degraded race?
At night we slept at a cottage. Our manner of travelling was
delightfully independent. In the inhabited parts we bought a little
firewood, hired pasture for the animals, and bivouacked in the corner
of the same field with them. Carrying an iron pot, we cooked and ate
our supper under a cloudless sky, and knew no trouble. My companions
were Mariano Gonzales, who had formerly accompanied me in Chile, and an
"arriero," with his ten mules and a "madrina." The madrina (or
godmother) is a most important personage:
She is an old steady mare, with a little bell round her neck; and
wherever she goes, the mules, like good children, follow her. The
affection of these animals for their madrinas saves infinite trouble.
If several large troops are turned into one field to graze, in the
morning the muleteers have only to lead the madrinas a little apart,
and tinkle their bells; although there may be two or three hundred
together, each mule immediately knows the bell of its own madrina, and
comes to her. It is nearly impossible to lose an old mule; for if
detained for several hours by force, she will, by the power of smell,
like a dog, track out her companions, or rather the madrina, for,
according to the muleteer, she is the chief object of affection. The
feeling, however, is not of an individual nature; for I believe I am
right in saying that any animal with a bell will serve as a madrina. In
a troop each animal carries on a level road, a cargo weighing 416
pounds (more than 29 stone), but in a mountainous country 100 pounds
less; yet with what delicate slim limbs, without any proportional bulk
of muscle, these animals support so great a burden! The mule always
appears to me a most surprising animal. That a hybrid should possess
more reason, memory, obstinacy, social affection, powers of muscular
endurance, and length of life, than either of its parents, seems to
indicate that art has here outdone nature. Of our ten animals, six
were intended for riding, and four for carrying cargoes, each taking
turn about. We carried a good deal of food in case we should be snowed
up, as the season was rather late for passing the Portillo.
March 19th.--We rode during this day to the last, and therefore most
elevated, house in the valley. The number of inhabitants became
scanty; but wherever water could be brought on the land, it was very
fertile. All the main valleys in the Cordillera are characterized by
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