See the inhabitant of this region,--the bold Gaucho, whether owner of
thousands of heads of cattle, or the humble peon or chasqui, servant or
courier,--mounted on his fiery steed. What command he has over it! How
admirably he and the animal seem adapted to each other! If a proprietor
or chief manager, he will probably be habited in a white shirt, with
wide trousers richly embroidered with deep lace; the chiripa--a piece of
cloth covering the body and passing round his legs--being tied with a
band; a poncho over his shoulders; boots of polished leather, or, it may
be, of simple skin; his heels adorned with a pair of enormous spurs, of
silver or less valuable metal, with rowels of prodigious circumference;
with his rebenque, or horse-whip, in hand, made of cow-hide, and set off
by a handle of massive silver. All classes residing on the Pampas,
whether in Uruguay or the Far West, are called Gauchos.
Such in early life was General Urquiza, for some time governor of his
native province of Entre Rios. The term is, however, applied generally
to the lower orders.
Hardy, and sparely built, like the Arabs of the desert the Gaucho lives
on horseback. For most nights the ground is his bed and his saddle his
pillow, a piece of hide or a poncho his only covering. He will gallop
thirty leagues a day without fatigue.
From his infancy he has been taught the use of the lasso and bolas; and
in his boyhood learned to catch the fowls, goats, and sheep about his
father's rancho, or to capture partridges in a similar way. Yet he is
but little fitted for the ordinary hard work of life. In consequence of
his over-exertion and irregular life, his long abstinence from food, and
neglect of a due proportion of vegetable aliment, his body appears to be
dried-up, his vital energies fail, and his term of existence is
shortened.
Impatient of rebuke, he will not brook a hasty word, and will conclude a
connection with a master at a moment's notice, by demanding to have his
account made up. Horse-racing and gambling are his weaknesses. His
knife is ready at hand, and though fatal results seldom follow being
engaged in a quarrel, he attempts to inflict a cut on the face of his
antagonist, and there to leave his mark. His food he cooks on a stick--
the _asadevo_--fixed in the ground before the fire; and eats it without
bread or any kind of vegetable, washing it down with copious draughts of
yerba.
He will gamble on all occasions, either with cards, dominoes, or coin--a
pitch-and-toss style of game. His horse-racing is more for the sake of
obtaining the bets staked on the match. He also delights to bet on the
strength of his horse. This is tried by fastening a pair of horses tail
to tail, but at some distance, so that each end of a short lasso is tied
to the saddle or girth of either animal. They are then mounted, and
urged by whip and spur in opposite directions, until the stronger draws
the weaker over the goal--a line marked on the ground. In spite of his
gambling propensities, he is often intrusted with hundreds of doubloons
for the purchase of cattle by his master.
His mode of catching partridges is curious. Armed with a loop attached
to the end of a thin stick, he will ride on till he sees a covey of
birds on the ground; and then commences circling round them,--the birds,
curiously enough, not attempting to fly, but trying to run away instead.
The horseman keeps on narrowing his circle, till he at last gets near
enough to drop the loop over a bird's head, when he whips it up, a
captive, though in no way injured--so that birds can thus be caught
alive.