48 THROUGH RUSSIA ON A MUSTANG. 



sible customers, the accumulated results of life-long 

 and hereditary trickery in selling spavined and broken- 

 winded horses to credulous humans, with a view to 

 buying a horse, a sensation as of venturing on exceed- 

 ingly slippery ground may well be excused. 



A slight knowledge of horse-flesh would be sufficient 

 to prevent me being taken in much on the score of age, 

 or other " points " visible to the eye ; but, on the other 

 hand, a stranger, knowing nothing of the language, 

 nothing of the idiosyncrasies of Russian horse dealing, 

 and very little about the prices of horses in Moscow, 

 would be sure to be looked upon as a veritable wind- 

 fall by every dealer who had on hand a " touched up " 

 animal. 



For the purpose of seeing Russia and the Russians 

 to better advantage than from viewing them from the 

 windows of a railway train, or on the streets of the 

 cities, I had determined on taking a horseback ride of 

 more than a thousand miles ; a trying journey for a 

 horse in the middle of summer. It was, therefore, very 

 necessary that I should secure a sound, strong animal. 



The probability of my doing so, within the few days 

 that I intended to stay in Moscow, vanished like a 

 shadow as I reached the horse-market and approached 

 a group of dealers. The apparition of a stranger, and 

 apparently a foreigner to boot, coming their way, pro- 

 duced on these worthies a truly magical effect. I 

 became the cynosure of a dozen pairs of the craftiest- 

 looking eyes that ever attempted to look through and 

 through, discover the inmost thoughts, size up the 

 mental caliber, the horse knowledge, and the purse of 

 a likely-looking victim, 



