ARRIVAL OF TRAVELLERS AT A GUACHO VILLAGE.
Many of the guachos are descended from the best blood of Spain, and in spite of their rough ways they frequently display a great deal of courtly dignity. They salute each other with much formality, remove their hats on entering a house, are always polite to strangers passing through their country, though often quite the reverse to those who come to settle among them. Their houses are generally mud hovels of but a single room; beds and chairs are unknown, as the guachos and their families sleep and sit on the floor along with the dogs, which are generally quite numerous. Sometimes the skeleton of a horse's head is used in place of a chair, and the traveller is always bowed to it as though it were a velvet-covered fauteuil. Few of the guachos can read or write, and evidently they do not place a high regard upon education.
For the first year of his life the guacho has no clothing whatever; he crawls around in the dirt, of which there is an abundance, as the floor is rarely swept, or he is hung to the rafters or the wall of the hovel, in a basket made of a bullock's hide. When he can walk he is provided with a lasso and practises upon dogs and chickens; when four or five years old he is put on horseback, and by his sixth year he has become useful in assisting with the cattle and horses. His lasso practice continues, and it is no wonder that he is proficient with it; throwing the lasso and bolas and riding on horseback complete his schooling, college course and all.
He goes out alone, often for days together, and hunts for whatever game the country produces. Meat and water comprise his entire bill of fare, and with this simple diet and constant exposure he becomes toughened in all his muscles and capable of enduring any amount of fatigue. Guachos have been known to pass thirty or forty hours continuously in the saddle; on long journeys they generally drive a herd of horses before them; when they have wearied out a horse under the saddle they lasso a fresh one from the herd and mount him immediately.
A guacho considers it a disgrace to be on foot, and will not walk a hundred yards if a horse is available. Frank was amused, at one of the stations, at seeing a man come out of a house, mount his steed, and ride to another house certainly not fifty yards distant. There he sprang to the ground again and entered the building, without the least thought that he had done anything absurd. In most countries he would have saved himself the trouble of springing into the saddle for a ride of such brevity, but not so the guacho. Frank said afterwards that he was reminded of a certain city in the United States where it is considered improper and undignified to cross a street anywhere except at the corners of the blocks.
The most important town on the line of the railway is San Luis, or, to give its full name, San Luis de la Punta. It has a population of six or eight thousand, and is beautifully situated at an elevation of about twenty-five hundred feet above the level of the sea. It was founded by Luis Loyola in 1596, and has a considerable trade in hides, wool, skins, leather, and a few other things of less importance. Frank observed that nearly all the houses were one story in height, built of adobes or sun-dried brick, with earthen or tiled floors, and generally attached to a garden. Since the recent emigration from Europe began a good many Germans and Italians have settled at San Luis, and there are several Scotch and Irish herders living in the neighborhood.
