METHOD OF PRESERVING GRAIN. 



75 



surly dog obeying its master ; and their manner 

 of speaking is that disgusting, apathetic whine, 

 so peculiar to the West Indian Creoles. 



The method of preserving grain in the Pam- 

 pas, is very curious ; that useful animal, the ox, 

 supplies the want of almost every thing. They 

 sow the legs of a whole skin up, and fill it full of 

 corn : it is then triced up to four stakes, with 

 the legs hanging downwards, so that it has the 

 appearance of an elephant hanging up ; the top 

 is again covered with hides, which prevents the 

 rats getting at it. In stretching a skin to dry, 

 wood is so scarce, in many parts of the Pampas, 

 that the rib bones are carefully preserved to 

 supply its place, and used as pegs to fix it in 

 the ground. A child^s cradle consists of a square 

 sheepskin, laced to a small rude frame of wood, and 

 suspended like a scale to a beam or nail in the 

 rancho. The poor little parroquets, which are 

 very numerous, and generally made prisoners 

 when caught alive, are sown up in a box of hide 

 with a small round hole cut in it, just large enough 



