trude on the
sacredness of the place. Besides, the act requires caution. What if
some of the Indians given to nocturnal straying should chance to come
that way, and see him up those stairs, desecrating the abode of the
dead? Even were there no other reason for his fearing to be found in
that place, the act itself would make him liable to punishment--possibly
no less than death! For among the Tovas, as many other tribes of South
American Indians--infidels though they are called--the tombs of their
dead are held as sacred as those of the Spanish Christians who so
designate them.

Notwithstanding all this, Gaspar the gaucho is not to be baulked in his
design. He has not come to the bottom of that curious catafalque, to go
away again without seeing what is above. And though he stands
hesitating, it is only for a short while, finally making up his mind to
ascend.

Ascend he does; laying hold of one of the notched corner posts, and
climbing the primitive ladder, as it were, set ready and awaiting him.

As the moon is by this far down in the sky, its beams are not obstructed
by the roof thatch, but fall obliquely upon the floor of the platform
beneath. There, lying at full length, the gaucho perceives a form,
easily recognisable as that of a human being, though swathed in various
kinds of cloths, which cover it from head to foot. The body of a man,
moreover, as can be told by its size and shape; while beside, and
arranged around it, are certain insignia proclaiming it to be that of
some distinguished chieftain of the Tovas. There are spears, shields,
_macanas_, lazoes, bolas--among them the _bola perdida_, some of these
weapons placed upon the platform alongside the corpse, others suspended
from the beams and poles supporting the thatch of the roof. There is
horse-gear as well--the multifarious trappings which appertain to the
caparison of a gaucho's steed--recado, carona, caronilla, jerga, with
Mameluke bitts and spurs of immensely large rowels; for all these are
possessed by the higher order of pampas Indians, and notably their
chiefs--property they have picked up in some plundering expedition,
where gauchos themselves have been their victims.

Just such a thought passes through the mind of gaucho Gaspar, as his
eyes rest on the grand array displayed on the _cacique's_ tomb. For
that it is the tomb of a _cacique_, and one of grand note, he has not a
doubt, seeing such a selection of trophies. In addition to t