The Wolf 337 



difference between them. In the Sierra Madre two wolves 

 are commonly considered to be a match for a man armed 

 as these people usually are, and unless the whole popula- 

 tion have conspired together for the purpose of propagating 

 falsehoods on this particular subject, it must be believed 

 that the lobo is often guilty of manslaughter. It has not 

 happened to the writer to be personally cognizant of the 

 death of any victim of theirs, but riding westward one day 

 through the forests of that mountainous country lying 

 between Durango and the Pacific coast, in the interval 

 between two divisions of a large train of arrieros separated 

 from each other by a distance of several miles, a woman 

 and two children, boy and girl, were met. Struck by the 

 beauty of the little girl, and knowing the way to be unsafe, 

 some conversation took place in which the mother made 

 light of those dangers suggested, and declined, with a pro- 

 fusion of thanks, an offer to see the party safe to her sister's 

 rancho in a neighboring valley. They had only a little 

 distance to go along the ridge, she said, and would then 

 soon descend to their place of destination. The wolves 

 were like devils, it was true, but robbers were worse, and 

 she had many times crossed there from her home without 

 meeting with either. In short, — muchissimas gracias 

 Senor, y todos los santos, etc., etc. Adios ! 



All of them were devoured a very short time after. 

 Their clothes and bones were found scattered on the trail 

 which they had not yet left before they were killed. The 

 muleteers in rear who found these fragments collected and 

 buried them, putting up the usual frail cross which is to be 

 seen along this route, literally by scores. 



