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YANKEE SPANISH.

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game over the natives at Carthage, it is probable that there has been no parallel to the hide-and-go-seek game between Boston and California. I will conclude this sketch by remarking, that the Eastern gentlemen employed in this business are greatly addicted to talking through their noses, and the Spanish language spoken with this peculiar twang produces effects never contemplated by the founders of the sonorous and euphonious Castillian.

CHAPTER X.

The Horses, Pasturage, and Seasons of California.

AFTER his wife and children, the darling objects of a Californian's heart, are his horses. In this respect he is not surpassed by the Arab. His whole ambition centres in his horses; his livelihood depends on them; and they are the chief ministers of his pleasures. Dismount a Californian, and he is at once reduced to a perfectly helpless state, and is of no use in the world. He can neither take care of his farm, nor hunt, nor move from place to place; and is, to all intents and purposes, a wretched cripple. Even his work is done on horseback, when ingenuity can make that possible; and an American carpenter, residing in the country, assured me that an apprentice left him because he could not "shove the jack-plane" on horseback. If the Californian wishes to visit his next-door neighbor, even in town, he mounts his horse; and I have been told of a skilful and celebrated vaquero, who having occasion to walk from a gambling-house to a dram-shop across the street, and from insuetude in this mode of progression having impaired the beauty of his countenance, indignantly exclaimed upon picking himself up, "Zounds! this it is to walk on the ground." (" Caramba! esto es cammiar en la tierra.")

The lineage of the Californian horse is undoubtedly of the purest and highest. The domestic horses of the country, as well as those immense herds of wild horses which range the vast plains of the Tulares in their primitive free

PEDIGREE OF THE HORSES.

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dom, all derive their descent from the Andalusian horses, which so materially aided the redoubtable "Conquistadores" to subvert the Aztec empire and the throne of the Montezumas. This stock of course gives them a pure Arabian descent. How far they have retained the excellence of their blood, it is not to be supposed that a sailor can judge; and yet I should know something of the Arabian horse, having seen and mounted the noblest of the race in the stables of Mohammed Ali, Viceroy of Egypt, and his son Ibrahim Pasha, as well as those belonging to other potentates in Syria, Egypt, and Barbary, besides choice specimens of the Persian stock in British India, and the real Nedjids of the Imaum of Muscat. The accident of travelling in an official capacity introduced me to those splendid studs, and gave me opportunities which I could not otherwise have enjoyed. To my eye, the Californian horses possess most points in common with those of the East, being of small size, but full chested, thin flanked, round in the barrel, clean limbed, with unusually small heads, feet and ears, large full eyes, expanded nostrils, very full flowing manes and tails, and shaggy rough coats as compared with our breed-while in color they are seldom dark, but usually white, all sorts of greys, spotted, cream color, and dun, the proportion of piebalds being very great. The white and black horses are generally pre

ferred.

There still remain vast numbers of wild horses in California, but they have greatly diminished within a few years. As lately as ten years ago, it was customary to corral large numbers of wild and half-wild mares, and slaughter them with the lance, merely to check the rapid increase of the equine race, which the rancheros feared would make pasture scarce for the neat cattle, which were far more profitable than horses; and owing to this abominable practice, it is said that good horses are more rare than formerly.

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WILD-HORSE HUNT.

In the plains of the Tulares natural corrals exist, formed by glens in the sierra, which are surrounded by precipices, up which a goat could hardly climb. To these the people of the settlements proceed en masse, and surrounding a large caballada of wild horses, pursue them through the narrow inlet to the selected glen or dell, the entrance to which they speedily close with branches previously collected by their vaqueros, or the neighboring Indians, the latter being always on hand on such occasions-not to get horses to ride, but to eat. The rancheros then enter the natural corral on horseback, with the ready riata, and selecting such a horse as suits their fancy, he is speedily noosed, and despite his struggles and plunging, is led out, and delivered into the custody of the vaquero. Suddenly the wild and trembling animal is thrown rudely to the ground, and in a trice is bridled, and bitted with the formidable Spanish bit, capable of breaking the jaw of the most refractory beast. The Californian immoveable saddle is then lashed on his back, and he is forthwith mounted by a rider equipped with the rowels. A scene of contention for the mastery then ensues between the man and horse; but the former, aided by his powerful machinery, invariably comes off victor of the field. The horse submits like a sensible and generous foe, tacitly acknowledges the superiority of the man, and never requires a second lesson. Sometimes a corral is made on the plain itself, but this is rare, as it is "mucho trabajo." A more common way is to give chase to a caballada on the open plain, the pursuit being maintained by well-mounted cavaliers, until the colts and weaker horses of the herd give in, when they are successively lassoed as fast as overtaken. Mares are seldom ridden, and are so abundant in the wild state, that horses must always be plentiful in that glorious country.

The tame horses are colts taken from the manadas, on the ranchos of the proprietors. They are broken to the bit and saddle in the same rough manner as the wild horse,

THE

NEW YORK

PUBLIC LIBRARY

Astor, Lenox and Tilden

Four.dations.

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