t6 Lobo 



one pursuit which was merely an amusement, 

 it was stampeding and killing sheep, though 

 they rarely ate them. The sheep are usually 

 kept in flocks of from one thousand to three 

 thousand under one or more shepherds. At 

 night they are gathered in the most sheltered 

 place available, and a herdsman sleeps on each 

 side of the flock to give additional protection. 

 Sheep are such senseless creatures that they are 

 liable to be stampeded by the veriest trifle, but 

 they have deeply ingrained in their nature one, 

 and perhaps only one, strong weakness, namely, 

 to follow their leader. And this the shepherds 

 turn to good account by putting half a dozen 

 goats in the flock of sheep. The latter recog- 

 nize the superior intelligence of their bearded 

 cousins, and when a night alarm occurs they 

 crowd around them, and usually are thus saved 

 from a stampede and are easily protected. But 

 it was not always so. One night late in last 

 November, two Perico shepherds were aroused 

 by an onset of wolves. Their flocks huddled 

 around the goats, which being neither fools 

 nor cowards, stood their ground and were 

 bravely defiant; but alas for them, no common 

 wolf was heading this attack. Old Lobo, the 

 weir-wolf, knew as well as the shepherds that 

 the goats were the moral force of the fiock, so 



