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order to fatten them ; for this purpose, they drive 

 them to the richest pastures^ where they usually 

 keep them till about Christmas, when they kill 

 tliem. Tiiis slaughter, which is always a great 

 festival for the peasants, is expected with the 

 utmost impatience, and they conduct it as fol- 

 lows : The herdsmen drive twenty or thirty of 

 these fat cattle into an enclosure made with 

 stakes, which is always erected upon a plain; 

 the peasants, well mounted, surround the en- 

 closure, and when they have taken their stations, 

 one of the cattle is let out. As soon as the beast 

 finds himself at liberty he takes flight, and all 

 the company pursue him, each endeavouring 

 adroitly to hamstring him with a sharp iron, 

 shaped like a crescent, attached to the end of a 

 lance. Whenever a beast falls, the butchers im- 

 mediately dispatch him, by thrusting a kind of 

 long knife into the nape of his neck. When all 

 the beasts are killed, they are dragged to one 

 spot, where they are flayed, and the tallow 

 separated from the beef. This last they usually 

 cut up into long narrow strips, salt it a little, 

 and dry it in the sun. A very considerable com- 

 merce is carried on in this beef, especially with 

 Peru and the mines. It keeps very well ; and, as 

 it is not strongly salted, is preferred to the salt 

 provisions received from Holland and England. 

 The tallow is mostly exported to Peru, very 

 little being used ia the country ; it is the same 



