ABULLFIGHr. 59 
After annoying him thus with cloaks and lances for about ten minutes, 
a trumpet was sounded ; and immediately a dozen banderillos, or small 
lances, covered with gilt and flowered paper, were stuck in his neck, 
making him bound with rage at the assailant as he felt every new sting 
of the cruel weapons. 
This done, the crowd circled around, and he stood in the midst, snort- 
ing, pawing the earth, veering h's head from one portion of the ring 
to the other, beholding everywhere an armed foe pointing at him with a 
lance, and howling as if to dare them to attack. But he was effectually 
tamed. 
Another blast from the trumpet, and two of the matadors approached 
stealthily from the rear, and plunged lances surrounded with fireworks, 
into the skin of his neck. Snorting, roaring, blazing, cracking, he 
bounded over the arena lashing himself with his tail, and dashing, with- 
out purpose, at everything. 
At the third blast of the trumpet, the chief matador, who now made his 
first appearance, stepped forth, and proceeded to the judge's gallery for 
the sword, to dispatch the animal. By this time the fireworks had burned 
out, and the bull had been teased toward the southern barricade of the 
theatre. Panting with fatigue, rage and exhaustion, he stood at bay. 
The matador (an Andalusian, in pumps, silk stockings, and a tight-fitting 
purple dress, embroidered with bugles,) was a person of herculean frame, 
and his manly form, in the perfection of human beauty and strength, 
contrasted finely with the huge mass of bone and muscle in the beast. 
He wound his red cloak around the short staff" which he held in his 
left hand, and approached the bull, grasping in his right his well-poised 
sword. The bull, worried by the red cloak, bounded at him. As the 
animal stooped to gore, the matador leapt to the left with the bound of a" 
deer, and receiving the beast with the whole shock of his weight and 
spring on the point of his weapon, passed it through his heart, and laid 
him dead without a struggle at his feet. The circus rang with applause 
at the successful stroke. Drawing out his blade, black with blood, the 
matador wiped it on the cloak, and bowing to the multitude, restored it to 
the judge. 
The trumpet sounded again : a rope was noosed around the beast's 
horns, three gayly-caparisoned horses were led in, the carcass was hitched 
to them, and, at another blast of the trumpet they dragged the body, at 
full gallop, out of the circus. A shovel-full of fresh earth was thrown 
over the pool of blood ; the trumpet was again sounded ; the eastern bar- 
ricade thrown open, and in bounded the second bull. 
Almost blinded by his sudden plunge into daylight from the utter dark- 
ness of his den, and astounded by the shouts and jeers of the spectators, 
he rushed to the centre of the arena, and paused. His head wandered 
from side to side, as if seeking for something at which to tilt. He pawed 
the earth, la?hed his back with his tail, and was evidently "game." 
5 
