56 J. NEILSON BARRY
and also how characteristic they are to those parts of the country where the Spaniard lived.
From the southeastern portion of the United States we have words with characteristics associated with that section alligator, mosquito, sorghum, sassafras, savanna, negro, mulat- to, quadroon and octoroon, as well as Creole and piccaninny.
Florida was given its name by Ponce de Leon, while Cortez gave the name California, which is a perpetual reminder of him, The dark red waters of the Colorado river gave it its Spanish name which has since been extended to the State, and in a similar way the Spanish word for snow-clad mountains be- came the name Nevada.
The wide prairies of the southwest which were at one time part of the Spanish dominion became in time the ranges for the cattle of the American cowboys, and it is but natural not only that some Spanish words should have become incor- porated into our language, but also that they should be charac- teristic of that section.
The Spanish rancho has become our word ranch, and their word pueblo used for the aboriginal towns is still associated with adobie, the dried mud which was the most available building material in that timberless region of scanty rainfall, while cactus and chaparral have a distinct flavor of the old ranges where now so much alfalfa is being cultivated.
The riding leggings of the cattlemen are called chaps, which is a shortened form of chaparigos, while in the early days the scarcity of iron on the plains necessitated some sub- stitute for buckles, so that the cinch was used for the girth, with the latigo, a strap to fasten it. The hackamore was a bridle without a bit, with its bossal or nose piece. The cattle were roped with a lariat, and the raw-hide ring for the noose was called a honda, while the cowboy used a quirt to urge his steed, whether mustang or broncho, which if of variegated color was called a pinto. A more humble animal was termed a burro, although now sometimes called the Rocky Mountain canary.
