The most tremendous battles are fought when two taboons happen to meet. In general the tabuntshiks are careful to keep at a respectful distance from each other ; but sometimes they are away from their duty, and sometimes, where a right of pastm-age is disputed, they bring their herds together out of sheer malice. The mares and foals on such occasions keep aloof, but their furious lords rush to battle with an impetuosity, of which those who are accustomed to see the horse only in a domesticated state can form but a poor conception. The enraged animals lash their tails and erect their manes Ulce angry lions ; their hoofs rattle against each other with such violence, that the noise can be heard at a considerable distance ; they fasten on one another with their teeth like tigers ; and their screamings and bowlings are more like those of the wild beasts of the forest, than hke any sounds ever heard from a tame horse. The victorious party is always sure to carry away a number of captive mares in triumph, and the exchange of prisoners is an aflfair certain to bi-ing the tabuntshiks and their men by the ears, if they have been able to keep themselves out of the battle till then.
The spring, though in so many respects a season of enjoyment, is not without its drawbacks. The wolves, also, have to indemnify themselves for the severe fast of the winter, and are just as desirous as the horses to get themselves into good condition again. The foals, too, are just then most delicate, and a wolf will any day prefer a young foal to a sheep or a calf. The wolf, accordingly, is constantly prowling about the taboon during the spring, and the horses are bound to be always prepared to do battle, in defence of the younger members of their community. Tlie wolf, as the weaker party, trusts to cunning rather than strength. For a party of wolves openly to attack a taboon at noonday would be to rush upon certain destruction, and, however severely the wolf may be pressed by hunger, he knows his own weakness too well to venture on so absurd an act of temerity. At night, Indeed, if the taboon happen to be a little scattered, and the wolves in tolerable numbers, they will sometimes attempt a rush, and a general battle ensues. An admirable spirit of coalition then displays itself among the horses. On the first alarm, stallions and mares come charging up to the threatened point, and attack the wolves with an impetuosity that often puts the prowlers to instant flight. Soon, however, if they feel themselves sufficiently numerous, they return, and hover about the taboon till some poor foal straggle a few yards from the main body, when it is seized by the enemy, while the mother, springing to its rescue, is nearly certain to share its fate. Then It is that the battle begins in real earnest. The mares form a circle, within which the foals take shelter. We have seen pictures in which the horses are represented in a circle, presenting theirxhind hoofs to the wolves, who thus appear to have the free choice to fight or to let it alone. Such pictures are the mere result of imagination, and bear very little reeemblance to the reality ; for the 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 towards 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 phalanx, but gallop about with streaming tails and erected manes, and seem to act at once as generals, trumpeters, and standard-bearers. Where they see a wolf they rush upon him with reckless fury, mouth to mouth, or if they use their feet as weapons of offence, it is always with the front, and not with the hinder hoof, that the attack is made. With one blow the stallion often kills his enemy or stuns him. If so, he snatches 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. K the stallion, 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 advantage, 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 discomfiture of the wolves, though not, perhaps, till more than one stalhon has had a leg permanently disabled, or has had his side marked for life with the impress of his enemy's teeth.