HISTORY. 253 



power of the female to yield milk constantly diminishes with 

 the heat of the climate, until, at the tropics, it does not 

 amount to one-third of the ordinary quantity. They are 

 reclaimed with such facility, that the wildest herds may be 

 domesticated in a month. They are hunted for their hides 

 by people of the country, or Gauchos, who pursue them on 

 horseback at speed, forming two lines, meeting at an angle 

 in the rear. The person who is behind at the angle or meet- 

 ing of the lines, is armed with a sharp instrument, of a cres- 

 cent-shape, fixed to a long handle. With this he hamstrings 

 the oxen as he comes up to them, the party all the time con- 

 tinuing the pursuit. When a sufficient number have been 

 maimed, and left on the ground, the party returns, the prin- 

 cipal hunter piercing the prostrate oxen with a spear, and 

 others instantly dismounting, and stripping off the hide : the 

 carcasses are left as of no value, to be devoured by vultures 

 and other beasts of prey. 



Those cattle which are in a semi-domesticated state, and 

 are the property of individuals, are kept in large herds. They 

 are under the charge of a superintendent with several assist- 

 ants, whose province it is to prevent them from straying, 

 to protect them from the Jaguars, and other beasts of prey, 

 and to catch those which are to be slaughtered. They are 

 caught by means of the well-known Lazo, which incessant 

 practice teaches those wild people to throw with match- 

 less dexterity. It consists of a plaited thong of hides, forty 

 or fifty feet in length, with a noose and iron-ring at one end. 

 Swinging the noose end round and round with the right arm, 

 the other end being coiled over the left arm, and fixed to the 

 saddle girth, they throw their singular missile, themselves 

 all the while at speed, and entangle the victim by the horns, 

 the neck, or by one or both legs, as may be wished, and in 

 an instant hurl him to the ground. One superintendent, 

 with four assistants, is reckoned sufficient for the tendence of 

 from 4000 to 5000 head of cattle, often extending over a 

 space of eighteen square miles of country ; and this esta- 



