The Wolf 347 



adopted as the tutelar of gcntes among Pueblo Indians, 

 and southern tribes of the Tinneh stock, and its promi- 

 nence is scarcely less with those of the northwest coast of 

 America. They honor the coyote ; their myths and folk- 

 lore record its good qualities and wisdom. To them it is 

 the incarnation of a deity or a demon (these are nearly the 

 same), and it is never killed, for fear that ill luck might 

 be sent by the spirit of which this animal is the represen- 

 tative. 



Under these happy auspices coyotes hang around native 

 encampments and villages, interbreed with Indian dogs, 

 grow fat on salmon cast upon river banks in the spawning 

 season, hunt all that smaller game which their more 

 powerful relations resort to for supplies only when hard 

 pressed, and omit to take advantage of no opportunity to 

 gain possession of provisions which are not theirs. The 

 opinion they have of the human race is that it exists for 

 their advantage, and mankind, further than it contributes 

 to their support, is an object of indifference to them. 



More to the south, and in the vicinity of white settlers, 

 the coyote is oppressed and persecuted ; subjected to like 

 usage with that which the common wolf receives. This 

 state of things is of course accompanied by changes in 

 character that are not less marked than in the wolf's case. 

 It becomes nocturnal in habit, flies from the face of man, 

 and is one of the most wary, timid, and suspicious of ani- 

 mals. At the same time its cunning grows greater as the 

 necessity for self-preservation becomes more pressing, and 

 in the same measure in which it is pursued does its ca- 

 pacity for evasion enlarge. Speed, endurance, wind, and 



