IN THE OLD WEST 263 



compulsory wooing, when time is not allowed foi 

 regular courtship, and not unfrequently is known 

 to jerk a New Mexican or Califomian beauty be- 

 hind his saddle, should the obdurate parents re- 

 fuse 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 luxu- 

 rious 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 above the wild uncouth mountaineers, these 

 preferring to squat cross-legged on the floor in 

 their own fashion, to the uncomfortable 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, comprehending the intention, essayed to 

 sit. This he effected at last, and sat grimly for 

 some moments, when, seizing the chair by the 

 back, he hurled it out of the open door, exclaim- 

 ing, — " Wagh ! this coon ain't hamshot anyhow, 

 and don't want such fixins, he don't ; " and gather- 



