218 THE CAYOTE OR ' ITALIPUS.' 



munication with whites, are either crosses with 

 the native dog, or curs of various patterns 

 brought by ships, emigrants, or fur traders. 



The true Indian dog, as I have seen it in the 

 Kootanie country, among the Spokans, and other 

 tribes that have had no opportunity to cross the 

 breed with any imported dog, is beyond all 

 question nothing more than a tamed cayote 

 or prairie wolf (Canis latrans) ; a most apt and 

 appropriate name, for a greater thief does not 

 exist. Although partially domesticated by that 

 I mean taught to. hunt, come when called, and 

 forsake their wild brethren still they retain 

 every type and character of the untamed animal. 

 This animal, called a cayote, a name of Mexican 

 importation, the ' italipus ' of the Indians living 

 at the Columbia's mouth, is not a true wolf. 



This the Indians clearly know, inasmuch as 

 the ' italipus ' figures in every legend as being 

 the animal whose form the bad spirit always 

 assumes when doing evil and acting adversely to 

 the good spirit. It seems to have taken a con- 

 spicuous place in the myths of the red man, 

 utterly different from that of any other animal, 

 and to be identified with his earliest history in a 

 way that neither the true wolf or fox has ever 

 been. The 'cayote ' is to my mind a connecting 



