The  German  colonists  have  also  very  good  and  serviceable
horses,  but  of  a  light  build. Whoever  has  travelled  by  the
Russian  post  has  had  plenty  of  opportunity  for  admiring  the
enduring  swiftness  of  the  poor,  overdriven,  and  often  badly-
fed  post-horse. No  other  horse  in  the  world  could  perform
the  work  of  these  animals. For  12  or  15  miles  they  will
gallop  before  the  telya,  and  return  again  with  hardly  ten
minutes'  interval. If  the  traffic  be  lively,  they  have  per-
haps on  their  return  to  perform  the  same  journey  over  again
before  they  can  snatch  a  few  hours'  rest  on  their  bed  of
buryan  (steppe-weecl). Often  has  the  writer  admired  them,
pitied  them,  and  wished  them  a  better  lot ;  but  how  could  he
have  done  without  them  ?

The  Tcherkess  of  the  Great  and  Little  Kabardah  breed  a
splendid  race  of  horses. Brought  up  in  the  wild  steppe,
amidst  clangers  and  nightly  alarms,  its  apprehensive  sagacity
becomes  early  developed  in  a  high  degree. It  is  a  fine
animal,  with  a  strong  spine,  powerful  croop  and  thigh,  and
great  width  of  shoulder  and  chest ;  the  kneecaps  are  broad,
the  hoof  as  if  formed  of  iron,  head  and  neck  tolerably  light ;
everything  seems  combined  to  render  them  trusty,  inde-
fatigable servants  to  man. The  Tchetchents,  the  most  fero-
cious and  determined  brigands  of  the  Caucasus  (now  for-
tunately only  in  small  numbers),  used  to  buy  their  horses  in


HORSES,


25


the  Kabarclah. They  pick  out  the  most  promising  one-year-
olds,  take  them  home,  where  they  are,  so  to  say,  received
into  the  bosom  of  the  family. They  receive  their  food  when
the  latter  sits  down  to  a  meal,  and  they  often  sleep  in  the
same  room. The  young  children  will  play  with  them,  talk
to  them,  and  crawl  all  day  long  over  and  about  them ;  what
wonder  if  the  horse  becomes  almost  as  wise  as  its  master !
The  young  boys  will  sometimes  mount  him  and  gallop  over
the  prairies,  but  no  adult  thinks  of  bestriding  him  before  he
has  finished  his  sixth  year. His  bones  have  then  become
firmly  developed,  his  sinews  and  feet  are  steel,  his  wind  is
invincible. He  knows  his  master's  voice  and  look — nay,  he
has  even  some  notion  of  his  character. His  nerves  have
from  his  birth  been  finely  tuned  Ho  the  sound  of  danger  or
mysterious  enterprise. 