112 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA 



Let me draw a picture of one of these traders for you. A 

 lean stooping man of Paraguayan extraction, dressed out in store 

 clothes which he but half filled. A plump face of the caste 

 peculiar to the lowest type of the Latin peoples, with a full greasy- 

 lipped animalism stamped upon it, after the manner of his kind. 

 The lean body and fat face formed a contrast that struck you 

 with repulsion as an actual deformity. This fellow played a very 

 old trick upon a batch of Indians and considerably enriched 

 himself thereby. 



The Indians had come in upon the outskirts of a coast-town, 

 rich with the sale of a six-months harvest of ostrich feathers, 

 guanaco-skins and other such merchandise as they gather from the 

 pampas. After some drinking and a variety of games of chance, 

 our friend the trader started an argument as to which of the 

 Indians owned the swiftest horse. A race was soon decided upon, 

 the trader most liberally offering a prize in the shape of a bottle 

 of drink. The race was to be ridden bare-back, as is usual in 

 contests of this description among the Indians. The trader 

 further sucrsfested that the race should be run off in heats. A 

 horse with a white blaze and a very fine head won, and his pro- 

 prietor, a tall Indian in a black poncho, received the prize, which 

 he, with help, soon disposed of. After this the talk fell naturally 

 upon the merits of the respective horses. 



"Your picaso is a good horse," said the trader to the tall 

 Indian, "but I have a horse in my troop that could leave him far 

 behind." 



At first the Indian laughed, but the trader's boasting and 

 insistence presently stung him to resent the aspersion on his 

 mount, and he said he should like to see the thing done. 



The trader jumped at the opportunity. The Indians had had 

 sufficient drink to destroy their ordinary cautiousness, and were 

 ready to take up any challenge. 



"The loser to forfeit his horse to the winner," continued the 

 trader, who had laid his plans beforehand. He then called a 

 Chileno lad, who soon appeared leading a big lean alazan. It 

 was easy for any seeing eye to recognise that the animal had been 

 tied up the night before and was in quite fair racing trim ; besides 



