FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 99 



survived to our times on account of its elegance and 

 beauty." 



Mares' flesh is tlie choicest morsel, the daintiest bit, of 

 the Chilian Indians, who do not eat cows' flesh except 

 when pressed by necessity. 



There is one fact connected with the use of horseflesh 

 as an article of human diet, which, with other consider a-, 

 tions, is likely to interfere with its general adoption. 

 The Pampas Indians, who habitually live on mares' flesh, 

 exhale a peculiarly disagreeable and even sickening 

 odour. In the saladeros of Buenos Ayres and Monte- 

 video, the Indian labourers are subject to the same nau- 

 seous emanations. At Buenos Ayres, when Eosas re- 

 turned from his expedition against the Pampas Indians 

 in 1835, bringing with him several young captives, these 

 children, who were most hospitably received, severely 

 tried the endurance of their protectors by the smell of 

 the wild horse which emanated from their persons for 

 several months. The Argentine General Mansilla, well 

 known for his elegant and distingue manners, having 

 on one occasion requested a young Corrientine lady to 

 dance with him, was pertinaciously refused, and when, 

 he urged her to assign a reason for this affront she at 

 last said to the General: "You smell like the Indians!" 

 General Mansilla had that very day been making a re- 

 past of mare's flesh, not having been able to procure 

 beef. 



Sir John Richardson in his zoology of the northern 

 parts of America, states that the Spokans, who inhabit 

 the country lying between the forks of the Columbia, as. 

 well as other tribes of Indians, are fond of horseflesh as 

 an article of food ; and the residents of some of the Hud- 

 son's Bay Company's posts on that river were at one 

 time under the necessity of making it their principal 

 article of diet. 



By way of curiosity we may give the number of horses, 

 in different countries, although but a very small propor- 

 tion are consumed as food, especially in those countries 

 where other domestic animals are plentiful : — 



h2 



