The horses are never more than half trained. They are taught to wheel within a very small circle, to stop suddenly and throw themselves on their haunches, and to dash off at full gallop; but that is the extent of their accomplishments. Many of them are young, spirited, and nervous steeds, and if, in the course of the struggles for victory which they occasionally attempt, the spurs were to come against their sides, they would be greatly alarmed, and their struggles would only be increased. But as the spurs hang down almost below the rider’s feet, they swing clear of the horse’s flanks, while at any time, if they are needed for use, the wearer has only to bend his feet, which brings them into position.
The Araucanians have a very wholesome contempt for shams, and will have nothing that has any pretence about it. The poorest peasant, who can only afford an iron spur, or possibly not even a spur of any kind, would scorn to wear either spur or stirrups of plated metal, or of any imitation of silver, however good.
They are so fastidious in this matter that they will not use articles that have been made abroad; and even if a spur is made of solid silver in imitation of their own patterns, they will be nearly certain to reject it, the workmanship being sure to betray itself to their experienced eyes. A high polish always excites their suspicions, inasmuch as the native artificers are incapable of imparting it. All these articles are made from the silver currency of the country, and the wealthy Araucanian always carries with him a pair of balances, and a number of dollars which serve as standard weights.
It may be imagined that the purchase of a pair of spurs or stirrups is a matter of importance with these people. The buyer sits in silence on the ground, takes the spurs, and examines every part with the minutest attention, scrutinizing every joint, smelling the metal, tasting it, and ringing it, in order to judge whether it has been debased by the mixture of any inferior material. Not only spurs and stirrups, but pendants for the bridle, and ornaments for the headstalls and saddles, are made of silver; so that the accoutrements of a wealthy Araucanian will sometimes be worth a hundred and fifty pounds, merely as silver, without regard to the value of the workmanship.
The men who make these highly prized ornaments use the very rudest of tools, and their workshops are but rough hovels, quite out of keeping with the barbaric magnificence of their wares. Sometimes the artificer makes the ornaments for sale; but in the case of large articles, such as spurs or stirrups, which weigh several pounds, and consume a great number of dollars, he prefers to wait for the order, and make the required article out of the bag of dollars with which it is accompanied.
It is remarkable that the Araucanians, fond as they are of silver, will have nothing to do with gold. Besides these horse accoutrements, they wear earrings, breastpins, and other ornaments of silver, but none of gold. Some travellers think that their reason for the rejection of gold is their wish to conceal its presence in the country from the knowledge of the foreigner, remembering that it was the cause of the disastrous war with the Spanish invader. The real cause is, probably, that it cannot be procured in sufficient quantities without more labor than they choose to bestow, and that they have not learned to work gold as they do silver.
The Araucanians are admirable riders, though their seat would not please an European riding master. They depend entirely on balance for retaining their seat, and seem rather to hang on the horse’s back than to hold by any grip of the knee. Indeed, a stranger to the country always thinks that an Araucanian rider is on the point of being thrown, so loose is his seat, whereas the very idea that he can by any possibility be thrown never enters his mind. He and his horse seem one being, actuated by one mind. A traveller once saw a horse take fright, and leap sideways from the object of terror. He thought that the rider must be flung by the suddenness of the movement; but, to all appearance, the man took fright and shied at the same moment with his horse.
The Araucanians use the bolas in common with their southern neighbors, the Patagonians, and are never seen without the “laqui,” as they term the weapon, hanging at their waists. Some of them have a way of leaving one of the balls without its covering of leather, saying that the covered bolas is used when they fight with friends, but the bare bolas when they fight with an enemy.
They also use the lasso, that terrible weapon which extends over so vast a territory, and which supersedes the bolas as it proceeds northward.
This terrible weapon is simple enough in principle, being nothing more than a leathern rope, forty feet in length, with a noose at the end. As, however, the construction is rather ingenious, I have given an [illustration] on the 1175th page, taken from specimens in my possession. Fig. 1 shows the lasso coiled through the strap by which it is attached to the saddle of the rider. It is made of a number of thongs of raw hide, plaited into a round rope, about three-eighths of an inch in diameter; so that, although it appears very slender, it really possesses enormous strength, and an elephant could scarcely break it. This part of the rope is shown at fig. 5.