Where would one of the lower or higher classes in Europe have shown
such feeling politeness to a poor and miserable object of a
degraded race?
At night we slept at a cottage. Our manner of travelling was
delightfully independent. In the inhabited parts we bought a little
firewood, hired pasture for the animals, and bivouacked in the
corner of the same field with them. Carrying an iron pot, we cooked
and ate our supper under a cloudless sky, and knew no trouble. My
companions were Mariano Gonzales, who had formerly accompanied me
in Chile, and an "arriero," with his ten mules and a "madrina." The
madrina (or godmother) is a most important personage: she is an old
steady mare, with a little bell round her neck; and wherever she
goes, the mules, like good children, follow her. The affection of
these animals for their madrinas saves infinite trouble. If several
large troops are turned into one field to graze, in the morning the
muleteers have only to lead the madrinas a little apart, and tinkle
their bells; and although there may be two or three hundred
together, each mule immediately knows the bell of its own madrina,
and comes to her. It is nearly impossible to lose an old mule; for
if detained for several hours by force, she will, by the power of
smell, like a dog, track out her companions, or rather the madrina,
for, according to the muleteer, she is the chief object of
affection.
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