tation. The primitive rancho is nothing more than the hut of the negro and the Indian. It consists of four posts set in the ground, supporting a roof of thatch or of palm leaves, and is met with in cultivated lands or on the borders of the forests. A few hours suffice to erect it, and a storm suffices to destroy it. The rancho takes the most varied forms. For example, there is the rancho of the tropeiros, or conductors of caravans. It is seldom found except on frequented road-sides, and is the primitive hut enlarged and amplified, and no longer appropriated to a family of savages, but to a whole caravan. Pillars of masonry are erected at the four corners, and the tile-covered roof is sustained by solid wood-work. Numerous posts in the interior, set up in symmetrical lines, sustain the wood-work, and at the same time serve the tropeiros for fastening their mules while loading and unloading the sacks of coffee, casks of sugar, or bundles of cotton. Here they cook their food, and repose for the night upon the harness of their animals, while the latter feed in the adjoining pasto, or pasture. Admittance is gratuitous, but the proprietor amply recompenses himself in the patronage of his bar, and the millet he furnishes for the mules
There is also the rancho of the fazenda. Here the shed becomes a house, or rather a stable and house combined, in which lodge both animals and men.
CATTLE AND HORSES—CARNE SECA.
Besides the horses which they expose for sale at the great fairs, or take into the northern provinces, the Gauchos also raise numerous herds of cattle. At first they only took off the hides and left the flesh to the urubus, or vultures. Gradually, however, they accustomed them selves to smoke the meat, and prepare the carne seca, so extensively used at the present day throughout South-America. Afterwards they used the tallow in the manufacture of soap; and, while I was in Brazil, I heard plans of factories talked of for the manufacture of animal black, or charcoal, thus utilizing the bones.
SHEPHERD DOGS.
The Gauchos also have flocks of sheep; but, like veritable hidalgos, they have them watched by dogs which they educate to this shepherd duty. The dog goes out in the morning with his flock, his rations, in a basket, suspended to his neck, and brings the sheep safely back at nightfall.
THE PEON.
When the Gaucho has no patrimony, he goes out as peon, or mule-trainer, on the neighboring fazendas. The peon is generally lean, but muscular and solidly built. His color and deeply-tanned skin show that his life is spent in the open air. A colored shirt, striped linen pantaloons, and a large cutlass suspended from his belt compose his costume. His eyes are hid under a straw hat, twisted and discolored by the heat and rain of the tropics. To his naked and callous feet are attached immense spurs, like those worn by the paladins of the middle ages. A European spur would make no impression on the hide of a South-American mule.
HORSE-TRAINING.
The strength and dexterity displayed by the peon in taming a wild, unruly animal, are a subject of wonder and admiration to travellers, and even to Brazilians themselves, Placing himself at a little distance from an opening in a wall or fence, with one hand he holds the end of the lasso, while the other retains the noose and remainder of the cord arranged in concentric circles. While negroes, with long poles, are shouting and driving the animals toward the passage, the peon whirls the coiled lasso above his head in order to give it the necessary projectile force, and throws it suddenly, at the moment when the chosen victim passes before him; then, instantly inclining himself in the opposite direction, he braces his legs with all his strength, and gives his body
