Lasso

Lasso (Spanish lazo), a thin, well-plaited rope of raw hide, used in Spanish America for catching wild cattle. One end is fastened to the saddle gear of the man who uses it, the other ends in a small brass ring, by means of which a running noose, usually 8 feet wide, is formed. The rider holds a coil of the lasso in the left hand; with the right he dexterously whirls the open noose round his head, and hurls it (to no great distance, but with a wonderfully sure aim) so as to fall over a given object—round the horns of a wild ox, or the like. In Mexico the lasso is la reata ('the rope'); thence the term lariat for a kind of lasso in the United States. The lasso has been used in warfare with deadly effect. See BOLAS.