apps in the district that wolves
might make their appearance at any moment, and several families with
their tents came to camp near us and their herds were kept near ours for
mutual protection. We were numerous enough to fight a great number of
hungry wolves, and the country was scoured in every direction.

Numbers of juniper-brush fires were lighted at night where we had
cleared away the snow to scare off the wolves.

That evening the Lapps told wolf stories. One began thus:

"When wolves have lost the Chief of the Pack, they hold a council and
name another Chief, who they expect will lead them safely through their
wanderings and direct them when an attack is to be made. The wolves
understand each other perfectly well, and they obey the Chief of the
Pack. They often speak to each other with their eyes. This appears
wonderful, but it is so. But woe to the Chief when the wolves become
dissatisfied with him. When they find that under his leadership they are
constantly starving, they agree among themselves to destroy him. They
then pounce upon him, kill him, and devour him. They have a way of
agreeing to do this without their Chief knowing what is to happen to
him. They pass judgment upon him and sentence him to die."

"Wonderful indeed," I said, "is the intelligence of the wolves, if what
you say is true."

"It is true," said the narrator, and the rest with one voice confirmed
him. "Wolves are as knowing as people, and we know some of their cunning
ways. The Chief of the Pack must often lead the wolves on long marches,
through forests and unbeaten tracks, over the snow to some place where
he supposes they will find prey. Besides he must not lead them into
ambush where they may be destroyed. The Chief must be not only cunning,
but brave also. We see them often, after they have discovered us, going
away or taking another direction than the one in which they were going.
It is simply to deceive us, to make us believe that they are going
away. Then they make a long detour and take our reindeer in our rear.
People say foxes are cunning, but the cunning of a fox is nothing to
compare to the cunning of a wolf."

"That is so," repeated all the Lapps.

Another man said: "When the Chief of the Pack becomes old, and is not
able to lead the wolves any more, the wolves kill him and eat him. When
two packs meet there is often a great fight between the two chiefs for
the mastery, and the defeated one runs away. Then his own pack o