THE MUSTANG, OR WILD HORSE. 465 
splenetic, and unconquerably ill-grained, in a ratio equal 
th .r declension from the full standard of proportion and 
povver. 
The cavayards of the Rio Grande valley and California, 
aro ccmposed sometimes of a thousand mares and eight or 
ten studs, by whom the females are divided into families of 
from eighty to a hundred and twenty, the number a good 
des! regulated by their individual prowess. For wars of 
jea: us rivalry are incessantly occurring among them, and 
whe that is best able to protect his concubines has most of 
tkeu. They sometimes have very furious battles with the 
wi.l asses of the country, from which they generally come 
off worst. These are most merciless ravishers; and after 
having frequently killed, or entirely used up the stallions, 
thy will scatter the cavayard so that they can never be got 
together again. 
The mares, which have all been disabled from running fast 
by x cruel practice on the part of their owners, of severing 
one of the tendons at the knee, cannot escape from these 
ferucious gallants, who, more inexorable than the “Old Man 
of the Sea” of Sindbad, will cling to them for days till their 
object be accomplished, through sheer exhaustion on the 
part of the victim. The produce of this connection 
‘© Who in the lusty stealth of nature take 
More composition and fierce quality— 
is a clean-limbed, vigorous, powerful animal. Indeed, the 
mule thus bred is, immeasurably, far the most active, spirited, 
swift and enduring of all the long-eared genus. They are 
not so heavy-boned as the Kentucky mules, but they can 
kill two or three of them as travellers, and are really most 
delightful animals for the saddle; and being high before, 
with light heads, some of them are very handsome. and quite 
the average height of our saddle horses. 
As our hemisphere is indebted to the priest accompanying 
30 
