse-fairs, the tabunshick is always a man 

 of great importance; and it is amusing and interesting 

 to see him, with his wild taboon, at Balta and Ber- 

 ditsheff, where are held the greatest fairs between the 

 Dniepr and the Dniestr. The horses are driven 

 into the market in the same free condition in which 

 they range over the Steppe, for if .tied together they 

 would become entirely ungovernable. When driven 

 through towns and villages, the creatures are often 

 frightened ; but that occasions no trouble to their 



