For ornament and use, the gaucho carries a long knife, placed crosswise in his belt behind. The hilt is very broad, and contains pockets to hold tobacco, flint and steel, and horn of tinder; the outside of the tirador, as the belt is called, is covered with silver and base dollars, that are the gaucho’s pride.
Upon a feast day the fellow decks out his horse with silver ornaments, and rides forth to see and to be seen. Not unfrequently his wife rides behind him, seated upon a poncho laid upon the horse’s croup; but she is inferior to his horse in the estimation of the rider, upon which animal is lavished almost all the wealth (if he is poor) of the owner.
We passed a most pleasant day with Don Carlos, and when we retired to our couches we felt that the visit had been well worth the time it had cost.
On the next morning, as soon as etiquette would permit, we bade adieu to our host and his family, and, mounting our horses, commenced our long ride back to Rosario.
Nothing occurred of importance, or that would interest the reader, and the next day we were welcomed cordially by the G.’s, my friends at Rosario.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] General Rosas, late president of the Argentine Republic, owned an estancia, south of Buenos Ayres, that contained seventy-four square leagues.—Darwin’s Voyage.
[2] In conversation with many gauchos who break in colts for the estancieros, I have been informed this is the price paid them for their labor, and in hard times even a less sum is paid. This was in the far interior of the pampa provinces.—Author.
CHAPTER VII.
LIFE ON THE PAMPAS.
At sunrise on the day but one following that mentioned at the close of the preceding chapter, I left the house of my hospitable friend, after bidding farewell to my amiable hostess, and proceeded with Mr. G. to a plaza on the outskirts of the town, from whence all troops of carts or mules take their departure for the interior provinces of the country.