LIFE INTHEFARWEST. 197 



with the reboso drawn over their heads and faces, out of the folds 

 of which their brilHant eyes flash like lightning, and each pretty- 

 mouth armed with its cigarito, they coquettishly enter the fandan- 

 go.* Here, at one end of a long room are seated the musicians, 

 their instruments being generally a species of guitar, called he- 

 aca, a bandolin, and an Indian drum, called tombe — one of each. 

 Round the room groups of New Mexicans lounge, wrapped in the 

 eternal sarape, and smoking of course, scowling with jealous eyes 

 at the more favored mountaineers. These, divested of their hunt- 

 ing-coats of buckskins, appear in their bran-new shirts of gaudy 

 calico, and close fitting bucksldn pantaloons, with long fringes 

 down the outside seam from the hip to the ankle ; with moc- 

 casins, ornamented with bright beads and porcupine quills. Each, 

 round his waist, wears his mountain belt and scalp-knife, ominous 

 of the company he is in, and some have pistols sticking in their 

 belt. 



The dances — save the mark ! — are without form or figure, at 

 least those in which the white hunters sport the " fantastic toe." 

 Seizing his partner round the waist with the gripe of a grisly bear, 

 each mountaineer whirls and twirls, jumps and stamps ; intro- 

 duces Indian steps used in the " scalp" or " bufialo" dances, whoop- 

 ing occasionally with unearthly cry, and then subsiding into the 

 jerking step, raising each foot alternately from the ground, so much 

 in vogue in Indian ballets. The hunters have the floor all to 

 themselves. The Mexicans have no chance in such physical force 

 dancing ; and if a dancing Pelade f steps into the ring, a lead-like 

 thump from a galloping mountaineer quickly sends him sprawl- 

 ing, with the considerate remark-^" Quit, you darned Spaniard ! 

 you can't ' shine' in this crowd." 



* The word fandango, in New Mexico, is not applied to the peculiar dance 

 known in Spain by that name, but designates a ball or dancing meeting. 



t A nickname for the idle fellows hanginj": about a Mexican town, translated 

 into "Greasers" by the Americans. 



