154 BANDA ORIENTAL. [cHaP. VIII. 
I was told an anecdote, which I believe was true; and it offers 
a good illustration of the use of a well-broken animal. <A re- 
spectable man riding one day met two others, one of whom was 
mounted on a horse, which he knew to have been stolen from 
himself. He challenged them; sthey answered him by drawing 
their sabres and giving chace. The man, on his good and fleet 
beast, kept just ahead: as he passed a thick bush he wheeled 
round it, and brought up his horse to a dead check. The pur- 
suers were obliged to shoot on one side and ahead. Then in- 
stantly dashing on, right behind them, he buried his knife in the 
back of one, wounded the other, recovered his horse from the 
dying robber, and rode home. For these feats of horsemanship 
two things are necessary: a most severe bit, like the Mameluke, 
the power of which, though seldom used, the horse knows full 
well ; and large blunt spurs, that can be applied either as a mere 
touch, or as an instrument of extreme pain. I conceive that 
with English spurs, the slightest touch-of which pricks the skin, 
it would be impossible to break in a horse after the South Ame- 
rican fasion. 
At an estancia near Las Vacas large numbers of mares are 
weekly slaughtered for the sake of their hides, although worth 
only five paper dollars, or about half-a-crown apiece. It seems 
at first strange that it can answer to kill mares for such a trifle; 
but-as it is thought ridiculous in this country ever to break in or 
ride a mare, they are of no value except for breeding. The only 
thing for which I ever saw mares used, was to tread out wheat 
from the ear; for which purpose they were driven round a cir- 
cular enclosure, where the wheat-sheaves were strewed. The 
man employed for slaughtering the mares happened to be cele- 
brated for his dexterity with the lazo. Standing at the distance of 
twelve yards from the mouth of the corral, he has laid a wager 
that he would catch by the legs every animal, without missing 
one, as it rushed past him. There was another man who said he 
would enter the corral on foot, catch a mare, fasteu her front legs 
together, drive her out, throw her down, kill, skin, and stake the 
hide for drying (which latter is a tedious job) ; and he engaged 
that he would perform this whole operation on twenty-two ani- 
mals in one day. Or he would kill and take the skin off fifty in 
the same time. This would have been a prodigious task, for it is 
