104 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



" I will not attempt to depict our intense emotions 

 during this new conflict. This child, who, like the 

 other riders, had only the horse's mane to cling to, 

 afforded an example of the power of reasoning over 

 instinct and brute force. For some minutes he main- 

 tained his difficult position with heroic intrepidity. 

 At last, to our great relief, a horseman rode up to 

 him, caught him up in his outstretched arm, and 

 threw him on the croup behind him." 



We will now lay before our readers the economy of 

 a Russian taboon, as described by Kohl, the German 

 traveller. A small number of stallions and mares, 

 placed under the care of a herdsman, are sent into 

 the Steppe as the nucleus of the herd. The foals are 

 kept, and the herd is allowed to go on increasing, until 

 the number of horses is thought to be about as large 

 as the estate can conveniently maintain. A taboon 

 seldom consists of more than a thousand horses ; but 

 there are landowners in the Steppe, who are supposed 

 to possess eight or ten such taboons in different parts 

 of the country. It is only when the taboon is said to 

 be full, that the owner begins to derive revenue from 

 it, partly by using the young horses on the estate 

 itself, and partly by selling them at the fairs, or to the 

 travelling horse-dealers in the employ of the govern- 

 ment contractors. 



The tabunshick, to whose care the taboon is en- 

 trusted, must be a man of indefatigable activity, and 



