When He
Realized That He Had Killed His Favorite Horse He Cried Like A Child.
I Passed This Dead Animal Several Times Afterwards And Saw The
Vultures Clean Its Bones.
It served me as a witness to the results of
ungoverned passion.
The Gaucho does not, and would not under any consideration, ride a
mare; consequently, for work she is practically valueless. Strain,
who rode across the pampas, says: "In a single year ten million hides
were exported." For one or two dollars each the buyer may purchase
any number; indeed, of such little worth are the mares that they are
very often killed for their hide, or to serve as food for swine. At
one estancia I visited I was informed that one was killed each day
for pig feed. The mare can be driven long distances, even a hundred
miles a day, for several successive days, The Argentine army must
surely be the most mobile of any in the world, for its soldiers, when
on the march, get nothing but mare's flesh and the custom gives them
great facility of movement. The horse has, more or less, its standard
value, and costs four or five times the price of the mare.
[Illustration: THE AUTHOR IN GAUCHO DRESS.]
Sometimes it happens that the native finds a colt which is positively
untamable. On the cheek of such an animal the Gaucho will burn a
cross and then allow it to go free, like the scape-goat mentioned in
the book of Leviticus.
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