[Illustration: Guanaco.]
The women do all the work about the house. They make the clothes,
carry home the wood for the fire, and bring water from the streams or
wells.
The men do nothing but hunt. They hunt the guanaco and the ostrich.
The guanaco is nearly as large as a cow, and has a head like a camel.
Its flesh is good to eat, and the people make cloaks of its skin.
[Illustration: Hunting Ostriches.]
The ostrich is the largest bird in the world. Its legs are very long,
and it has a long neck. It cannot fly, for its wings are too small,
but it can run very fast. It can run faster than a horse. It is hard
for the hunter to catch it. He rides on horseback, and catches the
ostrich with a bo'las. A bolas is a rope with a stone, a metal ball,
or a lump of hard clay fastened to each end. The hunter swings one end
of the bolas round and round his head, and then hurls it with great
force at the ostrich. It strikes the ostrich or catches it by the legs
and throws it down. Then the hunter runs up and kills the ostrich with
a knife. The hunters also hunt the ostrich with dogs. Sometimes an
ostrich will spring suddenly up from the long grass almost in front of
the hunter and his dogs.
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