USE OF THE LUNA. 



163 



ing been more than four or five minutes absent 

 from the ground. 



There is another method of arresting the ani- 

 maPs progress without using the lasso, which is 

 said to require even more skill and presence of 

 mind than that formidable instrument itself. A 

 horseman is stationed a little way from the en- 

 trance of the corral, armed with a weapon called 

 a Luna, which consists of a steel blade about a 

 foot long, and curved as its name implies in the 

 form of a crescent, sharpened on the concave 

 edge, and having a pole ten or twelve feet long 

 screwed into the middle of the blunt or convex 

 side ; so that, when held horizontally, the horns 

 of the crescent point forward. The rider carries 

 this luna in his right hand, couched like a lance, 

 the blade being then about two feet from the 

 ground, in advance of the horse, while the staff 

 is kept steady by passing it under the arm. Hav- 

 ing allowed the animal to rush past, he puts spurs 

 to his horse, gallops after it ; on coming close up, 

 he places his weapon in such a situation, that 

 when its right hind leg is thrown backwards, it 

 shall enter the fork or crescent of the luna, and 



