THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. Ill 



tabunshick comes naturally to be looked upon, by the 

 more orderly class, as rather a suspicious character ; 

 but his friendship is generally worth having, and his 

 ill-will is always dreaded. His very master stands a 

 little in awe of him, for a tabunshick is not a servant 

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

 taboon has once become accustomed to him, the ani- 

 mals 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 ad- 

 vise 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, what- 

 ever his moral character may be, becomes necessary to 

 his master, and, feeling this, is not long without pre- 

 suming upon his conscious importance. He plays his 

 wild pranks with impunity, and looks down with sov- 

 ereign 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 inte- 

 resting to see him, with his wild taboon, at Balta and 

 Berditsheff, 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 



