THB POST, 



The "lasso," a simple long noosed cord, is the only weapon 

 nsed by the Indians in their horse hnnts. Armed with thia 

 potent implement, and monnted on their savage steeds as 

 naked as themselves, the Indians give chase to the flying herds, 

 yelling as only Indians can yell, and handling the lissom 

 lasso ready for a " cast " as soon as they come up to the wild 

 horses, as after a run of a score of miles or so they invariably 

 do ; for — and it is a cnrions fact — ^the trained horse, bearing 

 his trainer on his back, possesses greater fleetness and endurance 

 than the wild fellow unbacked and unbnrthened as he is. The 

 Indians single out a horse from the flying herd, and whirr ! 

 flies the unerring cord, the noose making a necklace for the 

 stricken creature, who, so suddeltty checked in his thun- 

 dering career, stands still as a marble horse, while the lasso — 

 its owner having halted his horse the moment the cord was 

 cast — is strained like a thick wife of iron. The skill of both 

 Gnachos and Indians in using the lasso is extraordinary. 

 Their faith in it too is unbounded. During the war of inde- 

 pendence, eight or ten Guachos, who had never seen a piece of 

 artillery till one was fired at them in the streets of Buenos 

 Ayrfia, fearlessly galloped up to it, placed their lassos over the 

 carriage of the cannon, and fairly overturned it. 



If, however, it was left entirely to the hand of man to thin 

 and keep down these horse-swarms, th'ey would become a plague 

 and both continents would scarce afford them ambling room ; 

 where, however, one horse falls by the lasso of the Indian or 

 the Guachos a hundred die the horrid death of thirst at those 

 periods when drought sweeps the land and laps up the pools, 

 leaving nothing but hollows of stagnant mire. Then the horses, 

 tortured to madness, rush into the first marsh or pool they 

 can find, trampling each other to death. Between the years 

 1827 and 1830 occurred the greatest drought that can be re- 

 membered. Brooks were dried up, and the whole country was 

 converted into one vast plain of dust. To own a living well in 

 Buenos Ayres at that time was to own the most precious thing 

 in the world. " I was informed by an eyewitness," says Mr. 

 Darwin, " that the cattle in herds of thousands rushed into the 

 Parana, and being exhausted by hunger were unable to crawl 

 up the muddy banks, and so were drowned. The arm which 

 runs by San Pedro was so full of putrid carcases that the 

 master of a vessel told me the smell rendered it quite impos- 

 sible to pass that way. Without doubt several hundred thou 

 sand thus perished in the river." 



74S 



