THE PAMPAS. 



257 



a little blood on the road, and for a moment we 

 stopped our horses to look at it ; I observed, that 

 perhaps some person had been murdered there ; 

 the Gaucho said, *' No," and pointing to some foot- 

 marks which were near the blood, he told me that 

 some man had fallen, that he had broken his 

 bridle, and that, while he was standing to mend it, 

 the blood had evidently come from the horse"'s mouth. 

 I observed, that perhaps it was the man who was 

 hurt, upon which the Gaucho said, ''No," and point- 

 ing to some marks a few yards before him on the 

 path, he said, " for see the horse set off at a gallop 



The grass was shorter in this part of the pro- 

 vince than it usually is, and it was very picturesque 

 and curious as we went along to see bullocks' skulls 

 lying in different directions. The skeleton of the 

 bulFs head was justly admitted by the ancients as 

 an ornament in their architecture. In the Pampas 

 it is often seen lying on the ground bleached by the 



* 1 often amused myself by learning from the Gauchos 

 to decipher the foot-marks of the horses, and the study was 

 very interesting. It is quite possible to determine from these 

 marks, whether the horses were loose, mounted, or laden with 

 baggage ; whether they were ridden by old men or by young 

 ones, by children, or by foreigners unacquainted with the 

 biscacheros, &c. &c. 



