He wished also to take his share in the buffalo-hunt, but his
steed was a lazy and peaceable animal, a true nag for a fat abbot,
having a horror of anything like trotting or galloping; and as he was
not to be persuaded out of his slow walk, he and his master remained at
a respectable distance from the scene of action. What an excellent
caricature might have been made of that good-humoured savant, as he sat
on his Rosinante, armed with an enormous doubled-barrelled gun, loaded
but not primed, some time, to no purpose, spurring the self-willed
animal, and then spying through an opera-glass at the majestic animals
which he could not approach.
We killed nine bulls and seven fat calves, and in the evening we
encamped near a little river, where we made an exquisite supper of
marrow and tongue, two good things, which can only be enjoyed in the
wild prairies. The next day, at sunset, we received a visit from an
immense herd of mustangs (wild horses). We saw them at first ascending
one of the swells of the prairie, and took them for hostile Indians; but
having satisfied their curiosity, the whole herd wheeled round with as
much regularity as a well-drilled squadron, and with their tails erect
and long manes floating to the wind, were soon out of sight.
Many strange stories have been related by trappers and hunters, of a
solitary white horse which has often been met with near the Cross
Timbers and the Red River.
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