Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/270



240 ACTUALITIES OF ROZARIO (sANTA EE).

to the dulia of the jolly god^, now San Martin,, and the loving goddess of late called Mai dos Homens. They are " passed ^' at twenty, faded at twenty-five, and horribly old and hideous at thirty-five.

The " Sabbath^^ evening at Rozario passes somewhat less respectably than the morning. There is generally some ambu- lant company that hires a baiting-yard in the Calle de Cor- doba, and the citizens delight in fighting animals. Entering the circus-tent, which was dimly lit with a dozen tallow can- dles, we were obliged to take a box — chimney-pot hats may not sit in " vulgar " places. The entertainment began with the tumbling of a clown in white night-shirt, spotted with black wafers. Then came the man with the dancing bear, the supping bear, and the wrestling bear, that pretended to lose temper — all were of the small brown species. The bull-baiting was announced by prodigious excitement of the caninery that was fastened by staples and chains to heavy timbers in the yard behind the scenes : they were restless and noisy as boys on board a steamer. The baiteewas evidently an old soldier, a neatly made little bull, that sensibly kept its nose guarded by brass-tipped horns close to the ground, and cleverly tossed a succession of assailants. At length the clown shouted with efi'usion " Aqui el perro Inglez,"*^ and straightway bolted in, direct as a bee line, a vicious little brute with broad flat snaky head, somewhat bulkier than the rest of its person, mere screws of ears, a well scarred yellow-white coat that would have gained by scour- ing, and a villanous sidelong scowl, in which was visibly written ruffian's dog. Its friend the bull received the rush in full front, and chucked it some yards away, when it was caught in an attendant's arms, and nondum satiatus was carried to bed, kicking for more fight. All this was pain- fully dull. More amusing and of course more barbarous were the next two acts, when the dogs were loosed at