Ho7'se and Man, 
361 
Yet he did not forcibly carry me away from it, as he 
might so easily have done ; but, finding himself 
maintained by a *^SiatLire superior to his own,” he 
preferred to face it. I have never met in the dog 
a more striking example of this noblest kind of 
brute courage. The incident did not impress me 
very much at the moment, but when I came to reflect 
that my sight was mere blindness compared with 
that of my horse, and that it was not likely his 
imagination clothed any familiar natural object 
with fantastic terrors, it certainly did impress me 
very deeply. 
I am loth to finish with my subject, in which, to 
express myself in the manner of the gauchos, I 
have passed over many matters, like good grass and 
fragrant herbs the galloping horse sniffs at but can- 
not stay to taste ; and especially loth to conclude 
with this last incident, which has in it an element 
of gloom. I would rather first go back for a few mo- 
ments to my original theme — the pleasures of riding, 
for the sake of mentioning a species of pleasure my 
English reader has probably never tasted or even 
heard of. When riding by night on the pampas, I 
used to enjoy lying back on my horse till my head 
and shoulders rested well on his back, my feet also 
being raised till they pressed against his neck ; and 
in this position, which practice can make both safe 
and comfortable, gaze up into the starry sky. To 
enjoy this method of riding thoroughly, a sure-footed 
unshod horse with perfect confidence in his rider is 
necessary ; and he must be made to go at a swift 
and smooth pace over level grassy ground. With 
these conditions the sensation is positively delightful. 
Nothing of earth is visible, only the vast circle of 
