The Hawaiian Archipelago - Six Months Among The Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, And Volcanoes Of The Sandwich Islands By Isabella L. Bird
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The Other Natives Dismounted, And Put
Two Lassoes Round His Horns, Slipping The First Into The Same
Position, And Vaulted Into Their Saddles Before He Was On His Legs.
He got up, shook himself, put his head down, and made a mad blind
rush, but his captors were too dexterous for him, and in that and
each succeeding rush he was foiled.
As he tore wildly from side to
side, the natives dodged under the lasso, slipping it over their
heads, and swung themselves over their saddles, hanging in one
stirrup, to aid their trained horses to steady themselves as the
bullock tugged violently against them. He was escorted thus for a
mile, his strength failing with each useless effort, his tongue
hanging out, blood and foam dropping from his mouth and nostrils,
his flanks covered with foam and sweat, till blind and staggering,
he was led to a tree, where he was at once stabbed, and two hours
afterwards a part of him was served at table. The natives were
surprised that I avoided seeing his death, as the native women
greatly enjoy such a spectacle. This mode of killing an animal
while heated and terrified, doubtless accounts for the dark colour
and hardness of Hawaiian beef.
Numbers of the natives are expert with the lasso, and besides
capturing with it wild and half wild cattle, they catch horses with
it, and since I came here my host caught a sheep with it, singling
out the one he wished to kill, from the rest of the galloping flock
with an unerring aim.
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