He Would Not Allow His Pigs To Be Killed, But
Probably His Poor Relations And Pensioners Were Out Occasionally By
Night To Stick A Pig When Beef And Mutton Were Wanting.
I never tasted
or wanted to taste their flesh.
The gaucho is inordinately fond of the
two gamiest-flavoured animals in the pampas - the ostrich or rhea and
the hairy armadillo. These I could eat and enjoy eating, although I
was often told by English friends that they were too strong for their
stomachs; but the very thought of this wild pig-flesh produced a
sensation of disgust.
One day when I was about eight years old I was riding home at a lonely
spot three or four miles out, going at a fast gallop by a narrow path
through a dense growth of giant thistles seven or eight feet high,
when all at once I saw a few yards before me a big round heap of
thistle plants, which had been plucked up entire and built into a
shelter from the hot sun about four feet high. As I came close to it a
loud savage grunt and the squealing of many little piglets issued from
the mound, and out from it rushed a furious red sow and charged me.
The pony suddenly swerved aside in terror, throwing me completely over
on one side, but luckily I had instinctively gripped the mane with
both hands, and with a violent effort succeeded in getting a leg back
over the horse, and we swiftly left the dangerous enemy behind.
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