174 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 



mountaineer quickly sends him sprawling, with the con- 

 siderate remark " Quit, you darned Spaniard ! you can't 

 ' shine ' in this crowd." 



During a lull, guages* filled with whisky go the rounds 

 offered to and seldom refused by the ladies, sturdily 

 quaffed by the mountaineers, and freely swallowed by the 

 Pelados, who drown their jealousy and envious hate of 

 their entertainers in potent aguardiente. Now, as the 

 guages are oft refilled and as often drained, and as night 

 advances, so do the spirits of the mountaineers become 

 more boisterous, while their attentions to their partners 

 become wanner the jealousy of the natives waxes hotter 

 thereat, and they begin to show symptoms of resenting 

 the endearments which the mountaineers bestow upon 

 their wives and sweethearts. And now, when the room is 

 filled to crowding, with two hundred people swearing, 

 drinking, dancing, and shouting the half-dozen Ameri- 

 cans monopolising the fair, to the evident disadvantage of 

 at least threescore scowling Pelados, it happens that one of 

 these, maddened by whisky and the green-eyed monster, 

 suddenly seizes a fair one from the waist-encircling arm of 

 a mountaineer, and pulls her from her partner. Wagh ! 

 La Bonte it is he stands erect as a pillar for a moment, 

 then raises his hand to his mouth and gives a ringing war- 

 whoopjumps upon the rash Pelado, seizes him by the 

 body as if he were a child, lifts him over his head, and 

 dashes him with the force of a giant against the wall. 



The war, long threatened, has commenced ; twenty 

 Mexicans draw their knives and rush upon La Bonte, who 

 stands his ground, and sweeps them down wiih his ponder- 

 ous fist, one after another, as they throng around him. 

 " Howgh-owgh-owgh-owgh-h ! " the well-known war-whoop, 

 bursts from the throats of his companions, and on they 

 rush to the rescue. The women scream, and block the 

 door in their eagerness to escape ; and thus the Mexicans 

 are compelled to stand their ground and fight. Knives 

 glitter in the light, and quick thrusts are given and 



* Cask-shaped gourds. 



