At the first light next morning they take it in turn to bring in the troop, which they do with an astonishing swiftness. Sometimes, of course, the horses "clear," and then it is that the Gauchos in charge find them by tracking.
In a country intersected by deep cañadones, which offer a secure hiding-place in their many hollows, this is a difficult matter. The tracks perhaps run easily through a belt of soft marsh, and then are invisible upon a pampa of shingle and thorn.
A true Gaucho must be able to do a number of things—to back an untamed colt, to lassoo, to use the boleadores, which are heavy stones attached together by a hide rope, and are to the Patagonian what the boomerang is to the Australian aborigine. He must be able to cook, to make horse-gear from the pelts of beasts, to find his way without a compass from point to point, by instinct as it were.
The Gaucho shares with the poet the honour of being born, not made. This proves that Gaucho work is Art, with a big A. Take, for instance, the power of driving single-handed a big mob of wild horses and keeping them compact. No one who has not tried it can imagine what heartbreaking work it is to a beginner. One learns to do it after a fashion in time, but never like the man who has been bred to the craft.
CHAPTER III
THE BATTLE OF THE HORSES
Leave Bahia Camerones—Horses wild—Decide on taking one waggon—Bell-mare—Names of horses—Breaking-in of horses—German peones—Horses stray—Gaucho trick—Watching troop at night—Four languages—Signalling by smokes—Searching for horses—Favourite words and phrases—Nag of the baleful eye—Cañadon of the dry river—Bad ground—Flies—Ostrich eggs—Shooting guanaco—River Chico of Chubut—Puma's visit at night—Condor—Lady killed—Singing in camp—Stormy night—Breakdown of waggon—Guanaco on stony ground—Long chase—Guanaco's death.
I will not bore my readers with all the technicalities of our preparations for the real start.
Suffice it to say that our total belongings were stowed upon a waggon and on the backs of four pack-horses. We had in all sixty horses, and eight men. About forty of these horses had been running wild upon the pampa for eight months previous to our acquiring them. During that time they had been lost and had only been recaptured shortly before our arrival in Trelew. The purchase of them was, however, the best speculation I could make under the circumstances, since all the animals were good and sound. Had I bought by small instalments in Trelew, not only would every man within journeying distance have very naturally attempted to palm off upon me the worst and most vicious animals he possessed, but the horses, not being used to one another's company, would have been impossible to keep together at night upon the pampas, as the various sections composing such a tropilla would inevitably have scattered to the four points of the compass.
Patagonian horses, which are descended from those brought over by the Spaniards in the sixteenth century, are never stabled, but are turned out rain and snow in their troops. These troops or tropillas consist of any number from six animals to thirty, and to each is assigned a madrina, or bell-mare, which is never ridden, and which is trained to be caught easily. At night she is hobbled, and her troop remain round about her. Naturally a well-trained madrina is one affair, while a badly-trained one is quite another. In my mob of horses I had four troops, two good madrinas and one bad one, while the fourth was a rosada, whose sole object in life seemed to be to get away from her own troop and to kick any one who came within ten feet of her.
A PAMPA ROUND-UP
When you desire to put a strange horse or colt into a troop, it is necessary to couple him to the madrina for some days, after which he will remain with the troop. The madrina should never be driven in hobbles, a mistake that is often made when bringing in the horses of a morning. A horse used to hobbles can travel in them four or five leagues in a single night, so the reason why the mares should not be allowed ever to become used to travelling in hobbles is obvious. The madrina has a bell attached to her neck, and the last sound heard before you sleep is the soft tinkle of these bells and the comfortable sound of feeding horses, unless the troop happens to take it into their head to make off, in which case you will have a long ride upon their tracks in the morning.
The horses throughout the Argentine Republic are known by their colours (for which the Spanish language supplies an extraordinary variety of terms signifying every tint and shade), and to these names they answer. Some of the names are melodious and pretty—alazan, which means chestnut, cruzado, the name given to a horse that possesses alternate white feet, the off fore and the near hind foot, or the other way round. There is a theory among the Gauchos that a cruzado will never tire. I cannot do better than give a list of the names of the horses of my own tropilla, though, of course, there are many others:
Alazan, chestnut.
Asulejo, bluish-grey and white in patches.
Bayo, fawn.
Blanco, white.
Cruzado, with crossed white feet.
Gateado, yellow with black stripe down back.
Horqueta, slit-eared.
Moro, grey.
Oscuro, black.
Overo, piebald or skewbald.
Pangaré, brown or bay with fawn muzzle.
Picaso, black with white blaze and white legs.
Rosado, red and white in patches, roan.
Rosillo, strawberry.
Tordillo, grey.
Tostado, toast-coloured.
Zaino, brown or dark bay.
The taming of these horses is a business of which an account may not be uninteresting. The methods used are of a very rough description. The colt is caught from the manada, or troop of mares in which he was born, with a lasso, a head-stall is put on him and he is tied up to the palenque, or centre-post of the corral. Here he is left for twelve hours or so, during which he generally expends his energies in trying to pull the palenque out of the ground. He is then saddled up, generally with an accompaniment of bucking, and the Gaucho who is to tame him climbs upon his back. Another mounted Gaucho is near by to "ride off," which he does by galloping between the colt and any dangerous ground or object. Probably the colt will begin by bucking, but if he does not do so during his first gallop it by no means follows that he will turn out to be free from the fault. Indeed it is quite probable that he may be soft and fat after his easy youth upon the pampas, and not till about the fifth or sixth gallop will he show such vices as are in him. At first he is ridden on the bocado, which is a soft strip of hide tied round the lower jaw. This answers to the heavy snaffle which is the first bit a colt has to submit to in England.
The Gauchos of Patagonia are not nearly patient enough with the mouths of their mounts, spoiling many by harsh treatment. Different colours in horses are supposed to indicate different temperaments; thus they say a Moro colt is generally docile, while a Picaso has the reputation of being very much the reverse.
The horses of Northern Patagonia—such as were ours, for they came from the banks of the Rio Negro—are