100 HEADWATERS OF THE PARAGUAY 



were, of course, chosen from among the men who were 

 hunters, and each carried his long, rather heavy and 

 clumsy jaguar-spear. In front rode our vigorous host 

 and his strapping son, the latter also carrying a jaguar- 

 spear. The bridles and saddles of the big ranchmen and 

 of the gentlefolk generally were handsome, and were 

 elaborately ornamented with silver. The stirrups, for 

 instance, were not only of silver, but contained so much 

 extra metal in ornamented bars and rings that they 

 would have been awkward for less-practised riders. 

 Indeed, as it was, they were adapted only for the tips of 

 boots with long, pointed toes, and were impossible for 

 our feet ; our hosts' stirrups were long, narrow silver 

 slippers. The camaradas, on the other hand, had jim- 

 crow saddles and bridles, and rusty little iron stirrups 

 into which they thrust their naked toes. But all, gentry 

 and commonalty alike, rode equally well and with the 

 same skill and fearlessness. To see our hosts gallop at 

 headlong speed over any kind of country toward the 

 sound of the dogs with their quarry at bay, or to see them 

 handle their horses in a morass, was a pleasure. It was 

 equally a pleasure to see a camarada carrjdng his heavy 

 spear, leading a hound in a leash, and using his machete 

 to cut his way through the tangled vine-ropes of a jungle, 

 all at the same, time and all without the slightest refer- 

 ence to the plunges, and the odd and exceedingly jerky 

 behaviour, of his wild, half-broken horse — for on such a 

 ranch most of the horses are apt to come in the 

 categories of half-broken or else of broken-down. One 

 dusky tatterdemalion wore a pair of boots from which 

 he had removed the soles, his bare, spur-clad feet pro- 

 jecting from beneath the uppers. He was on a little 

 devil of a stallion, which he rode blindfold for a couple 

 of miles, and there was a regular circus when he removed 



