HE Gaucho of the Argentine plains may be of any race or colour from pure Indian to pure white, but he generally possesses a strain of both white and Indian blood. In his character he partakes more of his Indian than of his white ancestry, perhaps because, in the majority of cases, the Indian is his maternal side, and those aboriginal traits which are not inherited are instilled into him from the earliest age by maternal tuition.

It is said that if you scratch the Russian you will find the Tartar, and it is equally true that if you scratch the Gaucho you will find the aboriginal Indian. It is said that mongrel races generally inherit the vices of both parents without the virtues of either. In the West Indies, for example, one finds the proverb, "God made the white man, and God made the black man, but the devil made the mulatto,' nor can it be denied by those enabled to speak with authority that there is a substratum of truth in the saying.

Perhaps the nearest approach to the Gaucho type and character to be found in Europe is that of the wandering Gypsies, with whom most of us are

acquainted. Travellers who have visited both Northern Africa or Arabia and Argentina assure us that there is a striking resemblance between the Arab and the Gaucho character, caused doubtless by similar surroundings and methods of life.

Before delineating the unfavourable points of the Gaucho character, we will in justice have a word to say about his good points, of which he certainly has a few. Like the Arab of the desert, the Gaucho is characterised by his innate courtesy, hospitality and fidelity to his master or leader. This is a trait which seems characteristic of all peoples who live in a semi-feudal state, and was very noticeable as late as last century among our own Highlanders, though in this age of manhood suffrage, trades unions and strikes, the bonds of sympathy which formerly

attached master and servant have been, in a great measure, loosened.

Courtesy is a universal trait of the Gaucho. He may be, and generally is, unlettered and uneducated, but he never forgets that he is one of Nature's gentlemen, and, unless under strong provocation, is careful not to offend, in any way, the feelings of those with whom he comes in contact. But if courteous himself, he expects equal courtesy on the part of others, even those placed in authority over him, and would leave in a moment the employ of any master who dared to address him a harsh word for any fault he might have committed. If his dignity is respected he will, however, generally be found a faithful and trustworthy

servant.

In matters of religion his beliefs are simple, and no intricate theological dogmas trouble him. He shows every reverence for the priest, because this has been impressed on him as a duty from his tenderest years. The women, however, are much more fervent in their piety than the men, for while the former are frequent church-goers, the men rarely enter a church door. They look on it, however, as their duty to confess their sins once in a while, and

they can generally manage to mutter in an unintelligible manner a Credo or Ave Maria-there their religion begins and there it ends. They usually know the most important saints' days in the calendar such as the church festivals, for the simple reason that those days are holidays on which no work must be done, and this latter duty is religiously complied with by the Gaucho. The Gaucho looks on the foreigner with a curious mixture of respect and contempt - respect, because the foreigner is always much more skilled in the arts and sciences than he is, and generally also more practised in the use of firearms; and contempt, because foreigners are, in comparison to themselves, such poor horsemen. The Gaucho almost lives in the saddle; his horse is his most treasured possession, and even the poorest of them has one, and often two or three. There is no moral or physical excellence in their eyes equal to that of being a first-rate horseman, and no man could aspire to be a leader of the Gauchos who was not an unexceptionally skilled equestrian. During the wars which afflicted the country during the last century, foreigners had frequently to intervene in order to defend their