* * * * * The preliminaries of the sport began with the manufacture of the kite. The kinds most used were _pandorgas_, parallelograms of paper or cloth, according to size and importance, with the skeleton composed of strong and flexible cane, called _otate_, with hummers of gut or parchment or rag, at the slightly curved top or bottom--or they bore the name of _cubos_ (squares), made with three small crossed sticks covered with paper and with a broad fringe of paper or cloth at the sides. Both kinds usually displayed the national colors or bore figures of Moors and Christians, birds and quadrupeds. The tails were enormously long and were forms of tufts of cloth, varying in size, tied crosswise of the cord, which ended in a bunch of rags; in the middle of the cord were the ‘cutters,’ terribly effective in battles between kites; they were two cockspur-knives of steel, finely sharpened, projecting from the sides of a central support of wood, with which the bearer cut the string of his opponent, which, thus abandoned to its fate on the wings of the wind, went whirling and tumbling through the air, to fall at last to the ground, at a considerable distance. Night did not end the sport; they had messengers or paper lanterns, hanging from a great wheel of cardboard, through the central opening in which the kite-string passed, and which, impelled by the wind, went as far as the check-string and whirled there, aloft, with its candles yet lighted. * * * * * A neighbor of gruff voice, harsh aspect, and the reputation of a surly fellow, was, for me, represented by a great _pandorga_, with powerfully bellowing hummer, which on every windy day sunk--if we may use the term--some eight or ten unfortunate _cubos_, thus being the terror of all the small boys of our neighborhood. It was made of white cloth, turned almost black by the action of sun and rain; its long tail twisted and writhed like a great serpent, and even doubled upon itself midway, at times, on account of the weight of its large and gleaming cutters. Its hoarse and continuous humming could be heard from one end of the town to the other and sounded to me like the language of a bully. * * * * *