We
met and passed many young Indian women, riding by two or three
together on the same horse: they, as well as many of the young men,
were strikingly handsome,--their fine ruddy complexions being the
picture of health. Besides the toldos, there were three ranchos;
one inhabited by the Commandant, and the two others by Spaniards
with small shops.
We were here able to buy some biscuit. I had now been several days
without tasting anything besides meat: I did not at all dislike
this new regimen; but I felt as if it would only have agreed with
me with hard exercise. I have heard that patients in England, when
desired to confine themselves exclusively to an animal diet, even
with the hope of life before their eyes, have hardly been able to
endure it. Yet the Gaucho in the Pampas, for months together,
touches nothing but beef. But they eat, I observe, a very large
proportion of fat, which is of a less animalised nature; and they
particularly dislike dry meat, such as that of the Agouti. Dr.
Richardson, also, has remarked, "that when people have fed for a
long time solely upon lean animal food, the desire for fat becomes
so insatiable, that they can consume a large quantity of unmixed
and even oily fat without nausea" (6/6.
Pages:
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254