horse knew perfectly well what had happened, though his head was exactly in the opposite direction; and he tugged with all his might, and leant over more than ever.  The two lazos tightened with a twang, as though they had been guitar-strings; and in a moment the unfortunate bull was rolling with all his legs in the air, in the midst of a whirlwind of dust.  Having thus humiliated him we let him go, and off he went at full speed.  All this time the proprietor of the field was tranquilly standing on a bank, looking on.  Far from raging at us for treating his property in this free and easy manner, he returned our salutation when we rode up to him, and, addressing our sporting countryman, said, “Well done, old fellow, come another day and try again.”

Our whole ride to Tisapan was enlivened by a series of Don Juan’s exploits.  He raced after bulls, got hold of their tails, and coleared them over into the dust.  He lazo’d everything in the road, from milestones and trunks of trees upwards; and I shall never forget our meeting with a great mule which was trotting along the road without a burden,—­just as he passed us, our companion slipped the noose round his hind leg, and the beast went down as if he had been shot, the muleteers pulling up on purpose to have a good open-mouthed laugh at the incident.

We seemed to be in rather a sporting line that day, for, after our return from Tisapan, Don Juan and I went to see a cockfight.  In Mexico, as in Cuba and all Spanish America, this is the favourite sport of the people.  In Cuba, the principal shopkeeper in every village keeps the cockpit—­the “plaza de gallos.”  The people from the whole district round about come in on Sunday to the village, with a triple object; first, to hear mass; secondly, to buy their supplies for the ensuing week; and thirdly, to spend the afternoon in cockfighting, at which amusement it is easy to win or lose two or three hundred pounds in an afternoon.  The custom that the cockpit brings to the shop more than repays the proprietor for the expense and trouble of keeping it.  In Cuba, the spurs of the cock are artificially pointed by paring with a penknife, but the Mexican way of arming them is even more abominable.

[Illustration:  STEEL COCK-SPURS (8 inches long), WITH SHEATH AND PADDING.]

Each bird has a sharp steel knife three or four inches long, just like a little scythe-blade, fastened over the natural spur before the fight commences.  A leather sheath covers the weapon while the cocks are being put into the ring, and held with their beaks almost touching till they are furious.  Then they are drawn back to opposite sides of the ring, the sheaths are taken off, and they fly at one another, giving desperate cuts with the steel blades.