COUNTRY SPORTS AND LIFE IN CHILE. 185 



ment. '*" I have no cliange/^ said the doctor. '^ How 

 much is it ? " said the man. " One dollar — a dollar a 

 tooth.^^ '' Oh, well then, take out another one, and that 

 will make us square," replied the patient ; and, needless 

 to say, the doctor readily fell in with such an easy settle- 

 ment of the case, and had out a double-fanged grinder 

 in no time. 



Everything nearly is a remedio. An old woman gets 

 two bits of leather about the size of a shilling, and placed 

 on the temples it is a remedio for the headache. Beans 

 for blindness, particular kinds of stones for toothache, 

 and such like rubbish, they have an un deviating faith in; 

 and I have no doubt, if you were to tell an old woman to 

 swallow a bottle of red ink as a cure for the ear-ache, 

 she would continue to take red ink till she got well — if 

 she ever did. 



How shall I describe that extraordinary phenomenon, 

 a Chile girl ? I don^t mean the upper ten, but the 

 average type. Never was such an extraordinary mixture 

 in a human being ; she baffles all attempts at analysation. 

 When you think you have her pretty well focussed for 

 her character, lo and behold, she moves ! She has a queer 

 idea of guitar-twanging, love-making under difficulties, 

 chattering, tea - drinking, prying, intense curiosity, 

 and ferreting out other people^s secrets. She has 

 warm affections, and is as changeable as a chameleon; 

 her little noddle is crammed with confused notions of 

 jovenes or young men, and dulces or sweetmeats. Of the 

 world outside her village she knows absolutely nothing ; 

 her sole idea of happiness is to go to Santiago and dance 

 cuecas there the livelong day. She hardly ever reads — 

 perhaps now and then a cheap French novel — and all her 

 ideas of life are gained from old traditions and stupid old 



