Ostrich Wings.
Ostrich Liver and fat (consisting of square pieces of ostrich liver and fat, toasted on a stick).
Blood Pudding.
Dessert.—Califatés, Coffee, Maté, Tea, Biscuits.
The blood-pudding proved to be the dish about which François had observed so much secrecy and mystery. It was certainly exceedingly good, and we were loud in praise of its merits. The ostrich liver and fat, a new dish also, was most acceptable, and that night we drank the health of François in a glass of whisky and water all round. Dinner over, we replenished the numerous fires that burned in a semicircle in front of our camp; and then, tired and weary, we sought our couches, and, canopied o'erhead by the rustling trees, with the bright moonlight shining down upon us, slept as sound and contented a sleep as the fatigues we had undergone entitled us to.
CHAPTER XV.
EXCURSIONS INTO THE MOUNTAINS—MYSTERIES OF THE CORDILLERAS—WILD-HORSE TRACKS—DEER—MAN THE DESTROYER.
The first few days of our sojourn in the mountains were spent in making short excursions into the different gorges that stretched away inwards for miles and miles—far as the eye could reach. We were full of curiosity to penetrate and fathom their hidden mysteries; but this was out of the question, owing to the limited supply of provisions which we were able to carry with us. In these solitary wanderings we came across no sign or vestige of the haunts of human beings, and few and far between were the animals that crossed our path. Occasionally, from some jagged plateau or rugged height, we would catch a glimpse of small deer or guanaco, and now and again a wild horse would peer at us suspiciously from behind a huge rock, and then, with a neigh of astonishment rather than fright, dash hurriedly off, its beautiful mane and tail flowing in the breeze, giving it a grand, wild, and picturesque appearance.
Musters tells us in his Narrative of Patagonia, that the Indians fully believe in the existence of an unknown tribe, or of an enchanted or hidden city, which, they superstitiously aver, lies concealed somewhere in the recesses of these mountains.
Farther north the Araucanian Indians profess to having discovered in their vicinity a settlement of white people who spoke an unknown tongue. Numerous legends and stories are current amongst the Patagonians, who all behold with awe and superstition the distant wooded slopes and far-stretching glaciers of the Cordilleras, into whose shades they never attempt to penetrate.