THE ** RASTREADOR ** 151 



black hair which was not negro-Hke. As he had been 

 so much on horseback he waddled on the ground, and 

 was like a big clumsy animal walking with difficulty 

 on his hind legs. Then there were his garments: a 

 waistcoat or blouse as a rule, new and of some crude, 

 glaring colour, yellow or scarlet or blue, and all the 

 others old and frayed and the colour of clay. As a 

 rule he was without boots, being a poor devil, with 

 his big iron spurs buckled on his bare feet. But 

 now I conceived a great respect for him, and envied 

 him the possession of something which I lacked 

 and greatly missed. 



This is perhaps an extreme case; nevertheless, men 

 of that kind, who were never lost and never at a 

 loss, were not uncommon on our Argentine frontiers. 

 A man of that kind who had a bold and adven- 

 turous spirit as well was called a Rastreador, and 

 was employed to go out into the desert and spy 

 on the Indians. 



It is probable that even in our ultra-civilised state 

 there are individuals among us who possess the sense 

 in a high degree although they may not know it 

 themselves, just as there are those who have a sense 

 of smell acute as that of any pure savage. This 

 would not be strange: more wonderful is the fact 

 that on some rare occasion the faculty should revive 

 and burn in its pristine power in an individual in 

 whom it had appeared to be non-existent. Here is 

 a case in point. 



Years ago, when following a discussion on a sense 

 of direction in man in one of the weekly journals, 



