194 . GUATAVITA. 



side ; though I cannot say she equalled our 

 good countrywomen in cleanliness. The sa- 

 lutations over, we begged immediately for 



ing the lasso the proper swing, the noose opens the rno- 

 ment it is discharged from the hand, and covers a very 

 large space, so that, with practice, there is little chance of 

 an animal escaping. In general the natives of the whole 

 of South America carry this instrument, the use of which 

 they are taught from their infancy, and it serves for many 

 other purposes besides. But those who use it most expertly 

 are decidedly the natives of Buenos- Ayres and Chili, especi- 

 ally the former ; for they have by far the most practice, 

 frotn the quantity of cattle that abounds in these plains. 



Captain Basil Hall, in his South American Journal, so 

 well described the manner of lassoing wild animals, that it 

 is impossible for me to improve on it; 1 therefore take 

 the liberty of inserting his own words, and, as I have 

 often seen what he describes, bear witness to the accuracy 

 of the statement : — 



" Let us suppose that a wild bull is to be caught, and 

 that two mounted horsemen (guassos, as they are called in 

 Chili, or guachos, in Buenos- Ayres) undertake to kill him. As 

 soon as they discover their prey, they remove the coil of the 

 lasso from behind them ; and grasping it in the left-hand, 

 prepare the noose in the right, and dash off at full gallop, 

 each swinging his lasso round his head. The first who 

 comes within reach aims at the bull's horns, and when he 



