Accustomed to a life of roguery and hardship, and indulging constantly in every kind of excess, the tabuntshik comes naturally to be looked upon by the more orderly classes as rather a suspicious character ; but his friendship is generally worth having, and his ill-will is always dreaded. His very master stands a httle in awe of him, for a tabuntshik is not a servant that can be dismissed at a day's notice. When the taboon has once become accustomed to him, the animals are not easily brought to submit to the control of a stranger. The tabuntshik, moreover, has learned to know his horses ; can tell the worth of each, can advise which to sell and which to keep, and knows where the best pasture-ground may be looked for. Such a feUow, therefore, if intelHgent and experienced, whatever his moral character may be, becomes necessary to his master, and, feeling this, is not long without presuming upon his conscious importance. He plays his wild pranks with impunity, and looks down with sovereign contempt upon the more decent members of society, particularly upon tlie more honest tshabawns and tsheredniks whom he considers in every point of view as an inferior race.
At the horse-fairs, the tabuntshik is always a man of great impoi-ta,ncc, and it is amusing and interesting to see him with his wild taboon at Balta and Berditsheff, where are held the greatest fairs between the Dnieper and the Dniester. The horses are driven into the market in the same free conditlon in which they range over the steppe, for if tied tog-ether they would become entirely imgovernable. When driven through towns and villages, the creatures are often frightened ; but that occasions no trouble to their drivers, for the herd is never more certain to keep together than when made timid by the appearance of a strange place. In the market-place, thetaboon ig driven into an enclosure, near which the owner seats himself, when the tabuntshik enters along with his horses. The buyers walk round to make their selection. They must not expect the horses to be trotted out for their inspection, as at Tattersall's, but must judge for themselves as well as they can, with the comfortable reflection that, after they have bought the animals, they will have ample time to become acquainted with them. " I have none but wild horses to sell," the owner will say. " Look at them as long as you please. That horse I will warrant five years' old, having bred him on my own steppe. Further than that I know nothing about him. The price is a hundred rubles. Will you take him ? If you say yes, I'll order him to be caught ; but I'd advise you to make the tabuntshik a present, that he may take care not to injure the animal in catching it." This last caution is by no means to be neglected, for a horse carelessly caught may be lamed for several weeks, and as the horse is never caught till the bargain has been concluded, any injm'y done to the animal is the buyer's business, and not the seller's. If, on the other hand, the tabuntshik be satisfied with the fee given him, he goes about his task in a much more methodical manner. The sling is thrown gently over the neck of the designated steed, but the latter is not thrown with a jerk to the ground. lie is allowed for a httle while to prance about at the full length of his tether, till iiis fii'st fright be over. Gradually the wild animal becomes reconciled to the unwonted restraint, and the buyer leads liim away quietly to his stable, where it wiU often take a year's tuition to cure him of the vicious habits acquired on the steppe.
After saying so much of the tabuntshik, it will be but fair to give some account of the Hfe led by the riotous animals committed to his charge. During what is called the fine season, from Easter to October, the taboon remains grazing day and night in the steppe. During the other six months of the year, the horses remain under shelter at night, and are driven out only in the day, when they must scrape away the snow for themselves to get at the scanty grass underneath. When we say the horses remain under shelter, it must not be supposed that the shelter in question resembles in any way an English stable. The shelter alluded to consists of a space of ground enclosed by an earthen mound, with now and then something like a roof towards the north, to keep off the cold wind. There the poor creatm'cs nmst defend themselves as weU as they can against the merciless Boreas, who comes to them michecked in his course all the way from the Pole. To a stranger, it is quite harrowmg to see the noble animals, in severe weather, in one of these unprotected enclosures. The stallions and the stronger beasts take possession of the shed ; the timid and feeble stand