336 PORTILLO PASS chap. 



riding astride on a mule. She had a goitre so enormous that 

 it was scarcely possible to avoid gazing at her for a moment ; 

 but my two companions almost instantly, by way of apology, 

 made the common salute of the country by taking off their 

 hats. Where would one of the lower or higher classes in 

 Europe have shown such feeling politeness to a poor and 

 miserable object of a degraded race ? 



At night we slept at a cottage. Our manner of travelling 

 was delightfully independent. In the inhabited parts we bought 

 a little firewood, hired pasture for the animals, and bivouacked 

 in the corner of the same field with them. Carrying an iron pot, 

 we cooked and ate our supper under a cloudless sky, and knew 

 no trouble. My companions were Mariano Gonzales, who had 

 formerly accompanied me in Chile, and an " arriero," with his 

 ten mules and a " madrina." The madrina (or godmother) is a 

 most important personage : she is an old steady mare, with a 

 little bell round her neck ; and wherever she goes, the mules, 

 like good children, follow her. The affection of these animals 

 for their madrinas saves infinite trouble. If several large troops 

 are turned into one field to graze, in the morning the muleteers 

 have only to lead the madrinas a little apart, and tinkle their 

 bells ; and although there may be two or three hundred together, 

 each mule immediately knows the bell of its own madrina, and 

 comes to her. It is nearly impossible to lose an old mule ; for 

 if detained for several hours by force, she will, by the power of 

 smell, like a dog, track out her companions, or rather the 

 madrina, for, according to the muleteer, she is the chief object 

 of affection. The feeling, however, is not of an individual 

 nature ; for I believe I am right in saying that any animal with 

 a bell will serve as a madrina. In a troop each animal carries 

 on a level road a cargo weighing 416 pounds (more than 29 

 stone), but in a mountainous country 1 00 pounds less ; yet with 

 what delicate slim limbs, without any proportional bulk of 

 muscle, these animals support so great a burden ! The mule 

 always appears to me a most surprising animal. That a hybrid 

 should po.ssess more reason, memory, obstinacy, social affection, 

 powers of muscular endurance, and length of life, than either of 

 its parents, seems to indicate that art has here outdone nature. 

 Of our ten animals, six were intended for riding, and four for 

 carrying cargoes, each taking turn about. We carried a good 



