MODES OF TAKING HIM. 209 
denly as if shot in the brain, and remains 
senseless for a few minutes, during which he 
is secured with a rope. e€ soon recovers 
from the shock, however, and springs to his 
feet, but finds himself deprived of his liberty. 
He is easily tamed after this, and the wound 
heals without leaving any physical injury. 
But ‘creasing’ is so nice an operation that 
many are killed in the attempt. [If the ball 
pass a little too low, it fractures a vertebra 
and kills the poor brute instantly. 
But the most usual mode, among the Mexi- 
cans and Indians, of taking the mestena (as 
the former call these animals), is with the 
lazo. They pursue them on fleet horses, and 
great numbers are thus noosed and tamed. 
The mustang has been taken in Texas in 
considerable numbers by preparing a strong 
pen at some passway or crossing of a river, 
into which they are frightened and caught. 
Upon the plains, I once succeeded in sepa- 
rating a gay-looking stallion from his herd of 
mestenas, upon which he immediately joined 
our caballada, and was directly lazoed by a 
Mexican. As he curvetted at the end of the 
rope, or would stop and gaze majestically at 
his subjecters, his symmetrical proportions 
attracted the attention of all; and our best 
jockeys at once valued him at five hundred 
d But it appeared that he had before 
been tamed, for he soon submitted to the 
saddle, and in a few days dwindled down to 
scarce a twenty-dollar hackney. 
Prairie ecg have often been reduced 
