PHOBY-CATS 73 
Or Brown would come in some evening with a long 
face and state, confidentially, ‘‘I seen the biggest 
b’ar track to-night I seen in a month of years. 
Seems like them b’ars is gittin’ mighty bold here- 
*houts lately. I have hearn tell of one comin’ plumb 
into camp and jumpin’ onto a feller. But I don’t 
hardly think they’d be likely to this time of year. 
What do you reckon, Bert?’’ 
“‘Dunnd,’’ Bert would reply, in a hushed voice, 
shaking his head dubiously; ‘‘a feller can’t never 
tell nothin’ ’bout them critters. They mought take 
it into their heads to do anathin’.’’ 
As a matter of fact there was little danger from 
anything but skunks. But of these pests even cow- 
punchers and woodsmen, careless in the presence of 
most perils, stand in deadly fear. For the skunk 
will sometimes attack a sleeping camper and bite 
any exposed part, usually the face, before the vic- 
tim is aware of his approach. The danger lies, ac- 
cording to local tradition, in the fact that the ani- 
mals are occasionally hydrophobic, especially dur- 
ing the dry season. Instances of a horrible death 
resulting from their attacks are by no means rare. 
And so prevalent in consequence is the dread of 
them and so general the belief in their power to 
infect one who is bitten, that the small spotted skunk 
is invariably known locally as the ‘‘phoby-cat.’’ 
Brown and Bert were careful to hide their fear 
of skunks as long as they could, but it was revealed 
during our Tierra Blanca sojourn in a rather dra- 
