ps up to
the end of the line the first lasso is thrown; should it miss him, the
second is cast, and so on. The dexterity evidenced by the watchfulness
of men able to throw in such rapid succession after a horse which is
galloping, whilst they are standing, is truly expert. At length the
horse is pinned, and down he falls as if he were shot. And now the
activity of the gaucho is displayed, for he comes on his feet without
any injury, smoking his cigarette as coolly as when he lighted it at the
starting-post.

The original popularity of Rosas was founded on his gaucho dexterity.

The game of _el pato_ is performed by sewing a cooked duck into a piece
of hide, leaving a leather point at each end for the hand to grasp. This
play having been in former times limited in its carousal to the feast of
St. John (or San Juan), a gaucho took it up. Whoever is the smartest
secures the duck, and gallops away to any house where he knows a woman
residing who bears the name of Juana,--Joan I suppose she would be
called in English. It is an established rule that the lady of this name
should give a four-real piece (_i.e._, one shilling and sixpence),
either with the original duck returned or another equally complete. Then
away he gallops to another house where lives a maiden of the name of
Leonora, followed by a troop of his gaucho colleagues, trying to snap
the duck-bag out of his hand. With it, of course, must be delivered up
the four-real piece in the best of good humor. Falls and broken legs
have often been the result of this game.

_Juego de la sortija_ is a class of sport played by having a small
finger-ring fastened under a gibbet, beneath which a gaucho gallops, and
tries to tilt off the ring with a skewer which he holds in his hand.
This is done for a prize.

The salutation between two gauchos--even though they be the best of
friends--who have not met for a long time is prefixed by a pass of arms
with their knives. The conduct of these men is in general marked by
sobriety, but when the "patron" pays them their wages they often buy a
dozen of brandy or of gin, and this is all drunk, or spilled in
drinking, by one man at a single sitting.

It often happens in the gaucho communities that some one gains a
reputation for bravery. To prove his courage, this hero goes to a
_pulperia_, with a bottle in one hand and a knife in the other, stands
at the door, and turns out all the occupants. One gaucho in the north
and another in the s