44 BEAUTIFUL DRIVING OF THE PEONS. 



which only tended to add melancholy to its 

 dreariness. We all slept on the mud floor in our 

 host's small room^ which did not appear to in- 

 commode either himself or his family^ for his 

 wife and daughters came and undressed just as 

 if no person had been there. Shortly after^ be- 

 tween talking and laughing^ we heard them at 

 their prayers, stopping now and then to chat in 

 the middle of them. I could not but think of the 

 good qualities which were evidently innate in 

 this family^ and what they might be brought to 

 with a little cultivation and education. 



Friday 21th. Frosty mornings we left our 

 good-natured host very early^ travelling over the 

 same dreary pampas^, our road here and there 

 much cut up by the biscacho holes^ which are 

 made by a small animal of the same name, and 

 are dangerous to the horses. Jt is truly beauti- 

 ful, at the amazing rate the peons drive, to see 

 with what dexterity they avoid them. After 

 travelling nine leagues, arrived at the Arroyo 

 del Medio, which separates the province ofBue- 



