116 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



experienced the inconvenience of a six months' fast. 

 The stallions have already begun to form their sepa- 

 rate factions in the taboon, and the neighing, bound- 

 ing, prancing, gallopping, and righting, go on merrily 

 from the banks of the Danube to the very heart of 

 Mongolia. 



In a taboon of a thousand horses, there are ge- 

 nerally fifteen or twenty stallions, and four or five 

 hundred brood mares. The stallions, and parti- 

 cularly the old ones, consider themselves the rightful 

 lords of the community. They exercise their authori- 

 ty with very little moderation, and desperate battles 

 are often fought among them, apparently for the mere 

 honor of the championship. In almost every taboon 

 there is one stallion who, by the rule of his hoof, has 

 established a sort of supremacy, to which his comrades 

 tacitly submit. Factions, cabals, and intrigues are 

 not wanting. Sometimes there will be a general coa- 

 lition against some particular stallion, who, if he get 

 into a quarrel, is immediately set upon by ten or a 

 dozen at once, and has no chance but to run for it. 

 There is seldom a taboon without two or three of 

 these objects of public animosity, whomay be seen with 

 a small troop of mares grazing apart from the main 

 body of the herd. 



The most tremendous battles are fought when two 

 taboons happen to meet. In general, the tabunshicks 

 are careful to keep at a respectful distance from each 



