Horse and Man. 36 1 



"Yet lie did not forcibly carry me away from it, as he 

 might so easily have done; but, finding himself 

 maintained by a "nature superior to his own," he 

 preferred to face it. I have never met in the dog 

 a more striking example of this noblest kind of 

 brute courage. The incident did not impress me 

 very much at the moment, but when I came to reflect 

 that my sight was mere blindness compared with 

 that of my horse, and that it was not likely his 

 imagination clothed any familiar natural object 

 with fantastic terrors, it certainly did impress me 

 very deeply. 



I am loth to finish with my subject, in which, to 

 express myself in the manner of the gauchos, I 

 have passed over many matters, like good grass and 

 fragrant herbs the galloping horse sniffs at but can- 

 not stay to taste ; and especially loth to conclude 

 with this last incident, which has in it an element 

 of gloom. I would rather first go back for a few mo- 

 ments to my original theme — the pleasures of riding, 

 for the sake of mentioning a species of pleasure my 

 English reader has probably never tasted or even 

 heard of. When riding by night on the pampas, I 

 used to enjoy lying back on my horse till my head 

 and shoulders rested well on his back, my feet also 

 being raised till they pressed against his neck; and 

 in this position, which practice can make both safe 

 and comfortable, gaze up into the starry sky. To 

 enjoy this method of riding thoroughly, a sure-footed 

 unshod horse with perfect confidence in his rider is 

 necessary ; and lie must be made to go at a swift 

 and smooth pace over level grassy ground. With 

 these conditions the sensation is positively delightful. 

 ^Nothing of earth is visible, only the vast circle of 



