THE PAMPAS. 



108 



horses, and tumbling them in, they might in two 

 minutes ride into any part of the place. 



I often asked the Gauchos why they did not de- 

 fend themselves in the corral, which at first ap- 

 peared to me to be a stronger position than the 

 forts ; but they said that the Indians often brought 

 lassos of hide, with which they could pull down the 

 stakes of the corral ; that sometimes they made a 

 fire against them, and that, besides this, their 

 spears being eighteen feet in length, they were 

 often able to kill every animal in the corral. 



