108 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



stallions, who, after spending their ten or twelve years 

 on the Steppe, without having once smelt the air of a 

 stable, or felt the curb of a rein, become so ungovern- 

 able, that the tabunshick will sometimes threaten to 

 throw up his office, unless such or such a stallion be 

 expelled from the taboon. 



Such constant exposures to fatigue and hardship 

 make the average life of a tabunshick extremely short. 

 At the end of ten or fifteen years he is generally worn 

 out, and unfit for such arduous duty. His pay there- 

 fore is proportionably high ; for every tabunshick is a 

 hired servant, as no serf could be impelled by any 

 dread of punishment to exert that constant vigi- 

 lance, without which the whole taboon would be 

 broken up in a few days. What the fear of the whip, 

 however, cannot effect in a slave, the hope of gain may 

 insure from a freeman. The wages of a tabunshick 

 are regulated by the number of horses committed to 

 his care. For each horse he usually receives five or 

 six rubles a year ; so that the guardian of a full taboon 

 may earn his six thousand rubles annually (275), if 

 he can keep the wolf and thief at bay ; but every 

 horse that is lost the tabunshick must pay for ; and 

 horse stealing is carried on so largely and dexterously 

 on the Steppe, that he may sometimes lose half a 

 year's wages in a single night. He must also pay his 

 assistants out of his own wages, and three assistants 

 at least will be required to look after a taboon of a 



