80 THE WILD HORSE, OR MUSTANG. 



old patriarch keeping the young horses of the herd in 

 order whilst the mares, accompanied by their foals, graze 

 peacefully along. The gazer, if from the old country, 

 thinks of Mazeppa and Lord Byron's lines as he watches 

 these, — 



' By spur and bridle ixudefiled.' 



and repeats, almost without thinking, those other 

 lines : — 



' A thousand horse, and none to ride, 

 "With flowing tail, and flying mane ; 

 Wide nostrils — never stretched by pain, 

 Mouths bloodless to the bit and rein, 

 And feet that iron never shod, 

 And flanks unscarr'd by spur or rod ; 

 A thousand horse, the wild, the free, 

 Like waves that follow o'er the sea, 

 Went thickly thundering on.' 



The wild horse is caught either with the lasso, b}^ 

 penning, or by cutting foals off from their mothers. 

 For lassoing the ropes used are of two kinds, from forty 

 to fifty feet long. Those made of twisted tail-hair are 

 called cahrestos. These are generally preferred by 

 white men as they are freer from grease and ^ kinks ' 

 than those about to be described. The hide rope, or 

 lariat, is made of raw-hide thongs plaited, and this 

 has often to be greased with salted grease to keep them 

 pliable, as the dew and occasional showers other\vise 

 make them hard. The lariat is stronger than the 

 cahrestos. 



