NOTICES OF PERTJ. 



197 



gallop for a hundred yards, and then check him into a sudden 

 halt. The men played off their steeds in the same manner, 

 wheeling and caracoling about the ladies. The faces of all were 

 animated by smiles and gay conversation. The females were 

 brunettes, and seemed full of enjoyment. The party dashed 

 by us at a full gallop, the long tails of their horses, and the 

 ponchos and hair streaming behind them.* 



Such were the groups met with on the road, going in one 

 direction or the other. Sometimes the whole road appeared 

 choked with asses loaded with fresh cut grass. Again, a " re- 

 cua," or drove of unladen mules, were urged on at a full gal- 

 lop by the ^^arriero," sitting erect in his saddle, head up, 

 poncho knotted round his waist, the reins of the mule held 

 high over its head with the left hand, while with the right he 

 whirled over his own head a long thong of hide. His legs, at 

 every spring of the animal, struck the huge rowels into the 

 mule's sides. As he sprang forward, wheeling from one side 

 of the road to the other, to keep his mules together, he cried, 

 ^^arre mula — grandisima * * * evincing, with the last re- 

 proachful epithet, his impatience, by a heavy discharge of his 

 thong on the back of the hindmost mule. Then away they 

 scampered, the dry hide capachos,'' or bags, lashed to the 

 pack saddles, clattering at a great rate as they dashed along. 



Again, the asses presented a most grotesque appearance, 

 piled up and almost concealed beneath baskets of poultry and 

 fruit, or whole sheep dressed for the market. Then came an 

 old, long backed <'rocin," or hack, with three or four long 

 legged, lean looking Indians seated on his back, from his neck 

 to his tail. And certainly, the most ugly old woman I ever 

 saw, was seated cross legged on the back of a donkey, and a 

 little Indian riding behind her. 



• Whether it is really more indelicate for a female than for a male to ride 

 astride, I am not called upon to pronounce. At first, it does not square with our 

 notions of propriety ; but on a closer examination, I could discover nothing im- 

 modest in the appearance of a lady's foot and ankle, cased in a pantalette, nor 

 did it seem more shocking than the tightly covered leg of the booted cavalier. 

 One reason in favor of ladies riding after this fashion, is that they are more 

 secure in the saddle, and need less the assistance of an attendant caballero. 



1 



