THE PAMPAS. 



81 



***** 



At some distance I saw a boy riding through the 

 thistles and clover, and as he was swinging hori- 

 zontally above his head the bolas or balls, I per- 

 ceived he was hunting for ostriches, and I therefore 

 rode up to him. 



He was a black boy of about fourteen years of 

 age, slight, and well-made, but with scarcely any- 

 thing on except the remains of a scarlet poncho. I 

 asked him several questions — where he expected to 

 find the ostriches, &c. &c. &c., to which he gave 

 me no answer, but continued swinging the balls 

 round his head, and looking about him. I was 

 asking him some other insignificant questions, when 

 he cut me short, by asking me if I would sell my 

 spurs ; and before I had time to reply, an ostrich 

 was in sight, and he darted away from me like an 

 arrow. I was, j ust at the moment, among a group 

 of biscacheros — my horse fell, and before I had 

 got clear of them, the boy was on the horizon, and 

 from the contempt with which he had left me, I 

 did not feel inclined to follow him. 



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