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008 - Chapter Viii Folk-lore Relating To Were-wolves · Book of Werewolves

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Speaker 1: Chapter eight of the Book of Werewolves. This is LibriVox recording.
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Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. The
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Speaker 1: Book of Werewolves by Sabine Baring Gould, Chapter eight. Folklore
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Speaker 1: relating to werewolves. English folklore is singularly barren of werewolf's stories,
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Speaker 1: the reason being that wolves had been extirpated from England
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Speaker 1: under the Anglo Saxon Kings, and therefore ceased to be
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Speaker 1: objects of dread to the people. The traditional belief in
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Speaker 1: werewolfsm must, however, have remained long in the popular mind,
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Speaker 1: though at present it has disappeared, for the word occurs
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Speaker 1: in old ballads and romances. Thus in Campion, Oh, was
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Speaker 1: it war wolf in the wood? Or was it mermaid
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Speaker 1: in the sea? Or was it man or vile woman?
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Speaker 1: My own true love that misshaped thee There is also
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Speaker 1: the romance of William and the Werewolf in Hartshorn, but
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Speaker 1: this professes to be a translation from the French, for
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Speaker 1: he of French, this fair tale first did translate in
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Speaker 1: ease of english Men in English speech. In the popular mind,
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Speaker 1: the cat or the hare have taken the place of
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Speaker 1: the wolf, for which is transformation, and we hear often
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Speaker 1: of the hags attending the devil's sabbath in these forms.
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Speaker 1: In Devonshire they range the moors in the shape of
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Speaker 1: black dogs, and I know a story of two such
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Speaker 1: creatures appearing in an inn and nightly drinking the cider
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Speaker 1: till the publicans shot a silver button over their heads
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Speaker 1: when they were instantly transformed into two ill favored old
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Speaker 1: ladies of his acquaintance. On Heathfield near Tavistock, the wild
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Speaker 1: huntsman rides by full moon with his wush hounds and
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Speaker 1: a white hair, which they pursued, was once rescued by
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Speaker 1: a goody returning from market and discovered to be a
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Speaker 1: transformed young lady. Gervaise of Tilbury says in his Otia
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Speaker 1: imperalia fidimus friquenter in anglia perlunazziones homines in lupos mutari,
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Speaker 1: called hominum genus gerufus galli vocant angli vero vervov diconte
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Speaker 1: vere and im anglitze virum sonat vulv lupum. Jervas may
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Speaker 1: be right in his derivation of the name, and werewolf
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Speaker 1: may mean man wolf, though I have elsewhere given a
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Speaker 1: different derivation, and one which I suspect is truer. But
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Speaker 1: Chervees has grounds for his assertion that where signifies man,
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Speaker 1: it is so in Anglo Saxon, fair, in Gothic fear,
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Speaker 1: in Latin fair, in Icelandic vera, zend vers Old, Prussian Verus,
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Speaker 1: Lettish vera, Sanskrit, Bierre, Bengali. There have been cases of
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Speaker 1: cannibalism in Scotland, but no bestial transformation is hinted at
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Speaker 1: in connection with them. Thus, Boethius, in his History of Scotland,
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Speaker 1: tells us of a robber and his daughter who devoured children,
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Speaker 1: and Lindsay of Pittscotty gives a full account about this
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Speaker 1: time fourteen sixty there was in Brigand taken with his
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Speaker 1: whole family, who haunted a place in Angus. This mischievous
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Speaker 1: man had an execrable fashion to take all young men
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Speaker 1: and children he could steal away quietly or take away
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Speaker 1: without knowledge, and eat them. And the younger they were
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Speaker 1: esteemed them the more tender and delicious. For the which
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Speaker 1: cause and damnable abuse, he with his wife and barons
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Speaker 1: were all burnt except a young wench of a year
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Speaker 1: old who was saved and brought to Dundee, where she
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Speaker 1: was brought up and fostered. And when she came to
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Speaker 1: a woman's years, she was condemned and burnt quick for
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Speaker 1: that crime. It is said that when she was coming
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Speaker 1: to the place of execution, there gathered an huge multitude
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Speaker 1: of people, and especially of women, cursing her that she
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Speaker 1: was so unhappy to commit so damnable deeds, to whom
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Speaker 1: she turned about with an ireful countenance, saying, wherefore chaidye
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Speaker 1: with me, as if I had committed an unworthy act,
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Speaker 1: give me credence and trust me. If you had experience
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Speaker 1: of eating men in women's flesh, you would think it
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Speaker 1: so delicious that you would never forbear it again. So
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Speaker 1: but any sign of repentance, this unhappy trader died in
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Speaker 1: the sight of the people. Wintoune also has a passage
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Speaker 1: in his metrical chronicle regarding a cannibal who lived shortly
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Speaker 1: before his own time, and he may easily have heard
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Speaker 1: about him from surviving contemporaries. It was about the year
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Speaker 1: thirteen forty, when a large portion of Scotland had been
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Speaker 1: devastated by the arms of Edward. The third about Perth,
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Speaker 1: there was the country, saw waste that wonder west to
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Speaker 1: see for until well great space thereby was another house
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Speaker 1: left nor herbury of dear there was than such poison profusion,
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Speaker 1: that they would ne'er come to the town. So great
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Speaker 1: default was near that stead, that money were in hunger dead.
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Speaker 1: A carl, they said, was near thereby. That wood set cetties,
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Speaker 1: traps commonly children and women for to slay, and swains,
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Speaker 1: that he might overtake and ate them all that he get,
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Speaker 1: might choose and clique till name behight. That sorry life
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Speaker 1: continued he while waste, but folk was the country. We
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Speaker 1: have only to compare these two cases with those recorded
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Speaker 1: in the last two chapters, and we see at once
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Speaker 1: how the popular mind in Great Britain had lost the
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Speaker 1: idea of connecting change of form with cannibalism. A man
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Speaker 1: guilty of the crimes committed by the Angus Brigand or
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Speaker 1: the Karl of Perth would have been regarded as a
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Speaker 1: werewolf in France or Germany, and would have been tried
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Speaker 1: for lycanthropy. S Jerome, by the way, brought a sweeping
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Speaker 1: charge against the Scots. He visited Gaul in his youth
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Speaker 1: about three eighty and writes, when I was a young
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Speaker 1: man in Gaul, I may have seen the Atticotti, a
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Speaker 1: British people who live upon human flesh. And when they
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Speaker 1: find that herds of pigs, droves of cattle, or flocks
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Speaker 1: of sheep in the woods, they cut off the haunches
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Speaker 1: of the men and the breasts of the women, and
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Speaker 1: these they regard as great dainties. In other words, they
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Speaker 1: preferred the shepherd to his flock. Gibbon, who quotes this passage,
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Speaker 1: says on it if in the neighborhood of the commercial
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Speaker 1: and literary town of Glasgow a race of cannibals has
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Speaker 1: really existed, we may contemplate in the period of the
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Speaker 1: Scottish history the opposite extremes of savage and civilized life.
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Speaker 1: Such reflections tend to enlarge the circle of our ideas
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Speaker 1: and to encourage the pleasing hope that New Zealand may
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Speaker 1: produce in a future age the hume of the southern hemisphere.
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Speaker 1: If traditions of werewolves are scanty in England, it is
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Speaker 1: quite the reverse if we cross the water. In the
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Speaker 1: south of France. It is still believed that fate has
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Speaker 1: destined certain men to be like aanthropists, that they are
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Speaker 1: transformed into wolves. At full moon, the desire to run
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Speaker 1: comes upon them at night, they leave their beds, jump
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Speaker 1: out of a window, and plunge into a fountain. After
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Speaker 1: the bath, they come out covered with dense fur, walking
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Speaker 1: on all fours, and commence a raid over fields and meadows,
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Speaker 1: through woods and villages, biting all beasts and human beings
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Speaker 1: that come in their way. At the approach of dawn,
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Speaker 1: they return to the spring, plunge into it, lose their
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Speaker 1: furry skins, and regain their deserted beds. Sometimes the lugaroux
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Speaker 1: is said to appear under the form of a white dog,
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Speaker 1: or to be loaded with chains, but there is probably
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Speaker 1: a confusion of ideas between the werewolf and the church dog,
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Speaker 1: bar guest, pad fois, wosh hound, or by whatever name
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Speaker 1: the animals supposed to haunt a churchyard is designated in
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Speaker 1: the perigor, the werewolf is called lu le roux. Certain men,
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Speaker 1: especially bastards, are obliged at each full moon to transform
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Speaker 1: themselves into these diabolic beasts. It is always at night
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Speaker 1: that the fit comes on. The lycanthropist dashes out of
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Speaker 1: a window, springs into a well, and, after having struggled
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Speaker 1: in the water for a few moments, rises from it,
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Speaker 1: dripping and invested with a goat skin which the devil
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Speaker 1: has given him. In this condition, the lu leroux run
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Speaker 1: upon four legs, pass the night in ranging over the
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Speaker 1: country and in biting and devouring all the dogs they meet.
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Speaker 1: At break of day, they lay aside their goat skins
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Speaker 1: and return home. Often they are ill in consequence of
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Speaker 1: having eaten tough old hounds, and they vomit up their
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Speaker 1: undigested paws. One great nuisance to them is the fact
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Speaker 1: that they may be wounded or killed in their lularou state.
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Speaker 1: With the first effusion of blood, their diabolic covering vanishes,
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Speaker 1: and they are recognized, to the disgrace of their families.
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Speaker 1: A werewolf may easily be detected even when devoid of
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Speaker 1: his skin, for his hands are broad and his fingers short,
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Speaker 1: and there are always some hairs in the hollow of
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Speaker 1: his hand. In Normandy, those who are doomed to be
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Speaker 1: lu garoux clothe themselves every evening with a skin called
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Speaker 1: their er or ur, which is alone from the devil.
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Speaker 1: When they run in their transformed state, the evil one
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Speaker 1: accompanies them and scourges them at the foot of every
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Speaker 1: cross they pass. The only way in which a werewolf
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Speaker 1: can be liberated from this cruel bondage is by stabbing
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Speaker 1: him three times in the forehead with a knife. However,
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Speaker 1: some people less addicted to ellopathic treatment consider that three
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Speaker 1: drops of blood drawn by a needle will be sufficient
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Speaker 1: to procure release. According to an opinion of the vulgar
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Speaker 1: in the same province, the lugaroux is sometimes a metamorphosis
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Speaker 1: forced upon the body of a damned person, who, after
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Speaker 1: having been tormented in his grave, has torn his way
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Speaker 1: out of it. The first stage in the process consists
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Speaker 1: in his devouring the sere cloth which enveloped his face.
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Speaker 1: Then his moans and muffled howls wring from the tomb
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Speaker 1: through the gloom of the night, the earth of the
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Speaker 1: grave begins to heave, and at last, with a scream,
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Speaker 1: surrounded by a phosphorescent glare and exhaling a fetid odor,
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Speaker 1: he bursts away as a wolf. In le Bessin they
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Speaker 1: attribute to sorcerers the power of metamorphosing certain men into beasts,
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Speaker 1: but the form of a dog is that principally affected
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Speaker 1: by them. In Norway. It is believed that there are
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Speaker 1: persons who can assume the form of a wolf or
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Speaker 1: bear who's a bun, and again resume their own. This
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Speaker 1: property is either imparted to them by the troll men,
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Speaker 1: or those possessing it are themselves trolls. In a hamlet
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Speaker 1: in the midst of a forest there dwelt a cottager
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Speaker 1: named Las and his wife. One day he went out
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Speaker 1: into the forest to fell a tree, but had forgot
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Speaker 1: to cross himself and to say his paternoster, so that
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Speaker 1: some troll or wolf, which far gamore, obtained power over
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Speaker 1: him and transformed him into a wolf. His wife mourned
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Speaker 1: him for many years. But one Christmas Eve there came
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Speaker 1: a beggar woman, very poor and ragged, to the door,
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Speaker 1: and the good woman of the house took her in,
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Speaker 1: fed her well, and entreated her kindly. At her departure,
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Speaker 1: the beggar woman said that the wife would probably see
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Speaker 1: her husband again, as he was not dead, but was
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Speaker 1: wandering in the forest as a wolf. Towards nightfall, the
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Speaker 1: wife went to her pantry to place in it a
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Speaker 1: piece of meat for the morrow, when, on turning to
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Speaker 1: go out, she perceived a wolf standing before her, raising
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Speaker 1: itself with its paws on the pantry steps, regarding her
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Speaker 1: with sorrowful and hungry looks. Seeing this, she exclaimed, if
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Speaker 1: I were sure that thou wert my own lass, I
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Speaker 1: would give thee a bit of meat. At that instant,
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Speaker 1: the wolfskin fell off, and her husband stood before her
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Speaker 1: in the clothes he wore on the unlucky morning when
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Speaker 1: she had last beheld him. Finns, Laps and Russians are
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Speaker 1: held in particular aversion because the Swedes believe that they
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Speaker 1: have the power to change people into wild beasts. During
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Speaker 1: the last year of the war with Russia, when Kalmar
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Speaker 1: was overrun with an unusual number of wolves, it was
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Speaker 1: generally said that the Russians had transformed their Swedish prisoners
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Speaker 1: into wolves and sent them home to invest the country.
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Speaker 1: In Denmark, the following stories are told a man who
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Speaker 1: from his childhood had been a werewolf, when returning one
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Speaker 1: night with his wife from a merry making, observed that
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Speaker 1: the hour was at hand when the evil usually came
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Speaker 1: upon him. Giving therefore the reins to his wife, he
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Speaker 1: descended from the vehicle, saying to her, if anything comes
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Speaker 1: to thee, only strike at it with thine apron. He
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Speaker 1: then withdrew, But immediately after the woman, as she was
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Speaker 1: sitting in the vehicle, was attacked by a werewolf. She
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Speaker 1: did as the man had enjoined her, and struck it
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Speaker 1: with her apron, from which it arrived a portion, and
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Speaker 1: then ran away. After some time, the man returned, holding
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Speaker 1: in his mouth the rent portion of his wife's apron,
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Speaker 1: on seeing which she cried out in terror. Good lord man,
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Speaker 1: why thou art a werewolf? Thank thee wife said he.
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Speaker 1: Now I am free, and from that time he was
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Speaker 1: no more afflicted. If a female at midnight stretches between
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Speaker 1: four sticks the membrane which envelops the foal when it
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Speaker 1: is brought forth, and creeps through it naked, she will
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Speaker 1: bear children without pain, but all the boys will be werewolves,
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Speaker 1: and all the girls maras. By day. The werewolf has
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Speaker 1: the human form, though he may be known by the
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Speaker 1: meeting of his eyebrows above the nose. At a certain
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Speaker 1: time of night, he is the form of a dog
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Speaker 1: on three legs. It is only when another person tells
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Speaker 1: him that he is a werewolf or reproaches him with
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Speaker 1: being such that a man can be freed from the ban.
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Speaker 1: According to a Danish popular song. A hero transformed by
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Speaker 1: his stepmother into a bear fights with a knight. For
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Speaker 1: tis she who hath bewitched me a woman false and
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Speaker 1: fell bound an iron girdle around me. If thou canst
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Speaker 1: not break this belt, knight, all thee destroy. The noble
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Speaker 1: made the Christian sign, the girdle snapped, the bear was changed,
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Speaker 1: and see he was a lusty knight. His father's realm regained. Kimpevisser,
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Speaker 1: page one, forty seven. When an old bear in Ofoden's
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Speaker 1: Prestipiel was killed after it had caused the death of
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Speaker 1: six men and sixty horses, it was found to be
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Speaker 1: girded with a similar girdle. In Schleswig and Holstein, they
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Speaker 1: say that if the werewolf be thrice addressed by his
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Speaker 1: baptismal name, he resumes his human form. On a hot
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Speaker 1: harvest day, some reapers lay down in the field to
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Speaker 1: take their noontide sleep, when one who could not sleep
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Speaker 1: observed that the fellow next to him rose softly, and,
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Speaker 1: having girded himself with a strap, became a werewolf. A
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Speaker 1: young man belonging to Jegirub, returning late one night from Bilund,
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Speaker 1: was attacked when near jegrub By three werewolves, and would
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Speaker 1: probably have been torn to pieces had he not saved
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Speaker 1: himself by leaping into a rye field, for there they
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Speaker 1: had no more power over him. At Kaseeborg, on the
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Speaker 1: isle of Uzidom, a man and his wife were busy
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Speaker 1: in the field making hay, when after some time the
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Speaker 1: woman said to the man that she had no more peace,
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Speaker 1: She could stay no longer, and went away. But she
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Speaker 1: had previously desired her husband to promise that if perchance
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Speaker 1: a wild beast should come that way, he would cast
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Speaker 1: his hat at it and then run away, and it
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Speaker 1: would do him no injury. She had been gone but
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Speaker 1: a short while when a wolf came swimming across the
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Speaker 1: swine and ran directly toward the haymakers. The man threw
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Speaker 1: his hat at it, which the animal instantly tore to rags.
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Speaker 1: But in the meantime a boy had run up with
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Speaker 1: a pitchfork, and he stabbed the wolf from behind. In
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Speaker 1: the same instant it became changed, and all saw that
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Speaker 1: the boy had killed the man's wife. Formerly, there were
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Speaker 1: individuals in the neighborhood of Steina who, by putting on
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Speaker 1: a certain girdle could transform themselves into werewolves. A man
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Speaker 1: of the neighborhood who had such a girdle forgot one
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Speaker 1: day when going out to lock it up, as was
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Speaker 1: his wont during his absence, his little son chanced to
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Speaker 1: find it. He buckled it round him and was instantaneously
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Speaker 1: turned into an animal to all outward appearance, like a
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Speaker 1: bundle of peat straw, and he rolled about like an
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Speaker 1: unwieldy bear. When those who were in the room perceived this,
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Speaker 1: they hastened in search of the father, who was found
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Speaker 1: in time to come and unbuckle the belt before the
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Speaker 1: child had done any mischief. The boy afterwards said that
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Speaker 1: when he had put on the girdle, he was seized
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Speaker 1: with such a raging hunger that he was ready to
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Speaker 1: tear in pieces and devour all that came in his way.
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Speaker 1: The girdle is supposed to be made of human skin
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Speaker 1: and to be three finger breads wide. In East Friesland,
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Speaker 1: it is believed when seven girls succeed each other in
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Speaker 1: one family, that among them one is of necessity a werewolf,
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Speaker 1: so that youths are slow in seeking one of seven
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Speaker 1: sisters in marriage. According to a curious Lithuanian story related
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Speaker 1: by Schleiche in his Littawishemerchen, a person who is a
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Speaker 1: werewolf or bear has to remain kneeling in one spot
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Speaker 1: for one hundred years before he can hope to obtain
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Speaker 1: release from his beastial form. In the Netherlands, they relayed
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Speaker 1: the following tale. A man had once gone out with
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Speaker 1: his bow to attend a shooting match at russ but
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Speaker 1: when about half way to the place, he saw on
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Speaker 1: a sudden a large wolf spring from a thicket and
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Speaker 1: rushed towards a young girl who was sitting in a
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Speaker 1: meadow by the roadside watching cows. The man did not
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Speaker 1: long hesitate, but quickly drawing forth an arrow, took aim
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Speaker 1: and luckily hid the wolf in the right side, so
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Speaker 1: that the arrow remained sticking in the wound, and the
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Speaker 1: animal fled howling to the wood. On the following day,
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Speaker 1: he heard that a serving man of the burgomaster's household
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Speaker 1: lay at the point of death in consequence of having
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Speaker 1: been shot in the right side on the preceding day.
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Speaker 1: This so excited the archer's curiosity that he went to
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Speaker 1: the wounded man and requested to see the arrow. He
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Speaker 1: recognized it immediately as one of his own. Then, having
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Speaker 1: desired all present to leave the room, he persuaded the
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Speaker 1: man to confess that he was a werewolf and that
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Speaker 1: he had devoured little children. On the following day he died.
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Speaker 1: Among the Bulgarians and Slovakians, the werewolf is called for Kolak,
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Speaker 1: a name resembling that given it by the modern Greeks bucolacas.
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Speaker 1: The Greek werewolf is closely related to the vampire. The
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Speaker 1: lycanthropists falls into a cataleptic trance, during which his soul leaves,
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Speaker 1: his body, enters that of a wolf, and ravens for blood.
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Speaker 1: On the return of the soul, the body is exhausted
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Speaker 1: and aches, as though it had been put through violent exercise.
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Speaker 1: After death, lycanthropists become vampires. They are believed to frequent
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Speaker 1: battlefields in wolf or hyena shapes, and to suck the
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Speaker 1: breath from dying soldiers, or to enter houses and steal
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Speaker 1: the infants from their cradles. Modern Greeks call any savage
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Speaker 1: looking man with dark complexion and with distorted, misshapen limbs abucolacas,
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Speaker 1: and suppose him to be invested with the power of
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Speaker 1: running in wolf form. The serbs connect the vampire and
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Speaker 1: the werewolf together, and call them by one name, Vlokoslach.
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Speaker 1: These rage chiefly in the depths of winter. They hold
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Speaker 1: their annual gatherings, and at them divest themselves of their
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Speaker 1: wolf skins, which they hang on the trees around them.
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Speaker 1: If any one succeeds in obtaining the skin and burning it,
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Speaker 1: the Vlokoslak is thenceforth disenchanted. The power to become a
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Speaker 1: werewolf is obtained by drinking the water which settles in
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Speaker 1: a footprint left in clay by a wolf. Among the
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Speaker 1: white Russians, the vav Kalak is a man who has
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Speaker 1: incurred the wrath of the devil, and the evil one
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Speaker 1: punishes him by transforming him into a wolf and sending
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Speaker 1: him among his relations, who recognize him and feed him well.
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Speaker 1: He is a most amiably disposed werewolf, for he does
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Speaker 1: no mischief, and testifies his affection for his kindred by
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Speaker 1: licking their hands. He cannot, however, remain long in any place,
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Speaker 1: but is driven from house to house, and from hamlet
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Speaker 1: to hamlet by an irresistible passion for change of scene.
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Speaker 1: This is an ugly superstition, for it sets a premium
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Speaker 1: on standing well with the evil one. The Slovakians merrily
19:11
Speaker 1: term a drunkard of le Kodlak because forsooth he makes
19:15
Speaker 1: a beast of himself. A Slovakian household werewolf tale closes
19:19
Speaker 1: this chapter. The Poles have their werewolves, which rage twice
19:23
Speaker 1: in the year, at Christmas and at Midsummer. According to
19:27
Speaker 1: a Polish story, if a witch lays a girdle of
19:29
Speaker 1: human skin on the threshold of a house in which
19:32
Speaker 1: a marriage is being celebrated, the bride and bridegroom, and
19:35
Speaker 1: bridesmaids and groomsmen, should they step across it, are transformed
19:39
Speaker 1: into wolves. After three years, however, the witch will cover
19:42
Speaker 1: them with skins with the hair turned outward. Immediately they
19:45
Speaker 1: will recover their natural form. On one occasion, a witch
19:49
Speaker 1: cast a skin of too scanty dimensions over the bridegroom,
19:52
Speaker 1: so that his tail was left uncovered. He resumed his
19:55
Speaker 1: human form, but retained his lupine codal appendage. The Russians
20:01
Speaker 1: call the werewolf oberote, which signifies one transformed. The following
20:07
Speaker 1: recipe is given by them for becoming one. He who
20:11
Speaker 1: desires to become an oberote, let him seek in the
20:14
Speaker 1: forest a hewn down tree, let him stab it with
20:17
Speaker 1: a small copper knife, and walk around the tree, repeating
20:20
Speaker 1: the following incantation. On the sea, on the ocean, on
20:24
Speaker 1: the island, on Bujan, on the empty pasture gleams the moon,
20:28
Speaker 1: on an ash stok lying in a green wood, in
20:30
Speaker 1: a gloomy vale, toward the stock wandereth, a shaggy wolf,
20:34
Speaker 1: horned cattle, seeking for his sharp white fangs. But the
20:37
Speaker 1: wolf enters not the forest, but the wolf dives not
20:40
Speaker 1: into the shadowy vale, moon moon, gold horned moon. Check.
20:46
Speaker 1: The flight of bullets blunt, the hunter's knives break, the
20:49
Speaker 1: shepherd's cudgels, cast wild fear upon all cattle, on men,
20:53
Speaker 1: on all creeping things, that they may not catch the
20:56
Speaker 1: gray wolf, that they may not rend his warm skin.
20:59
Speaker 1: My word, it is binding, more binding than sleep, more
21:02
Speaker 1: binding than the promise of a hero. Then he springs
21:05
Speaker 1: thrice over the tree and runs into the forest, transformed
21:09
Speaker 1: into a wolf. In the ancient Bohemian lexicon of vasarad
21:15
Speaker 1: A d. Twelve o two, the werewolf is called Vilkodlak
21:19
Speaker 1: and is explained as faunas Safarik says under that head.
21:24
Speaker 1: In Cubi Sepe improbi existent mulieribus at earum peragunt concubitum
21:30
Speaker 1: quos temones gali dusius nuncupant. And in another place vilkodlasi
21:37
Speaker 1: incubi sive invidi ab inviando passim coom animalibus unde et
21:43
Speaker 1: incubi dicunta ab incubando hominees it est stuprando quos romani
21:49
Speaker 1: faunos vicarios dicunt. That the same belief in lycanthropy exists
21:54
Speaker 1: in Armenia is evident from the following story told by
21:57
Speaker 1: Hachthausen in his Transcaucasia, Leipzig, three hundred twenty two. A
22:03
Speaker 1: man once saw a wolf, which had carried off a child,
22:06
Speaker 1: dashed past him. He pursued it hastily, but was unable
22:09
Speaker 1: to overtake it. At last he came upon the hands
22:12
Speaker 1: and feet of a child, and a little further on
22:14
Speaker 1: he found a cave in which lay a wolf skin.
22:17
Speaker 1: This he cast into a fire, and immediately a woman appeared,
22:21
Speaker 1: who howled and tried to rescue the skin from the flames.
22:24
Speaker 1: The man, however, resisted, and as soon as the hide
22:27
Speaker 1: was consumed, the woman had vanished in the smoke. In India,
22:32
Speaker 1: On account of the prevalence of the doctrine of metempsychosis,
22:36
Speaker 1: the belief in transformation is widely diffused. Traces of genuine
22:40
Speaker 1: lycanthrope are abundant in all regions whither Buddhism is reached.
22:44
Speaker 1: In Ceylon, in Tibet, and in China, we find it
22:47
Speaker 1: still forming a portion of the national creed. In the
22:51
Speaker 1: Panschatantra is a story of an enchanted brahmin's son who
22:55
Speaker 1: by day was a serpent, by night a man. The Comraditius,
23:00
Speaker 1: the son of Indra, was condemned to be an ass
23:02
Speaker 1: by day and a man by night. A modern Indian
23:06
Speaker 1: tale is to this effect. A prince marries a female ape,
23:09
Speaker 1: but his brother's wed handsome princesses. At a feast given
23:13
Speaker 1: by the queen to her step daughters, there appears an
23:15
Speaker 1: exquisitely beautiful lady in gorgeous robes. This is none other
23:19
Speaker 1: than the she Ape, who is laid aside her skin
23:21
Speaker 1: for the occasion. The prince slips out of the room
23:24
Speaker 1: and burns the skin, so that his wife is prevented
23:26
Speaker 1: from resuming her favorite appearance. Nathaniel Pierce gives an account
23:31
Speaker 1: of an Abyssinian superstition very similar to that prevalent in Europe.
23:36
Speaker 1: He says that in Abyssinia the gold and silversmiths are
23:39
Speaker 1: highly regarded, but that the iron workers are looked upon
23:41
Speaker 1: with contempt as an inferior grade of beings. Their kinsmen
23:45
Speaker 1: even ascribed to them the power of transforming themselves into
23:48
Speaker 1: hyenas or other savage beasts. All convulsions and hysterical disorders
23:53
Speaker 1: are attributed to the effect of their evil eye. The
23:56
Speaker 1: Amhara call them Buddha. The tigre Tebib are also Mohammedan
24:01
Speaker 1: and Jewish Buddhas. It is difficult to explain the origin
24:04
Speaker 1: of this strange superstition. These Buddhas are distinguished from other
24:08
Speaker 1: people by wearing gold ear rings, and Coffin declares that
24:11
Speaker 1: he has often found hyaenas with these rings in their ears,
24:14
Speaker 1: even among the beasts which he has shot or speared himself.
24:18
Speaker 1: But how the rings got into their ears is more
24:20
Speaker 1: than Coffin was able to ascertain. Beside their power to
24:24
Speaker 1: transform themselves into hyenas or other wild beasts, all sorts
24:28
Speaker 1: of other strange things are ascribed to them, and the
24:31
Speaker 1: Abyssinians are firmly persuaded that they rob the graves by midnight,
24:34
Speaker 1: and no one would venture to touch what is called
24:36
Speaker 1: quanter or dried meat in their houses, though they would
24:40
Speaker 1: not object to partake of fresh meat if they had
24:42
Speaker 1: seen the animal from which it came killed before them.
24:46
Speaker 1: Coffin relates as eye witness of the fact the following
24:48
Speaker 1: story among his servants was a Buddha who, one evening,
24:53
Speaker 1: whilst it was still light, came to his master and
24:55
Speaker 1: ask leave of absence till the following morning. He obtained
24:59
Speaker 1: the required leave departed, but scarcely had Coffin turned his
25:02
Speaker 1: head when one of his men exclaimed, look, there he
25:05
Speaker 1: is changing himself into Hyaena, pointing in the direction taken
25:08
Speaker 1: by the Buddha. Coffin turned a look, and although he
25:11
Speaker 1: did not witness the process of transformation, the young man
25:14
Speaker 1: had vanished from the spot on which he had been standing,
25:17
Speaker 1: not a hundred paces distant, and in his place was
25:19
Speaker 1: a Hyaena running away. The place was a plain, without
25:23
Speaker 1: either bush or tree to impede the view. Next morning,
25:26
Speaker 1: the young man returned and was charged by his companions
25:29
Speaker 1: with the transformation. This he rather acknowledged than denied, for
25:33
Speaker 1: he excused himself on the plea that it was the
25:35
Speaker 1: habit of his class. This statement of peerce is corroborated
25:39
Speaker 1: by a note contributed by Sir Gardner Wilkinson to Rollinson Herodotus.
25:43
Speaker 1: A class of people in Abyssinia are believed to change
25:46
Speaker 1: themselves into hyaenas when they like. On my appearing to
25:49
Speaker 1: discredit it, I was told by one who lived for
25:51
Speaker 1: years there that no well informed person doubted it, and
25:55
Speaker 1: that he was once walking with one of them, when
25:56
Speaker 1: he happened to look away for a moment, and on
25:59
Speaker 1: turning again towards his companion, he saw him trotting off
26:01
Speaker 1: in the shape of a hyena. He met him afterwards
26:04
Speaker 1: in this old form. These worthies are blacksmiths. G. W.
26:10
Speaker 1: A precisely similar superstition seems to have existed in America.
26:14
Speaker 1: For Joseph Acosta relates that the ruler of a city
26:17
Speaker 1: in Mexico, who was sent for by the predecessor of Montezuma,
26:20
Speaker 1: transformed himself before the eyes of those who were sent
26:23
Speaker 1: to seize him, into an eagle, a tiger, and an
26:26
Speaker 1: enormous serpent. He yielded at last, and was condemned to death.
26:31
Speaker 1: No longer in his own house, he was unable to
26:33
Speaker 1: work miracles so as to save his life. The Bishop
26:36
Speaker 1: of Chiappa, a province of Guatemala, in a writing published
26:39
Speaker 1: in seventeen o two, ascribes the same power to the
26:42
Speaker 1: Naguals or national priests, who labored to bring back to
26:46
Speaker 1: the religion of their ancestors the children brought up as
26:48
Speaker 1: Christians by the government after various ceremonies. When the children
26:53
Speaker 1: instructed advance to embrace him, the nagual suddenly assumed a
26:57
Speaker 1: frightful aspect, and under the form of a lion or
26:59
Speaker 1: ties tiger, appeared chained to the young Christian convert Hecrey
27:04
Speaker 1: des Voyage tomb Du page one eighty seven. Among the
27:09
Speaker 1: North American Indians, the belief in transformation is very prevalent.
27:13
Speaker 1: The following story closely resembles one very prevalent all over
27:16
Speaker 1: the world. One Indian fixed his residence on the borders
27:20
Speaker 1: of the Great Lake, taking with him only a dog,
27:22
Speaker 1: big with young. In due time, this dog brought forth
27:25
Speaker 1: eight pups. Whenever the Indian went out to fish, he
27:28
Speaker 1: tied up the pups to prevent the straying of the litter.
27:31
Speaker 1: Several times as he approached his tent, he heard noises
27:34
Speaker 1: proceeding from it, which sounded like the talking, the laughing,
27:37
Speaker 1: the crying, the wail, and the merriment of children. But
27:41
Speaker 1: on entering it he only perceived the pups tied up
27:43
Speaker 1: as usual. His curiosity being excited by the noises he
27:47
Speaker 1: had heard, he determined to watch and learn whence these
27:49
Speaker 1: sounds proceeded and what they were. One day he pretended
27:53
Speaker 1: to go out to fish, but instead of doing so,
27:55
Speaker 1: he concealed himself in a convenient place. In a short time,
28:00
Speaker 1: he again heard voices, and rushing suddenly into the tent,
28:02
Speaker 1: beheld some beautiful children, sporting and laughing, with the dog
28:06
Speaker 1: skins lying by their side. He threw the dog skins
28:09
Speaker 1: into the fire, and the children, retaining their proper forms,
28:12
Speaker 1: grew up and were the ancestors of the dog rib
28:14
Speaker 1: nation traditions of the North American Indians. By T. A. Jones,
28:18
Speaker 1: eighteen thirty, Volume two, page eighteen. In the same work
28:24
Speaker 1: as a curious story entitled The Mother of the World,
28:27
Speaker 1: which bears a close analogy to another world wide myth,
28:29
Speaker 1: a woman marries a dog by night. The dog lays
28:32
Speaker 1: aside its skin and appears as a man. This may
28:35
Speaker 1: be compared with the tale of burn and Bera already given.
28:39
Speaker 1: I shall close this chapter with a Slovakian household tale
28:42
Speaker 1: given by T. T. Hanush in the third volume of
28:45
Speaker 1: Zeitchrift for Deutsche Mitologi. The daughter of the Vlkholak. There
28:52
Speaker 1: was once a father who had nine daughters, and they
28:55
Speaker 1: were all marriageable, but the youngest was the most beautiful.
28:58
Speaker 1: The father was a werewolf. One day it came into
29:01
Speaker 1: his head what is the good of having to support
29:04
Speaker 1: so many girls? So he determined to put them all
29:06
Speaker 1: out of the way. He went accordingly into the forest
29:10
Speaker 1: to hew wood, and he ordered his daughters to let
29:12
Speaker 1: one of them bring him his dinner. It was the
29:14
Speaker 1: eldest who brought it. Why how come you so early
29:18
Speaker 1: with the food, asked the wood cutter. Truly, father, I
29:21
Speaker 1: wish to strengthen you, lest you should fall upon us.
29:23
Speaker 1: If famished a good lass, sit down whilst I eat,
29:27
Speaker 1: he ate, And whilst he ate he thought of a scheme.
29:30
Speaker 1: He rose and said, my girl, come and I will
29:33
Speaker 1: show you a pit I have been digging. And what
29:36
Speaker 1: is the pit? For? That we may be buried in
29:38
Speaker 1: it when we die? For poor folk will not be
29:41
Speaker 1: cared for much after they are dead and gone. So
29:44
Speaker 1: the girl went with him to the side of the
29:45
Speaker 1: deep pit now here, said the werewolf, you must die
29:49
Speaker 1: and be cast in. There. She begged for her life,
29:52
Speaker 1: but all in vain. So he laid hold of her
29:54
Speaker 1: and cast her into the grave. Then he took a
29:57
Speaker 1: great stone and flung it in upon her and crushed
29:59
Speaker 1: her head, so the poor thing breathed out her soul.
30:03
Speaker 1: When the werewolf had done this, he went back to
30:05
Speaker 1: his work, and as dusk came on, the second daughter arrived,
30:08
Speaker 1: bringing him food. He told her of the pit, and
30:11
Speaker 1: brought her to it, and cast her in, and killed
30:13
Speaker 1: her as the first. And so he dealt with all
30:16
Speaker 1: his girls up to the last. The youngest knew well
30:19
Speaker 1: that her father was a werewolf, and she was grieved
30:21
Speaker 1: that her sisters did not return. She thought, now, where
30:24
Speaker 1: can they be? Has my father kept them for companionship
30:27
Speaker 1: or to help him in his work. So she made
30:30
Speaker 1: the food which she was to take to him, and
30:32
Speaker 1: crept cautiously through the wood. When she came near the
30:35
Speaker 1: place where her father worked, she heard his strokes felling timber,
30:38
Speaker 1: and smelt smoke. She saw presently a large fire and
30:42
Speaker 1: two human heads roasting at it. Turning from the fire,
30:45
Speaker 1: she went in the direction of the axe strokes and
30:47
Speaker 1: found her father. See, said she, father, I have brought
30:51
Speaker 1: you food. That is a good lass, said he. Now
30:54
Speaker 1: stack the wood for me whilst I eat. But where
30:57
Speaker 1: are my sisters? She asked, down and yon valley, drawing wood.
31:01
Speaker 1: He replied, follow me, and I will bring you to them.
31:04
Speaker 1: They came to the pit. Then he told her that
31:06
Speaker 1: he had dug it for a grave. Now, said he,
31:09
Speaker 1: you must die and be cast into the pit with
31:11
Speaker 1: your sisters. Turn aside, father, she asked, whilst I strip
31:15
Speaker 1: off my clothes and then slay me if you will.
31:19
Speaker 1: He turned aside as she requested, and then chick. She
31:21
Speaker 1: gave him a push, and he tumbled headlong into the
31:24
Speaker 1: hole he had dug for her. She fled for her life,
31:27
Speaker 1: for the werewolf was not injured, and he soon would
31:29
Speaker 1: scramble out of the pit. Now she hears his howls
31:33
Speaker 1: resounding through the gloomy alleys of the forest, and swift
31:35
Speaker 1: as the wind she runs. She hears the tramp of
31:38
Speaker 1: his approaching feet and the snuffle of his breath. Then
31:41
Speaker 1: she casts behind her her handkerchief. The werewolf seizes this
31:45
Speaker 1: with teeth and nails and rends it till it is
31:47
Speaker 1: reduced to tiny ribbons. In another moment, he is again
31:50
Speaker 1: in pursuit, foaming at the mouth and howling dismally, whilst
31:54
Speaker 1: his red eyes gleam like burning coals. As he gains
31:57
Speaker 1: on her, she casts behind her her gown and bid
32:00
Speaker 1: him tear that It seizes the gown and rives it
32:03
Speaker 1: to shreds. Then again he pursues. This time she casts
32:07
Speaker 1: behind her her apron, next her petticoat, then her shift,
32:10
Speaker 1: and at last runs much in the condition in which
32:13
Speaker 1: she was born. Again the werewolf approaches, She bounds out
32:17
Speaker 1: of the forest into a hay field and hides herself
32:19
Speaker 1: in the smallest heap of hay. Her father enters the field,
32:23
Speaker 1: runs howling about it in search of her, cannot find her,
32:26
Speaker 1: and begins to upset the different haycocks, all the while
32:29
Speaker 1: growling and gnashing his gleaming white fangs in his rage
32:32
Speaker 1: at her having escaped him. The foam flakes drop at
32:35
Speaker 1: every step from his mouth, and his skin is reeking
32:37
Speaker 1: with sweat. Before he has reached the smallest bundle of hay.
32:41
Speaker 1: His strength leaves him. He feels exhaustion begin to creep
32:44
Speaker 1: over him, and he retires to the forest. The king
32:47
Speaker 1: goes out hunting every day. One of his dogs carries
32:50
Speaker 1: food to the hay field, which has most unaccountably been
32:53
Speaker 1: neglected by the hay makers for three days. The king,
32:56
Speaker 1: following the dog, discovers the fair damsel, not exactly in
33:00
Speaker 1: the straw, but up to her neck and hay. She
33:03
Speaker 1: is carried, hay and all to the palace, where she
33:05
Speaker 1: becomes his wife, making only one stipulation before becoming his bride,
33:09
Speaker 1: and that is that no beggar shall be permitted to
33:12
Speaker 1: enter the palace. After some years, a beggar does get in,
33:16
Speaker 1: the beggar being, of course, none other than her werewolf father.
33:20
Speaker 1: He steals upstairs, enters the nursery, cuts the throats of
33:23
Speaker 1: the two children born by the queen to her lord,
33:26
Speaker 1: and lays the knife under her pillow. In the morning,
33:29
Speaker 1: the king, supposing his wife to be the murderess, drives
33:32
Speaker 1: her from home with the dead princes hung about her neck.
33:36
Speaker 1: A hermit comes to the rescuer and restores the babies
33:38
Speaker 1: to life. The king finds out his mistake is reunited
33:42
Speaker 1: to the lady out of the hay, and the werewolf
33:44
Speaker 1: is cast off a high cliff into the sea, and
33:46
Speaker 1: that is the end of him. The King, the Queen,
33:49
Speaker 1: and the princes live happily, and may be living yet,
33:52
Speaker 1: for no notice of their death has appeared in the newspaper.
33:56
Speaker 1: This story bears some resemblance to one told by Fan
33:59
Speaker 1: Han in his Grichische and albineze Schemerchen. I remember having
34:04
Speaker 1: heard this very similar one in the Pyrenees. But the
34:07
Speaker 1: man who flies from the werewolf is one who, after
34:09
Speaker 1: having stripped off all his clothes, rushes into a cottage
34:12
Speaker 1: and jumps into a bed. The werewolf dares not or
34:16
Speaker 1: cannot follow. The cause of his flight was also different.
34:19
Speaker 1: He was a freemason who had divulged the secret, and
34:22
Speaker 1: the werewolf was the master of his lodge in pursuit
34:24
Speaker 1: of him. In the Bayonet story there is nothing similar
34:28
Speaker 1: to the last part of the Slovakian tale, and in
34:30
Speaker 1: the Greek one, the transformation and the pursuit are omitted.
34:34
Speaker 1: Though the woman eater is called dog's head, much as
34:36
Speaker 1: an outlaw in the north of Europe was said to
34:38
Speaker 1: be wolf headed, it is worthy of notice in the
34:42
Speaker 1: tale of the Daughter of the Old Kolak that the
34:44
Speaker 1: werewolf fit is followed by great exhaustion footnote. Compare this
34:50
Speaker 1: with the exhaustion following a berserker fit and that which
34:52
Speaker 1: succeeded the attacks to which mister Bertrand was subject, and
34:56
Speaker 1: a footnote, and that the wolf is given clothes to take,
35:00
Speaker 1: much as in the Danish story is already related. There
35:03
Speaker 1: does not seem to be any indication of his having
35:05
Speaker 1: changed his shape. At least no change is mentioned. His
35:08
Speaker 1: hands are spoken of, and he swears and curses his
35:10
Speaker 1: daughter in broad Slovakian. The fit very closely resembles that
35:14
Speaker 1: to which Scalagrim the Icelander was subject. It is a
35:18
Speaker 1: pity that the made rock in the Icelandic tail did
35:20
Speaker 1: not fall upon her legs like the young lady in
35:22
Speaker 1: the Hay end of chapter eight