28 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



in her hand, her children tucked in between the legs 

 of her neighbours, or under their chairs. At the 

 feet of those sitting on the front seats was a row of 

 boys and girls, with their little heads poked through 

 the railing, and all around hung down a variegated 

 fringe-work of black and white legs. Opposite, and 

 on the top of the scaffold, was a band of music, the 

 leader of which wore a shining black mask, cari- 

 caturing a negro. 



A bull was in the ring, two barbed darts trimmed 

 with blue and yellow paper were hanging from his 

 flanks, and his neck was pierced with wounds, from 

 which ran down streams of blood. The picadores 

 stood aloof with bloody spears in their hands ; a 

 mounted dragoon was master of ceremonies, and 

 there were, besides, eight or ten vaqueros, or cattle- 

 tenders, from the neighbouring haciendas, hard ri- 

 ders, and brought up to deal with cattle that run 

 wild in the woods. These were dressed in pink- 

 coloured shirt and trousers, and wore small hats of 

 straw platted thick, with low round crowns, and 

 narrow brims turned up at the side. Their saddles 

 had large leathern flaps, covering half the body of 

 the horse, and each had a lazo, or coil of rope, in 

 his hand, and a pair of enormous iron spurs, perhaps 

 six inches long, and weighing two or three pounds, 

 which, contrasted with their small horses, gave a sort 

 of Bombastes Furioso character to their appearance. 

 By the order of the dragoon, these vaqueros, striking 

 their coils of rope against the large flaps of their sad- 



