Native American, or Indian Dogs. 29 



subsistence, must share in the hardships and the evils 

 of his state. The miserable condition of the Indian 

 dogs is a necessary result of the miserable condition 

 of the Indians themselves. This is certain ; though 

 the Indians tell us, that they keep their clogs poor, 

 that they may be light and nimble, and therefore the 

 better fitted for the purposes of hunting. 



Dr. Robertson, however, might have found, in the 

 writings of some of the authors whom he has repeat- 

 edly quoted, mention made of the tenderness which 

 the Indians manifested towards their dogs, in some 

 parts of America. The following passage in Acosta 

 should not have escaped the historian's notice. Speak- 

 ing of the Alco, the learned Jesuit says, " The Indians 

 doe so love these little dogges, that they will spare their 

 meate to feede them, so as when they travell in the 

 countrie, they carrie them with them upon their 

 shoulders, or in their bosomes, and when they are 

 sicke, they keepe them with them, without any use, 

 but only for company*." Hence, it appears, that of 

 one species or variety of their dogs, the Indians, in 

 some parts of the new world, were peculiarly careful, 

 and even solicitously tender. 



The Wunaumcch-Indians call the dog Allum, Al- 

 loom, Mo-e-kan-nch, and Me-kan-nc: the Monsees, 

 Al-lum: the Mahicans, Dee-a-oo, De-a-oo, and An- 



" The Natural! ;md Moral! Historie, See. p. 301, 302. 



