CORRER EL GALLO, 241 



ico, are also very popular ' amusements' in the 

 North, and generally lead to the same excesses 

 and the same results as gaming. The cock- 

 pit rarely fails to be crowded on Sundays and 

 other feast days; on wliich occasions the 

 church, the ball-room, the gambling-house, and 

 the cock-pit look hke so many opposition estab- 

 Ushments ; for nothing is more common than 

 to see people going from one place to another 

 by alternate fits, just as devotional feeUng or 

 love of pleasure happens to prompt them. 



One of the most attractive sports of the 

 rancheros and the peasantry, and that which, 

 more than any other, calls for the exercise of 

 skill and dexterity, is that called correr el gallo, 

 practised generally on St. John's day. A com- 

 mon cock or hen is tied by the feet to some 

 swinging Umb of a tree, so as to be barely 

 within the reach of a man on horseback : or 

 the fowl is buried alive in a small pit in the 

 gi'ound leaving only tlie head above the sur- 

 face. In either case, the racers, passing at 

 full speed, grapple the head of the fowl, 

 which being well greased generally slips out 

 of their fingers. As soon as some one, more 

 dextrous than the rest, has succeeded in tear- 

 ing it loose, he claps spurs to his steed, and 

 endeavors to escape with the prize. He is 

 hotly pursued, however, by the whole sport- 

 ing crew, and the first who overtakes him 

 tries to get possession of the fowl, when a 

 strife ensues, during which the poor chicken 

 is torn into atoms. Should the holder of the 

 trophy be able to outstrip his pursuers, he cai-- 



21 



