84 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



wolves occasionally prowl after a herd, they will not 

 venture to attack it, for the sultan-stallion will instant- 

 ly meet the enemy, and, rising on his haunches, strike 

 him down with his fore-feet ; and should he be worst- 

 ed, which is seldom the case, another stallion becomes 

 the champion ; and in the case of a troop of wolves, 

 the herd forms a close mass, with the foals within, and 

 the stallions charge in a body, which no troop of 

 wolves will venture to encounter. Carnivora, therefore, 

 must be contented with aged or injured stragglers. 



" The sultan-stallion is not, however, suffered to 

 retain the chief authority for more than one season 

 without opposition from others, rising, in the confi- 

 dence of youthful strength, to try by battle whether 

 the leadership should not be confided to them, and the 

 defeated party driven from the herd in exile. These 

 animals are found in the greatest purity in the Kara 

 Coom, south of the lake Aral, and the Syrdaria, near 

 Kusneh, on the banks of the river Tom, in the terri- 

 tory of the Kalkas, the Mongolian deserts, and the 

 solitudes of the Gobi. Within the Russian frontier 

 there are, however, some adulterated herds, in the 

 vicinity of the fixed settlements, distinguishable by 

 the variety of their colors, and a selection of resi- 

 dence less remote from human habitations. Real 

 tarpans are not larger than ordinary mules ; their 

 color is invariably tan, Isabella, or mouse, being all 

 shades of the same livery, and only varying in depth 



