4i6 AVOYAGETO Book VI. 



prevent his eating to excels on fiich an exigency. He 

 talked to the fpedators with that eafe and tranquillity, 

 as if onfy going to take a fhort journey. He an- 

 fwered to the exhortations without the leaft confufion : 

 when he was ordered to kneel, he did fo. The 

 prayers and ads of devotion he alfo repeated word 

 for word ; but all the time rolling his eyes abour^ 

 like a fportiye child, whofe weak age is diverted by 

 trifling objeds. Thus he behaved till brought to the 

 gibbet, where his companion had been carried before 

 him : nor did he fhew the leaft alteration even in the 

 awful moment. And this, to a civilized European 

 fo ft range, is no more than what is common among 

 the Indians of thefe parts. 



This indifference with regard to death, or intrepid 

 dity, if we may term it fo, (hews itfelf upon many 

 other occafions, particularly in the alacrity and re- 

 folution with which they face themfelvcs before a 

 bull, with no other view than for the bull to run 

 full at him, and tofs him fo high in the air, that any 

 other than an Indian would be killed by the fall. 

 He however rifes without receiving any hurt, and is 

 highly delighted with the vidory, as he calls it, over 

 the bull, though the vidory feems to lie on the bull's 

 iide. V/hen they fight in a body againft others, the'y 

 fall on, without any regard to fuperiority of numbers, 

 or v/ho drops, or is v/ounded of their party. An 

 adion which in a civilized nation is counted the 

 height of courage, is here merely the efted of bar- 

 barifm and want of thought. They are very dex- 

 trous in haltering a bull at full fpeed and, as they 

 fear no danger, attack him with what we fhould call 

 great temerity. With the fame dexterity they hum 

 bears : and a fingle Indian, with only a ho/rfe and his 

 noofe, never fails of getting the better of all the cun- 

 ning and rage of this furious animal. This noofe is 

 made of cow-hide, fo thin as not to be feized by the 

 bea{l*s paws, and yet fo ftrong as not to be broken 



