Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/178



148 TO THE COLONIA AND BUENOS AIRES.

Great Exhibition. Such are the fierce dogs, the breaking of horses and mules, the poncho, the cart being placed before the horse, the " terrible dust storm," the Pordiosero or beggar on horseback, the big aerolite, and the Quemazon or prairie fire. Of such themes it is easy to say what others have said, but it is exceedingly difficult to say something more, something new. Of the bolas, the " bowls" of old English travellers, I have only to tell you that it was an improvement upon the simple sling of the natives, a stone tied to a cord. The Recado, pronounced Reca'o (not Ricow), is the country saddle, the bed on horseback borrowed from Asia. The lasso (lazo, in Portuguese la90, a slip-knot) was originally used in Italy to catch wild cattle. A good man is sure of his cast with twenty to thirty yards of open ground before him ; in underwood he must approach within twenty to thirty feet. If a noose be thrown at you, lie down before it reaches the mark, with legs and arms flat on the ground, so that the rope may find no purchase. Do not trust a knife, except the sharpest, to cut the lasso, and remember that anything is better than being bumped to death behind a galloping horse. Do not pronounce the written Mate "Mate," but "Mate," nor confound Mate, the tea-gourd in the Incan or Quichua tongue, with Yerba or Yerba Mate, the Paraguayan tea, which will some day reach England. And if you would know the last news con- cerning the "Caa," consult Mr. John Miers, F.R.S., &c., "On the different species of ilex employed in the preparation of the ' Yerba de Mate' or Paraguay tea" (" The Technologist," vol. iv. 1864).

Before landing, I may warn you that much has been written about Monte Video and the adjoining Republics. The " South American Pilot" tells all it knows about the river. The new handbook has already been quoted. By far the best account of the small Republic â€” her sons are