394 IN THE WILDS OF SOUTH AMERICA 



locks and gates. A few of the fields had already been cut 

 over and the sheaves piled in stacks to dry. Small rodents — 

 rats and mice — were so numerous that they worked great 

 havoc. We ran over our traps thrice daily and always found 

 all of them filled. At dusk short-eared owls came to the 

 vicinity and perched on the mounds from which they could 

 swoop down and capture the mice that teemed in the stub- 

 ble below. I fired several heavy charges of shot at these 

 birds one evening, and the weather being clear and quiet, 

 the sound carried to the village about a mile and a half 

 away. Early next morning a police sergeant rode up and 

 informed us that we were under arrest. We thanked him 

 for the information, and he left while we went on with our 

 work. At noon another orderly came to repeat the message 

 of the first, and to add that we were expected to report at 

 the police-station immediately. The next day we went to 

 see what all the trouble was about. The "jefe" was wait- 

 ing for us at the entrance to the jail, surrounded by a curious 

 audience of townspeople. He looked sad, grave, and of- 

 fended as he began: "Senores, I heard five shots night be- 

 fore last." "Yes, sefior" I interrupted, "I fired at least 

 eight or ten." "Pues, that is absolutely prohibited here; 

 one may not shoot under any circumstances whatsoever, 

 so I am compelled to place you in confinement." At this 

 part of the proceedings I merely flashed our permit and 

 asked him why the governor of the province should give 

 out such a document, and charge two pesos for it, if one 

 could not hunt under any circumstances. He was taken 

 completely by surprise and did not know what to say, so 

 we wished him good morning and went home, much to the 

 amusement of the crowd which had a good laugh at the 

 jefe's expense. 



The Argentinians are inveterate drinkers of mate. It is 

 taken from a bombilla, as in Paraguay, and all classes of 

 people indulge in the habit. I heard that a law had recently 

 been passed requiring each person to use an individual tube 

 as the old system of everybody's using the same one in- 



