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Travellers on such an errand as that which is carrying the gaucho and his youthful companions across the Chaco, do not lie abed late; and they are up and stirring as the first streak of blue-grey light shows itself above the horizon. Again a tiny fire is kindled; the kettle hung over it; and the mates, with the bombillas, called into requisition.
As in these very saddle-bags was carried their commissariat yerba, charqui, maize-bread, onions, and everything, and as over the cantle-peak hung their kettle, skillet, mates and bombillas, the loss is a lamentable one; in short, leaving them without a morsel to eat, or a vessel to cook with, had they comestibles ever so abundant!
Then the bombillas are inserted, and the process of sucking commences; suspended only at intervals while the more substantial mutton and maize-bread are being masticated. Meanwhile, as a measure of security, the camp-fire has been extinguished, though they still keep their places around its embers.
With these two pieces de resistance nothing remains but to make a cup of "Paraguay tea," for which Gaspar has provided all the materials, viz., an iron kettle for boiling water, cups of cocoa-nut shell termed mates for this is the name of the vessel, not the beverage and certain tubes, the bombillas, to serve as spoons; the Paraguayan tea being imbibed, not in the ordinary way, but sucked up through these bombillas.
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