194 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



hoping that the excited and maddened flood of horses 

 would divide and pass on each side of it. As the gal- 

 lopping mass drew nigh, our horses began to snort, prick 

 up their ears, and then to tremble ; and when it burst 

 upon us they became completely ungovernable from 

 terror; all broke loose, and joined their affrighted 

 companions, except my mare, which struggled with 

 the fury of a wild beast ; and I only retained her by 

 using all my strength, and at last throwing her on her 

 side. On went the maddened troop, trampling, in 

 their headlong speed, over skins, dried meat, &c., and 

 throwing down some of the smaller tents. They were 

 soon lost in the darkness of the night, and in the wilds 

 of the prairie, and nothing more was heard of them 

 save the distant yelping of the curs who continued their 

 ineffectual pursuit." 



Where there is such a profusion of horses, the 

 people cannot fail to be all riders ; and such they 

 are, bold and expert beyond all comparison with other 

 nations. The Indians of the Pampas and the Prairies, 

 whose forefathers fled in horror and dismay from the 

 fatal apparition of the Spanish horses, are now literally 

 incorpsed and deminatured with the brave beast. 

 Many of the tribes, from being constantly on horse- 

 back from their infancy, can scarcely walk. Their 

 legs have become too weak, from long disuse, for that 

 kind of progression, and they loathe and despise it. 

 The proudest attitude of the human figure, as they 



