Ranch Life 117 



Here also were held the clambakes and barbecues : 

 Homeric feasts whereat the meat was hung upon 

 long willow spits, roasted over glowing wood-coals, 

 and eaten with a sauce cunningly compounded of 

 tomatoes, onions, and chiles. These delightful en- 

 tertainments were given and attended by Span- 

 ish people for the most part. The fair senoritas 

 would bring their guitars, and sing those pathetic 

 love lilts which have a charm so distinctive and 

 peculiar and ephemeral, for they are passing with 

 the people who sang them, and will soon be utterly 

 forgotten. After the barbecue, the men would 

 smoke, and often take a nap, and then would 

 follow some feats of horsemanship. A race be- 

 tween a caballero and a man afoot to a post twenty- 

 five yards distant, and back, was always well worth 

 watching. As a rule the man beat the horse on 

 account of the difficulty in turning. 



Some of the country dances were amusing. Jack 

 always took his Jill to these functions, and certain 

 unwritten laws were rigorously observed. It was 

 not considered good form to take your partner out- 

 side the ballroom. After the dance, you led her to 

 a seat, and, bowing, deserted her. One English- 

 man, at his first village dance, got himself into 

 what might have proved a serious scrape. He 

 had no Jill of his own, and being introduced to a 

 pretty one belonging to somebody else, made him- 

 self agreeable. The girl danced with him, and was 

 then taken for a short stroll outside beneath those 

 stars which seem to shine more brightly in Cali- 

 fornia than anywhere else — particularly when you 

 are young. I must not presume to say what passed 



