TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 81 



chief cowherd, perform all these services ; they 

 prevent the herds from straying beyond the bound- 

 aries, and defend them against the attacks of the 

 ounces, wolves, and wild dogs. These people are 

 almost always on horseback, as their office compels 

 them to ride twenty miles or more in a day ; every 

 year the whole herd is collected, at different times, 

 in a place in a high situation, and sometimes 

 fenced in ; on this occasion, the mark of the owner 

 is branded on the hind-quarter of the beasts one 

 year old, of which they reckon a thousand annually 

 for a herd of five or six thousand ; those two years 

 old are castrated in a very rough manner ; and 

 those of four years old and more are selected for 

 slaughter. The catching of these latter, a fre- 

 quently troublesome and dangerous employment, 

 is executed here as in the pampas of Buenos 

 Ayres, by means of long leathern nooses, which the 

 farmers' servants manage with incredible dexterity. 

 The tame cattle are kept in the vicinity of the 

 fazenda, run free in the meadows duing the day, 

 and are only shut up in an enclosure at night. The 

 flesh of the tame cattle, is preferred to that of the 

 wild, because from their undisturbed and more 

 quiet way of life, they grow fat sooner, and with 

 less fodder. The pasture being so good, their milk 

 is excellent, but a cow gives only a third part 

 of the quantity that good milch cows give in 

 Europe.' The hide is always the most valuable 

 part of the cattle ; it is stripped off, stretched upon 



VOL. II. G 



