XII 



CRISTIANO : A HORSE 



A GAUCHO of my acquaintance, when I lived on 

 the pampas and was a very young man, owned 

 a favourite riding -horse which he had named 

 Cristiano. To the gaucho " Christian " is simply 

 another word for white man : he gave it that 

 name because one of its eyes was a pale blue-grey, 

 almost white — a colour sometimes seen in the eyes 

 of a white man, but never in an Indian. The other 

 eye was normal, though of a much lighter brown 

 than usual. Cristiano, however, could see equally 

 well out of both eyes, nor was the blue eye on one 

 side correlated with deafness, as in a white cat. His 

 sense of hearing was quite remarkable. His colour 

 was a fine deep fawn, with black mane and tail, and 

 altogether he was a handsome and a good, strong, 

 sound animal ; his owner was so much attached 

 to him that he would seldom ride any other horse, 

 and as a rule he had him saddled every day. 



Now if it had only been the blue eye I should 

 probably have forgotten Cristiano, as I made no 

 notes about him, but I remember him vividly to 

 this day on account of something arresting in his 



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