THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 195 



declare, is when a man, bending over his horse, lance 

 in hand, is riding at his enemy. The occupation of 

 their lives is war, especially against " the Christians," 

 and they pursue it for two objects, to steal cattle, 

 and for the pleasure of murdering the people ; and 

 they will even leave the cattle to massacre and tor- 

 ture their enemies, such is their ferocity, and their 

 hereditary hatred to the descendants of the cruel 

 oppressors of their fathers. The Guachos, who them- 

 selves ride so beautifully, declare that it is impossible 

 to vie with a mounted Indian ; for that the Indians' 

 horses are better than their own, and also that they 

 have such a way of urging them on by their cries, 

 and by a peculiar motion of their bodies, that even 

 if they were to change horses, the Indians would beat 

 them. Mr. Darwin related a case in which this fact 

 was proved. 



At Cholechel, Bahia-Blanca, General Rosas' troops 

 encountered a tribe of Indians, and they killed twenty 

 or thirty of them. The cacique escaped in a manner 

 which surprised every one : the chief Indians have 

 always one or two picked horses, which they keep 

 ready for any urgent occasion. On one of these, an 

 old white horse, the cacique sprung, taking with him 

 his little son : the horse had neither saddle nor bridle. 

 To avoid the shots the Indian rode in the peculiar 

 method of his nation, namely, with an arm round the 

 horse's neck, and one leg only on its back. Thus 



