HEADWATERS OF THE PARAGUAY 103 



At six in the morning we started, all of us on fine horses. 

 The day was lowering and overcast. A dozen dogs were 

 with us, but only one or two were worth anything. Three 

 or four ordinary countrymen, the ranch hands, or vaqueiros, 

 accompanied us; they were mainly of Indian blood, and 

 would have been called peons, or caboclos, in other parts of 

 Brazil, but here were always spoken to and of as "cama- 

 radas." They were, of course, chosen from among the 

 men who were hunters, and each carried his long, rather 

 heavy and clumsy jaguar-spear. In front rode our vigor- 

 ous host and his strapping son, the latter also carrying a 

 jaguar-spear. The bridles and saddles of the big ranch- 

 men and of the gentlefolk generally were handsome and 

 were elaborately ornamented with silver. The stirrups, for 

 instance, were not only of silver, but contained so much 

 extra metal in ornamented bars and rings that they would 

 have been awkward for less-practised riders. Indeed, as it 

 was, they were adapted only for the tips of boots with long, 

 pointed toes, and were impossible for our feet; our hosts' 

 stirrups were long, narrow silver slippers. The camaradas, 

 on the other hand, had jim-crow saddles and bridles, and 

 rusty little iron stirrups into which they thrust their naked 

 toes. But all, gentry and commonalty alike, rode equally 

 well and with the same skill and fearlessness. To see our 

 hosts gallop at headlong speed over any kind of country 

 toward the sound of the dogs with their quarry at bay, 

 or to see them handle their horses in a morass, was a plea- 

 sure. It was equally a pleasure to see a camarada carrying 

 his heavy spear, leading a hound in a leash, and using his 

 machete to cut his way through the tangled vine-ropes of a 

 jungle, all at the same time and all without the slightest ref- 



