The St. Johns herald., 1897-04-10
Indian and Coyote.

Of ali the thousand and one ramifica-
 tions of the different animals, wild or
 tame, none has stronger claim to in-
 telligence, and few, If any, greater
 genus and application when placed
 where nature demands those traits to
 assert themselves. says Sports Afeld,
 than the much-despised coyote, which
 roams the plains and mountains, hunt
 ed and hated by all other living anim-
 als and human beings. Some months
 ,gn, while discussing the habits, cus-
 tams end traditions of the Chiriaehua AApaches with their white chief, Cap
 tain Jeffords, whe still lives in a lonely
 mountain home in Arizona (his band,
 the Royal Chiriachuas, being prisoners
 at Fort Sill, where they were taken by
 General Miles in 1S86), 1 made some
 such statement as the above, when he
 related the fact that the Apaches, so
 far from disliking the. coyote. look upon
 them as their kin. Their tradition
 teaches them that. far back in their
 early history, the evil spirit. being
 angry at some of their people, turned
 them into coyotes. To-day this is firm-
 ly believed by this tribe of Apaches,
 and for one of them to kill a coyote
 would bring ruin on the rest of the
 tribe. Thus the coyote is not consider ed an in trnder, but Is..a welcome visitor in the Chlriachua Indians camp.
 'I do not wonder at the Indians be- lief m their Binship." said their white chief 'They possess many similar characteristics, and in some of the hab- it's peculiar to each there exists great 
 "For instance: Let either a band of Apaehes or coyotes be taken by surprise and they will scatter instantly. disap- bearing Tn a most mysterious manner. Not only in this secretIveness and ,aution is their resemblance traceabfe, put in many other habits, on5 of the most interesting of which is the man. Ter iA which both rid themselves of yermin, which is as curious as it is ,lever.
 ''In Arizona the heat and dearth of vater naturally breed veTmin. Not only Ire animales tortured with these pests, ut humanity, particularly the Indians, whose habits are conducive to such & ondition, are not exempt. have fre- uently known them to walk from forty O sixty miles for a bath; not from an nborn desire for anliness, but from he necessity of ridding themselves of hese pests. The coyote resorts to a imilar method. On moonlight night me may see them in bands trotting to- yard river, each carrying a stiff wing IT tail feather from some large fowl in ts mouths. On reaching the river they plunge in and swim out to the deepest water, until the end of the nose, with he dry feather held between the teeth S alone visible. The vermIn then, in preference to downing, take refuge lpon the dry feather. upon which Mas ter Coyote coolly drops hls load of liv- ng freight into the water and, shaking walks of with a clear consci- ence, and one can aTr157Et --frnarina--u- smile lurking on his cunning face. And little wonder, for clever enough he is. he Apache does not carry feather in lIs mouth, but he uses his hair for the anne purpose allowing it to float on op of the water until the vermin have Il left the bodU, when he swims to hore and literally plasters his hair ,ith wet clay until the pests are smoi. cred. Sometimes the clay is left on IT two o: three days before it is wash T of There are numerous other ins- ances in which there exists similarity | etween the Apache and the coyote, hich apparently gives strong ground ,r the Apaches' traditIon."