midday
The seats were logs of wood and horse-skulls . The household was composed of one woman , an ancient , hideously ugly , grey-headed negress , about seventy years old , and eighteen or nineteen men of all ages and sizes , and of all colours from parchment-white to very old oak . There was a _ capatas , _ or overseer , and seven or eight paid _ peones , _ the others being all _ agregados _ -- that is , supernumeraries without pay , or , to put it plainly , vagabonds who attach themselves like vagrant dogs to establishments of this kind , lured by the abundance of flesh , and who occasionally assist the regular _ peones _ at their work , and also do a little gambling and stealing to keep themselves in small change . At break of day everyone was up sitting by the hearth sipping bitter _ maté _ and smoking cigarettes ; before sunrise all were mounted and away over the surrounding country to gather up the herds ; at midday they were back again to breakfast . The consumption and waste of meat was something frightful . Frequently , after breakfast , as much as twenty or thirty pounds of boiled and roast meat would be thrown into a wheelbarrow and carried out to the dust-heap , where it served to feed scores of hawks , gulls , and vultures , besides the dogs . Of course , I was only an _ agregado _ , having no salary or regular occupation yet .