184 EAMBLES AFTER SPORT. 



fit is on him ; give him an extra real or two, and he^ll 

 do the work of two horses. Easily aroused to a state of 

 fiendish cruelty_, he is usually sober, easily managed, and 

 hospitable, sharing his last crust with his comrade, and 

 content with almost anything ; only don^t bully him, — 

 he cannot stand that. Smoke a cigarito with him, chat 

 with him for two minutes, and you can do literally what 

 you like with him, without his being at all aware of the 

 fact ; attempt to drive him, and he will turn as stubborn 

 as his mule. He looks upon women as an inferior class, 

 yet is the most polite lady-killer in the world; this 

 natural ease and grace is inherent in him. A man, 

 wonderful in dirt, who cracks stones or cuts wood all 

 day, in the evening dons his many-coloured poncho, 

 places his straw hat with an easy jaunt over his left eye, 

 sticks a cigarito between his lips, and spends two or 

 three hours dancing and flirting with the seiioritas, and 

 to-morrow stones and wood again ; and so on till he gets 

 old and worn out. Then he comes and begs a medio of 

 you in the politest manner in the world, repaid by 

 showers of blessings and thanks ; and away he goes 

 again, to look on at the dancing and flirting. And then 

 he dies, dreaming, I firmly believe, of dancing and the 

 seiioritas. He is a firm believer in all sorts of remedios. 

 The amount of medicine he will swallow is something 

 marvellous — the stronger the better ; his faith in the 

 doctor is infallible. I have known peons positively 

 '^ sham '' to get five or six grains of calomel or three or 

 four drops of croton oil; and as for their teeth, they 

 have a perfect mania for having them out. A doctor 

 once assured me as a positive fact that a man came to 

 him one day to have a tooth pulled out ; he pulled it 

 out, and the man off"ered him a two-dollar piece in pay- 



