THE HORSE AND HTS RIDER. 



his good and fleet beast kept just ahead ; as he passed 

 a thick bush he wheeled round it, and brought up his 

 horse to a dead check. The pursuers were obliged 

 to shoot on one side and ahead. Then instantly dash~ 

 ing on right behind them, he buried his knife in the 

 back of one, wounded the other, recovered his horse 

 from the dying robber, and rode home. For these 

 feats in horsemanship two things are necessary ; a 

 most severe bit, like the Mameluke, the power of 

 which, though seldom used, the horse knows full 

 well; and large blunt spurs, that can be applied 

 either as a mere touch, or as an instrument of extreme 

 pain. I conceive that with English spurs, the slight- 

 est touch of which pricks the skin, it would be im- 

 possible to break a horse after the South American 

 fashion." 



Nothing is done on foot by the Gauchos that can 

 possibly be done on horseback. Even mounted beg- 

 germen are to be seen in the streets of Buenos Ayres 

 and Mendoza. The butcher, of course, plies his trade 

 on horseback, in the manner thus described by Basil 

 Hall: " The cattle had been driven into an enclo- 

 sure or corral, whence they were now let out one by 

 one, and killed ; but not in the manner practised in 

 England, where they are dragged into a house, and 

 despatched by blows on the forehead with a poleaxe. 



