82 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



"Whatever," he says, " maybe the lucubrations of 

 naturalists in their cabinets, it does not appear that the 

 Tahtar or even the Cossack nations have any doubt 

 upon the subject ; for they assert that they can distin- 

 guish a feral breed from the wild by many tokens, and 

 naming the former takja and muzin, they denominate 

 the real wild horse tarpan and tarpani. We have had 

 some opportunity of making personal inquiries on wild 

 horses among a considerable number of Cossacks of 

 different parts of Russia, and among Bashkirs, Kir- 

 guise, and Kalmucs, and with a sufficient recollection 

 of the statements of Pallas and Buffon's information 

 obtained from M. Sanchez, to direct the questions to 

 most of the points at issue. From the answers of 

 Russian officers of this irregular cavalry, who spoke 

 French or German, we drew the general conclusion 

 of their general belief in a true wild and untamable 

 species of horse, and in herds that were of mixed ori- 

 gin. Those most acquainted with a nomadic life, and 

 in particular an orderly Cossack attached to a Tahtar 

 chief as Russian interpreter, furnished us with the sub- 

 stance of the following notice. The tarpani form herds 

 of several hundreds, subdivided into smaller troops, 

 each headed by a stallion ; they are not found unmix- 

 ed excepting towards the borders of China ; they pre- 

 fer wide, open, elevated steppes, and always proceed 

 in lines or files, usually with the head to windward, 

 moving slowly forward while grazing, the stallions 



