flesh of the lion is in great esteem having no small affinity with
veal, both in colour, taste, and flavour." Such certainly is the case
with the Puma. The Gauchos differ in their opinion, whether the Jaguar
is good eating, but are unanimous in saying that cat is excellent.
September 17th.--We followed the course of the Rio Tapalguen, through a
very fertile country, to the ninth posta. Tapalguen, itself, or the
town of Tapalguen, if it may be so called, consists of a perfectly
level plain, studded over, as far as the eye can reach, with the toldos
or oven-shaped huts of the Indians. The families of the friendly
Indians, who were fighting on the side of Rosas, resided here. We met
and passed many young Indian women, riding by two or three together on
the same horse: they, as well as many of the young men, were strikingly
handsome,--their fine ruddy complexions being the picture of health.
Besides the toldos, there were three ranchos; one inhabited by the
Commandant, and the two others by Spaniards with small shops.
We were here able to buy some biscuit. I had now been several days
without tasting anything besides meat: I did not at all dislike this
new regimen; but I felt as if it would only have agreed with me with
hard exercise. I have heard that patients in England, when desired to
confine themselves exclusively to an animal diet, even with the hope of
life before their eyes, have hardly been able to endure it. Yet the
Gaucho in the Pampas, for months together, touches nothing but beef.
But they eat, I observe, a very large proportion of fat, which is of a
less animalized nature; and they particularly dislike dry meat, such as
that of the Agouti. Dr. Richardson [6] also, has remarked, "that when
people have fed for a long time solely upon lean animal food, the
desire for fat becomes so insatiable, that they can consume a large
quantity of unmixed and even oily fat without nausea:" this appears to
me a curious physiological fact. It is, perhaps, from their meat
regimen that the Gauchos, like other carnivorous animals, can abstain
long from food. I was told that at Tandeel, some troops voluntarily
pursued a party of Indians for three days, without eating or drinking.
We saw in the shops many articles, such as horsecloths, belts, and
garters, woven by the Indian women. The patterns were very pretty, and
the colours brilliant; the workmanship of the garters was so good that
an English merchant at Buenos Ayres maintained they must have been
manufactured in England, till he found the tassels had been fastened by
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