Chap. III. AND HARNESSING WILD MULES. 235 
whirls the cord, in serpentine coils, round and round over 
his head ; the noose flies hissing, with the precision of an 
arrow, to its object ; whilst the animal stands as if rooted 
to the spot, but making a small side-motion of its head, 
and the laso misses. 
All these stratagems, however, are useless. Whilst the 
drove rush from side to side of the corral, one mule 
after another feels the laso twisted round its neck. Then 
it tears away madly into the midst of its companions, 
dragging the man who holds the cord from one side of 
the corral to the other. A second and a third now come 
to his aid. The hard breathing of the half-strangled animal 
is heard amidst all the uproar and confusion of the scene. 
At length the men succeed in drawing the end of the 
cord between the spokes of a wheel, and the animal is 
gradually brought nearer and nearer to this point. As 
soon as it is close to the wheel, the cord is drawn round its 
body, and again pulled through the spokes, so that the 
whole body is now brought into a noose. Thereupon the 
men endeavour to force the bit between its teeth, and, just as 
they seem to have accomplished this, the animal in despair 
makes a last effort ; it throws itself on the ground, frees 
its legs from the cord by rolling over, jumps up, and, with 
the noose still tightly drawn round its neck, disappears in 
the thickest of the drove. The chase now begins anew, 
until the animal has a second noose around its neck : half- 
strangled, it is now flung on the ground and mastered by 
forcible means, until the bit is in its mouth, and the cord, 
with a second noose, fixed round its nostril. Upon this, it 
is let out of the corral ; and now begins the attempt to put 
it to, and harness it to the waggon. The creature again 
makes the most violent struggles ; and, considering that 
in this manner ten animals are put to every carriage, and 
