110 ABOUT THE WILD HORSE. 



Ukraine and the steed of the Arab, the difference is as 

 marked as between the European gentleman and the 

 Malagasy savage. Tliese wild horses are small of stature, 

 "with meagre limbs, and a coarse, woolly, and flaky coat. 

 The mouth and nostrils are garnished with long hair, not 

 unlike that of a goat. The colour is generally brown; 

 brown of the dingy tint called Isabel, after that eccentric 

 Queen of France who, in fulfilment of a vow, wore her 

 linen unchanged for a twelvemonth and a day. 



The immense herds of these \vild horses are usually sub- 

 divided into companies of from twenty to thirty ; each 

 company living apart, but all combining when pressed by 

 some common danger, or when an occasion arises for their 

 migrating to some fresh district. However, they have few 

 enemies to fear except the grim gaunt wolves, which hunger 

 drives from the neighbouring forests ; and man, by whom 

 they are hotly hunted, either for the sake of their flesh, or 

 that he may tame them for his own uses. The fierce 

 nomadic tribes of the Black Sea and the Caspian, and of 

 Central Asia, have no other breeding-ground than the 

 steppes which they inliabit. Thither repair the Mongol 

 and the Cossack, the Kirghis and the Kalmuck, to select 

 their chargers. They capture them with the lasso, which 

 they throw with wonderful dexterity ; and in a few days 

 the captured animals are comparatively docile. When in 

 want of their hide or flesh, the nomads hunt them with 

 gun, arrow, and spear. 



They treat their domesticated horses, however, with 

 kindness, and sacrifice them only in the hour of urgent 

 need. With them, as with the Arabs, the horse becomes 



