I made little progress that day, the weather proving hot, and my horse lazier than ever. After riding about five leagues, I rested for a couple of hours, then proceeded again at a gentle trot till about the middle of the afternoon, when I dismounted at a wayside _pulpería_ or store and public-house all in one, where several natives were sipping rum and conversing. Standing before them was a brisk-looking old man--old, I say, because he had a dark, dry skin, though his hair and moustache were black as jet--who paused in the discourse he appeared to be delivering, to salute me; then, after bestowing a searching glance on me out of his dark, hawk-like eyes, he resumed his talk. After calling for rum and water, to be in the fashion, I sat down on a bench, and, lighting a cigarette, prepared to listen. He was dressed in shabby gaucho habiliments--cotton shirt, short jacket, wide cotton drawers, and _chiripa_, a shawl-like garment fastened at the waist with a sash, and reaching down half-way between the knees and ankles. In place of a hat he wore a cotton handkerchief tied carelessly about his head; his left foot was bare, while the right one was cased in a colt's-skin stocking, called _bota-de-potro_, and on this distinguished foot was buckled a huge iron spur, with spikes two inches long. One spur of the kind would be quite sufficient, I should imagine, to get out of a horse all the energy of which he was capable. When I entered he was holding forth on the pretty well-worn theme of fate _versus_ free will; his arguments were not, however, the usual dry philosophical ones, but took the form of illustration, chiefly personal reminiscences and strange incidents in the lives of people he had known, while so vivid and minute were his descriptions--sparkling with passion, satire, humour, pathos, and so dramatic his action, while wonderful story followed story--that I was fairly astonished, and pronounced this old _pulpería_ orator a born genius. His argument over, he fixed his keen eyes on me and said: “My friend, I perceive you are a traveller from Montevideo: may I ask what news there is from that city?”