Let us examine this dexterous wielder of the knife and cord. _He, Juan de Dios!_ Come hither, O Centaur of the boundless cattle-plains! We will not ask you to dismount,--for that you never do, we know, except to eat and sleep, or when your horse falls dead, or tumbles into a _bizcachero_; but we want to have a look at your savage self, and the appurtenances thereunto belonging. And first, you say, the meaning of his name. The title, Gaucho, is applied to the descendants of the early Spanish colonists, whose homes are on the Pampa, instead of in the town,--to the rich _estanciero_, or owner of square leagues of cattle, in common with the savage herdsman whom he employs,--to Generals and Dictators, as well as to the most ragged Pampa- Cossack in their pay. Our language is incapable of expressing the idea conveyed by this term; and the Western qualification "backwoodsman" is perhaps the nearest approach to a synonyme that we can attain. The head of our swarthy friend is covered with a species of Neapolitan cap, (let me confess, in a parenthesis, that my ideas of such head- coverings are derived from the costume of graceful Signor Brignoli in "Masaniello,") which was once, in all probability, of scarlet hue, but now almost rivals in color the jet-black locks which it confines. His face-- well, we will pass that over, and, on our return to civilized life, will refer the curious inquirer for a fac-simile to the first best painting of Salvator, there to select at pleasure the most ferocious bandit countenance that he can find. And now the remainder of his person. He wears an open jacket of dirt-crusted serge, covered in front with a gorgeous eruption of plated buttons, and a waistcoat of the same material, adorned with equal profuseness, and showing at the neck a substratum of dubious crimson, supposed to be a flannel shirt. So far, you may say, there is nothing suspicious or very outlandish about his rig; but _turpiter desinit formosus superne_,--there is something highly remarkable _á continuacion_. Do you see that blanket which is drawn tightly up, fore and aft, toward his waist, and, there confined by means of a belt which his _querida_ has richly ornamented for him, falls over in uneven folds like an abbreviated kilt? That is the famous _chiripá_, or Gaucho petticoat, which, like the _bracae_ of the Northern barbarians some nineteen hundred years ago, distinguishes him from the inhabitants of civilized communities. Below the _chiripá_, his limbs are cased in _calzoncillos_, stout cotton drawers or pantalets, which terminate in a fringe (you should see the elaborate worsted-work that adorns the hem of his gala-pair) an inch or two above the ankle. His feet are thrust into a pair of _botas de potro_, or colt's-foot boots, manufactured from the hide of a colt's fore-leg, which he strips off whole, chafes in his hand until it becomes pliable and soft, sews up at the lower extremity,--and puts on,