LIFE IN THE FAR WEST 213 



each other in the grateful liquor, and looked askance at 

 the piles of fruit served by the attendant Hebes. These 

 came in for no little share of attention, it may be 

 imagined ; but the utmost respect was paid to them, 

 for your mountaineer, rough and bear-like though he 

 be, never by word or deed offends the modesty of a 

 woman, although sometimes obliged to use a compulsory 

 wooing, when time is not allowed for regular courtship, 

 and not unfrequently known to jerk a New Mexican or 

 Californian beauty behind his saddle, should the obdu- 

 rate parents refuse consent to their immediate union. 

 It tickled the Americans not a little to have all their 

 wants supplied, and to be thus waited upon, by what 

 they considered the houris of paradise ; and after their 

 long journey, and the many hardships and privations 

 they had suffered, their present luxurious situation 

 seemed scarcely real. 



The hidalgo, released from the durance vile of the 

 lasso, assisted at the entertainment ; his sense of what 

 was due to the " sangre regular" which ran in his veins 

 being appeased by the fact, that he sat abwe the wild 

 uncouth mountaineers, these preferring to squat cross- 

 legged on the floor in their own fashion, to the un- 

 comfortable and novel luxury of a chair. Killbuck, 

 indeed, seemed to have quite forgotten the use of such 

 pieces of furniture. On Fray Augustin offering him 

 one, and begging him, with many protestations, to be 

 seated, that old mountain worthy looked at it, and then 

 at the padre, turned it round, and at length compre- 

 hending the intention, essayed to sit. This he effected 



