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134 



THE SERTANEJO. 



I left the major * to pursue his journey home- 

 wards, whilst I retreated, or rather advanced, in 

 a contrary direction, but a retreat it was from 

 this inhospitable region. We found no change 

 during that day, and if we had not met with a 

 good-natured herdsman, should have fared very 

 badly for want of water, unless we had seen some 

 other person equally well disposed. I asked him 

 the way to the nearest estate, which he told me, 

 and then I made enquiries about water, to which 

 he answered, that unless I was acquainted with 

 the place, I should not find the well, and this 

 part of our conversation ended by his turning 



* Between two and three years after this journey, I heard 

 again of my friend the major. I became acquainted with a 

 man who resided at the foot of the Serra do Teixeira, which 

 is beyond the estates of the major's father. The old colonel 

 was killed by a bull before his own door. The animal had 

 been driven into a small inclosure, and became mad from 

 feeling himself confined. It was necessary to bring him to 

 the ground, which is done j§ a peculiar manner, by running a 

 short iron prong into a certain part of the thigh. The herds- 

 men were afraid, and wished to let the beast have time to 

 cool and become less violent; the old man, who was between 

 seventy and eighty years of age, told them, that if they were 

 afraid, he would attack him, and immediately entered the in- 

 closure; but before he could prepare to receive the bull, and 

 was still leaning against the palings, the animal ran at him, 

 and fixed his horns through the old man's body, with sufficient 

 force to run them into the palings, and in such a manner that 

 before he could extricate himself, one of the herdsmen ran a 

 long knife into his head between the horns, and brought hint 

 to the ground; but the old man lost his life. 



