70 CAPTURED IN THE LASSO. 



losses they inflict upon their flocks. The news that a wolf has made 

 his appearance in the neighbourhood is for everybody a signal to 

 'mount and ride away.' And as each cavalier has always two or 

 three saddled horses in waiting near his tent, the plain is speedily 

 covered, as if by enchantment, with a cloud of eager horsemen. 

 Their weapon is a long rod.* Thus, in whatever direction the wolf 

 may seek to escape, he encounters a band of determined adversaries, 

 whose cry, as they precipitate themselves upon their traditional foe, 

 is ' No quarter ! ' There are no mountain-sides so rugged or so 

 difficult, that the nimble horses of the Tartars cannot pursue him 

 thither. The cavalier who finally overtakes the beast, flings a lasso 

 round his neck as he passes at full gallop, and drags him in his rapid 

 track to the nearest tent. There they firmly bind up his muzzle, 

 that they may proceed to torture him with impunity, closing up the 

 tragic scene by flaying him alive, and then setting him free. In the 

 summer the miserable animal will live in this condition for several 

 days ; but in winter, exposed without his furry coat to the rigour of 

 the season, he dies almost immediately, frozen to death." -f- 



It is generally considered that the wolf is an animal as cowardly 

 as he is fierce, because he flies before man when man does not 

 retreat before him, and because he kills unoffending animals. But 

 we forget that man acts in a precisely similar manner. Numerous 

 experiments, and especially those of Cuvier, have clearly proved that 

 the wolf is fully capable of being domesticated, is very sensible of 

 kindly treatment, and will as readily grow familiar with, and 

 attached to, his master, as the best of dogs. We must, therefore, 

 refer his ferocity to the instinct of self-preservation and of a vengeance 

 too frequently excited ; just as at the Cape of Good Hope, the 

 unfortunate Bosjesmen, formerly treated like beasts by the Dutch 

 colonists, though naturally of a peaceable disposition, became active 



* This rod, or whip, is furnished with a long cord terminating in a slip-knot, something 

 like a lasso. With this instrument the Tartars seize and carry away the horses and wild 

 asses, and, as we see in the Engraving, capture wolves alive, and satisfy their hatred 

 against these unfortunate beasts, less ferocious, assuredly, than the Tartars themselves. 



t Hue, " Souvenirs d'un Voyage dans la Tartarie, la Thibet, et la Chine," tome !" 



