He
Will Gaze With Wonder On Your Watch, For His Only Mode Of
Ascertaining The Time Is By The Shadow The Sun Casts.
As that
luminary rises and sets, so he sleeps and wakes.
His only bed is the
sheepskin, which when riding he fastens over his saddle, and the
latter article forms his pillow. His coverlet is the firmament of
heaven, the Southern Cross and other constellations, unseen by
dwellers in the Northern Hemisphere, seeming to keep watch over him;
or in the colder season his poncho, which I have already described.
Around his couch flit the fireflies, resembling so many stars of
earth with their strangely radiant lights. The brightness of one,
when held near the face of my watch, made light enough to enable me
to ascertain the hour, even on the darkest night.
The Gaucho with his horse is at home anywhere. When on a journey he
will stop for the evening meal beside the dry bones of some dead
animal. With these and grass he will make a fire and cook the meat he
carries hanging behind him on the saddle. I have known an animal
killed and the meat cooked with its own bones, but this is not usual.
Dry bones burn better, and thistle-stalks better still. He will then
lie down on mother earth with the horse-cloth under him and the
saddle for a pillow. When travelling with these men I have known
them, without any comment, stretch themselves on the ground, even
though the rain was falling, and soon be in dreamland. After having
passed a wretched night myself, I have asked them, "How did you
sleep?" "Muy Bien, Senor" (Very good, sir), has been the invariable
answer. They would often growl much, however, over the wet saddle-
cloths, for these soon cause a horse's back to become sore.
Here and there, but sometimes at long distances apart, there is a
pulperia on the road. This is always designated by having a white
flag flying on the end of a long bamboo. At these places cheap
spirits of wine and very bad rum can be bought, along with tobacco,
hard ship-biscuits (very often full of maggots, as I know only too
well), and a few other more necessary things. I have observed in some
of these wayside inns counters made of turf, built in blocks as
bricks would be. Here the natives stop to drink long and deep, and
stew their meagre brains in bad spirits. These draughts result in
quarrels and sometimes in murder.
The Gaucho, like the Indian, cannot drink liquor without becoming
maddened by it. He will then do things which in his sober moments he
would not dream of. I was acquainted with a man who owned a horse of
which he was very fond This animal bore him one evening to a pulperia
some miles distant, and was left tied outside while he imbibed his
fill inside. Coming out at length beastly intoxicated, he mounted his
horse and proceeded homeward.
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