and will conclude a
connection with a master at a moment's notice, by demanding to have his
account made up. Horse-racing and gambling are his weaknesses. His
knife is ready at hand, and though fatal results seldom follow being
engaged in a quarrel, he attempts to inflict a cut on the face of his
antagonist, and there to leave his mark. His food he cooks on a stick--
the _asadevo_--fixed in the ground before the fire; and eats it without
bread or any kind of vegetable, washing it down with copious draughts of
yerba.

He will gamble on all occasions, either with cards, dominoes, or coin--a
pitch-and-toss style of game. His horse-racing is more for the sake of
obtaining the bets staked on the match. He also delights to bet on the
strength of his horse. This is tried by fastening a pair of horses tail
to tail, but at some distance, so that each end of a short lasso is tied
to the saddle or girth of either animal. They are then mounted, and
urged by whip and spur in opposite directions, until the stronger draws
the weaker over the goal--a line marked on the ground. In spite of his
gambling propensities, he is often intrusted with hundreds of doubloons
for the purchase of cattle by his master.

His mode of catching partridges is curious. Armed with a loop attached
to the end of a thin stick, he will ride on till he sees a covey of
birds on the ground; and then commences circling round them,--the birds,
curiously enough, not attempting to fly, but trying to run away instead.
The horseman keeps on narrowing his circle, till he at last gets near
enough to drop the loop over a bird's head, when he whips it up, a
captive, though in no way injured--so that birds can thus be caught
alive.

BREAKING-IN COLTS.

Witness the operation of breaking-in a wild colt from amidst a herd of a
hundred or more. A Gaucho called the dormador makes his appearance,
dressed in a thin cotton shirt secured by a scarf round the waist, and a
coloured handkerchief bound to his head, while his legs are guarded by a
huge pair of boots, armed with enormous spurs. There he stands, with
his lasso coiled up and thrown carelessly over his arm. He advances
towards the herd, followed by two mounted Gauchos dressed in full
costume. As the colts gallop round the corral, into which they have
been driven, with wild eyes and waving manes, he selects one of them;
and whirling his lasso lightly round, casts it over the animal's head,
sinking down at the