62 THE TARPAN, OR WILD HORSE. 



of individuals which had escaped from the thraldom of mail ? This 

 latter hypothesis seems to be the most probable. But there is good 

 ground for believing that, living a wild life, these animals are gradually 

 returning to the primitive type. They have lost the harmonious 

 graces of form, the beauty, and the vigour which we admire in the 

 high-bred steed, perfected by the assiduous care of man. There 

 seems as great a difference between the Arabian horse and the wild 

 horse of the Steppes as between the accomplished European gentleman 

 and a Malagasy savage. They are of small stature ; their limbs are 

 lank; their coat is coarse, woolly, rude, and rough. With the tarpans 

 of the northern Steppes it is thick, flaky, and frizzled. Their mouth 

 and nostrils are garnished with long hair, not unlike a goat. Then- 

 colour is generally brown, of the shade called Isabelle, after a certain 

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

 for a considerable period. A few are black or white. They have a 

 large head, with the forehead projecting above the eyes ; a straight 

 chamfer ; and long ears, customarily laid back close to the head. 



The troops of the tarpans are subdivided into groups of twenty to 

 thirty individuals, each group usually living apart, and only uniting 

 in a compact phalanx when a common danger threatens, or a necessity 

 arises of migrating from one region to another. The gaunt grim 

 wolves, which hunger drives from their neighbouring forests ; and 

 man, who hunts them hotly, either to reduce them into subjection, or 

 kill them for their flesh, are almost the only enemies they have any 

 reason to dread. The warlike nomade tribes of the Black and Caspian 

 coasts, and of Central Asia, have no other breeding-grounds than the 

 steppe which they inhabit. Thither come Cossack, and Mongol, and 

 Kirghis, and Kalmuck, to choose their chargers. They catch them 

 by means of a lasso, which they throw with surprising dexterity, and 

 in a few days train them into a suitable docility. When in want of 

 their hide or flesh, the nomades hunt them with gun, arrow, or spear; 

 for hippophagy, which a few zealous amateurs are now endeavouring 

 to popularize in France and England, has been practised from 

 time immemorial by the inhabitants of the Steppes. 



