

MOUNTAIN SHEEP. 69 



mild form of obfuscation less inconsistent with the char- 

 acter of a Christian and a gentleman. The white cabal- 

 leros certainly managed to keep their heads level, and 

 the ragged mestizo lying on his belly in front of the 

 esplanade had only lost the use of his legs, since the 

 activity of his consciousness asserted itself by a tri- 

 umphant yell whenever the howitzer was fired. At the 

 third shot, Don Panchito bolted from the basement, him- 

 self evidently laboring under an incipient stage of borra- 

 cheria, for at the next discharge he jumped up with all 

 four legs at once, and then, spying the yelling Indian, 

 made a rush and " fetched him one in the ribs," to 

 the uproarious delight of the assembled Chinacos. Six- 

 teen more shots were fired, and sixteen times Panchito 

 charged the Indian, whom he somehow seemed to con- 

 nect with the cause of the obstreperous demonstrations. 

 He then turned his attention to the school-girls, whose 

 long scarfs appeared to excite his disapprobation, and 

 was going to tackle a young lady with a conspicuous 

 shawl, when a well-aimed kick from her gallant sent 

 him spinning into the basement-vault. But just before 

 I left he reappeared, like Satan ex infernis, and when 

 I saw him last he was butting the choir-boys as they 

 sallied successively from a side-porch. 



Domestic sheep that lose their way in the sierra are 

 sometimes butted to death by the wild bighorns; but 

 this cruelty is inspired less by malice than by that sin- 

 gular instinct which impels gregarious animals in a state 



