THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 119 



ity ; for tne wolf has, in general, to pay much more 

 dearly for his partiality to horseflesh. The horses, 

 when they attack wolves, do not turn their tails to- 

 wards them, but charge upon them in a solid phalanx, 

 tearing them with their teeth, and trampling on them 

 with their feet. The stallions do not fall into the pha- 

 lanx, but gallop about with streaming tails, and curled 

 manes, and seem to act, at once, as generals, trumpet- 

 ers, and standard bearers. When they see a wolf, 

 they rush upon him with reckless fury, mouth to 

 mouth, or if they use their feet as weapons of defence, 

 it is always with their front, and not the hinder hoof, 

 that the attack is made. With one blow the stallion 

 often kills his enemy, or stuns him. If so, he snatch- 

 es the body up with his teeth, and flings it to the 

 mares, who trample upon it till it becomes hard to say 

 what kind of animal the skin belonged to. If the stal- 

 lion, however, fail to strike a home blow at the first 

 onset, he is likely to fight a losing battle, for eight or 

 ten hungry wolves fasten on his throat, and never quit 

 him till they have torn him to the ground : and if the 

 horse be prompt and skilful in attack, the wolf is not 

 deficient in sagacity, but watches for every little ad- 

 vantage, and is quick to avail himself of it ; but let 

 him not hope, even if he succeed in killing a horse, 

 that he will be allowed leisure to pick the bones : the 

 taboon never fails to take ample vengeance, and the 

 battle almost invariably terminates in the complete 



