It was on Spanish ranches in north-eastern Mexico that the skills employed later by the Great Plains cowboy first evolved. There too were developed the cowboy’s distinctive costume and equipment: the broad sombrero, the shaggy leather chaparejos or “chaps,” the high-heeled boots, the spurs, the high-horned forty-pound saddle and the lariat or lasso. But the cowboy’s humor, traditions and folk music were authentically American. Cowboys were a varied breed, including adventurous teenagers, Union and Confederate veterans, Irish immigrants and many blacks. Their duties consisted of driving cattle to pasture and water, branding them at roundups, riding the range to protect them from rustlers and wild animals, and escorting them during the long drive. These tasks required expert horsemanship and skill with the lasso and six-shooter. In dime novels cowboy life seemed romantic, but in reality it was full of hardship, monotony and danger. For low wages the cowboy had to spend long hours in the saddle with only a hard bed in a communal bunk-house to rest in at night. During the long drive, lasting as much as two months, he traveled in a continuous cloud of dust, trying to control hundreds of fractious animals. Little wonder that at journey’s end cowboys often went on the spree, squandering half a year’s wages on the doubtful pleasures of the cattle towns.