BEAR HUNTING IN MEXICO. 47 



orders that we were not to be called till tlie evening, 

 when the horses were to be ready for us. Accordingly, 

 in the cool of the day we made a move for the hills, 

 accompanied by half a dozen vaqueros, armed only 

 with their lassos, and a cart with a stout net in it, the 

 use of which I was presently to discover. After several 

 liours^ riding we came to a herdsman^s hut at the foot 

 of the hills, where we all alighted, and made ourselves 

 comfortable as best we might for the night; and, what 

 with the ride and the previous ''^ little game" we had 

 kept up, we all were sound asleep in five minutes, 

 although our beds were the bare floor and our ponchos. 



We were awakened very early in the morning by 

 one of the vaqueros, and after a bucket of cold water 

 over my head T felt as right as the mail. My com- 

 panions dispensed with this operation, and as for the 

 vaqueros, they all put me down then and there as 

 clean, stark, staring mad ; except work, there is 

 nothing a Mexican detests more than water. However, 

 they made ample amends for their shortcomings in 

 this respect by the positively awful quantity of meat 

 they ate. By meat I mean beef, and nothing but beef. 

 Some of these men go for months without tasting a 

 piece of bread or a vegetable. 



Don Miguel and Don Alfonso were mounted on two 

 splendid active little Mexican steeds, which gave them 

 every opportunity of showing ofi" their unequalled 

 horsemanship. The demi-pique saddles were composed 

 of richly-stamped Cordovan leather, with the lasso 

 horn in front ornamented with silver plates ; the stirrups 

 were of the extreme Mexican type, quite two feet long, 

 nearly sweeping the ground ; and they had on 

 hotas, or long boots, with spurs of solid silver at least 



