166 RAMBLES APTER SPORT. 



spared, and by continually narrowing their circle, they 

 eventually collect all the animals into a comparatively 

 small space ; the fresh stock are then branded, the old 

 killed for chm^qui or sold for meat, and the rest are then 

 let run again. These rodeos are stupid affairs ; numbers 

 of animals get irretrievably ruined or injured by the 

 horns of the maddened beasts, and at every large rodeo 

 three or four men are hurt, if not killed. On these 

 occasions the peons universally use the lasso, the use of 

 the holas not being understood in Chile. The lasso is a 

 thin line of plaited raw hide, about the thickness of a 

 little finger, and thirty feet long ; it is kept coiled up on 

 the horse's flank, the end being fastened to a stout ring 

 in the saddle. The expertness of the natives with this 

 weapon has been much exaggerated by travellers. I 

 have heard of men who could lasso any leg you like, or 

 either horn, and I was almost going to say any eyelash ; 

 but I am quite sure that any average huaso would not 

 lasso a running bullock three out of five times. I have 

 frequently tried to make them do some of their wonder- 

 ful feats, but I never saw anything very extraordinary 

 and I should say anyone could acquire a very fair know- 

 ledge of its use by practice. 



There are three distinct kinds of horses found in Chile 

 — the Cuyano horse, the pure Chile, and the Peruvian 

 '' pacer : '' the first of these originally came from the 

 province of Cuyo in the Argentine Eepublic, but the 

 name has been gradually applied to all Argentine horses. 

 These horses are usually larger than the others ; they 

 almost invariably have large, ugly heads, and coffin 

 shaped bodies, but they make up for these deficiencies 

 by their superior bottom and speed. Nearly all the 

 horses used for racing in Chile are Cuyanos, that is, for 



