Though he had evidently just had his dinner, he was watching with
greedy interest the proceedings of some natives in charge of a
horse--an animal which he esteems a great delicacy, when procurable.
On our way across the camp we saw a great quantity of the seeds of the
Martynia proboscidea, mouse-burrs as they call them,--devil's claws or
toe-nails: they are curious-looking things, as the annexed woodcut
will show.
[Illustration: Devils Horns]
Frank Buckland has a theory--and very likely a correct one--that they
are created in this peculiar form for the express purpose of attaching
themselves to the long tails of the wild horses that roam about the
country in troops of hundreds. They carry them thousands of miles, and
disseminate the seed wherever they go at large in search of food and
water.
When we returned to Rosario we noticed a great crowd still on the
race-course, and were just in time to see the finish of one race,
ridden barebacked, and for a very short distance. All the races are
short; and as the natives are always engaging in these little contests
of speed, the horses get into the habit of extending themselves
directly you put them out of a walk. But the least touch is sufficient
to stop them immediately, and I never saw horses better broken than
they are here.
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