d put them in a warm shed. For myself, he soon had hot coffee and
tortillas on the table. I never felt so thankful in my life for such
accommodation and such humble fare. The horses had never been in that
part of the country before, that I knew; it was pitch dark, and yet they
must have known in some mysterious way that in that direction was
shelter and safety, as when I threw the lines down they even then
continued to face the storm.

It may be noted here that buffaloes always face the storm and travel
against it; cattle and horses never.

Before entirely leaving the cattle business a few more notes may be of
interest.

Plagues of grasshoppers and locusts sometimes did awful damage to the
range.

When visiting at a neighbour's one must not dismount till invited to do
so; also in saluting anyone the gloves must be removed before shaking
hands. This is cowboy etiquette and must be duly regarded.

At public or semi-private dances there is always a master of ceremonies,
who is also prompter and calls out all the movements. He will announce a
"quardreele," or maybe a "shorteesche," and keeps the company going with
his "Get your partners!" "Balance all!" "Swing your partners!" "Hands
across!" "How do you do?" and "How are you?" "Swing somewhere," and
"Don't forget the bronco-buster," etc. etc., as someone has described
it. The Mexicans are always most graceful dancers; cowboys, with their
enormously high heels, and probably spurs, are a bit clumsy. At purely
Mexican dances (Bailies) the two sexes do not speak, each retiring at
the end of a dance to its own side of the room.

Most cowboys have the peculiar faculty of "humming," produced by shaping
the mouth and tongue in a certain way. The "hum" can be made to exactly
represent the bagpipes; no one else did I ever hear do it but
cowpunchers. I have tried for hours but never quite succeeded in the
art.

Besides coyotes, which are everywhere common, the plains were infested
by lobo wolves, a very large and powerful species; they denned in the
breaks of the plains and it was then easiest to destroy them. They did
such enormous damage amongst cattle that a reward of as high as thirty
dollars per scalp was frequently offered for them, something less for
the pups. The finding of a nest with a litter of perhaps six to eight
young ones meant considerable money to the scalp-hunter. The wolves were
plentiful and hunted in packs; and I have seen the interesting sight of
a small