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014 - Chapter Xiva Galician Were-wolf · Book of Werewolves

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  Speaker 1: Chapter fourteen of the Book of Werewolves. This is a
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: The Book of Werewolves by Sabine Baring Gould, Chapter fourteen,
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  Speaker 1: A Galician werewolf. The inhabitants of Austrian Galicia. The hamlet
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  Speaker 1: of Polomia, summer evening in the forest, the beggar Svietec.
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  Speaker 1: A girl disappears, a schoolboy vanishes, a servant girl lost,
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  Speaker 1: another boy carried off. The discovery made by the publican
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  Speaker 1: of Polomia, Svietec locked up, brought to Dabkov, commits suicide.
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  Speaker 1: The inhabitants of Austrian Galicia are quiet, inoffensive. People take
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  Speaker 1: them as a whole. The Jews, who number a twelfth
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  Speaker 1: of the population, are the most intelligent, energetic, and certainly
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  Speaker 1: the most money making individuals in the province, though the
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  Speaker 1: Poles proper or Masurs are not devoid of natural parts.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps as remarkable a phenomenon as any other in that kingdom,
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  Speaker 1: for Kingdom of Valdemiir it was, is the enormous numerical
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  Speaker 1: preponderance of the nobility over the untitled. In eighteen thirty seven,
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  Speaker 1: the proportions stood thus thirty two thousand, one hundred ninety
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  Speaker 1: nobles to two thousand, seventy six tradesmen. The average of
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  Speaker 1: execution for crime is nine a year out of a
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  Speaker 1: population of four and a half millions. By no means
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  Speaker 1: a high figure considering the peremptory way in which justice
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  Speaker 1: is dealt forth in that province. Yet in the most
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  Speaker 1: quiet and well disposed neighborhoods, occasionally the most startling atrocities
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  Speaker 1: are committed, occurring when least expected, and sometimes perpetrated by
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  Speaker 1: the very person who is least suspected. Just sixteen years ago,
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  Speaker 1: there happened in the Circle of Tornov in eastern Galicia.
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  Speaker 1: The province is divided into nine circles, a circumstance which
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  Speaker 1: will probably furnish the Grandames with a story for their
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  Speaker 1: fire sides during their bitter Galician winters for many a
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  Speaker 1: long year. In this circle of Tornov, in the lordship
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  Speaker 1: of Parkost, is a little hamlet called Polomia, consisting of
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  Speaker 1: eight hovels and a Jewish tavern. The inhabitants are mostly woodcutters,
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  Speaker 1: hewing down the firs of the dense forest in which
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  Speaker 1: their village is situated, and conveying them to the nearest water,
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  Speaker 1: down which they are floated to the vistula. Each tenant
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  Speaker 1: pays no rent for his cottage and patch of field,
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  Speaker 1: but is bound to work a fixed number of days
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  Speaker 1: for his landlord, a practice universal in Galicia, and often
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  Speaker 1: productive of much discontent and injustice, as the proprietor exacts
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  Speaker 1: labor from his tenant on those days when the harvest
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  Speaker 1: has to be got in, or the land is in
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  Speaker 1: best condition for tillage, and just when the peasant would
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  Speaker 1: gladly be engaged upon his own small plot. Money is
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  Speaker 1: scarce in the province, and this is accordingly the only
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  Speaker 1: way of which the landlord can be sure of his dues.
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  Speaker 1: Most of the villagers of Polomia are miserably poor, but
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  Speaker 1: by cultivating a little maize and keeping a few fowls
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  Speaker 1: or a pig, they scrape together sufficient to sustain life.
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  Speaker 1: During the summer, the men collect resin from the pines,
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  Speaker 1: from each of which once in twelve years, they strip
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  Speaker 1: a slip of bark, leaving the resin to exude and
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  Speaker 1: trickle into a small earthenware jar at its roots. And
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  Speaker 1: during the winter, as already stated, they fell the trees
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  Speaker 1: and roll them down to the river. Polomia is not
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  Speaker 1: a cheerful spot, nested among dense masses of pine, which
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  Speaker 1: shed a gloom over the little hamlet. Yet on a
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  Speaker 1: fine day it is pleasant enough for the old women
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  Speaker 1: to sit at their cottage doors, scenting that matchless pine fragrance,
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  Speaker 1: sweeter than the balm of the Spice Islands, for there
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  Speaker 1: is nothing cloying in that exquisite and exhilarating odor. Listening
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  Speaker 1: to the harp like thrill of the breeze in the
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  Speaker 1: old gray tree tops, and knitting quietly at long stockings,
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  Speaker 1: whilst their little grand children rop in the heather and
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  Speaker 1: tufted fern. Towards evening, too, there is something indescribably beautiful
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  Speaker 1: in the fir wood. The sun dives among the trees
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  Speaker 1: and paints their bowls with patches of luminous saffron, or,
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  Speaker 1: falling over a level clearing, glorifies it with its orange dye,
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  Speaker 1: so visibly contrasting with the blue purple shadow on the
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  Speaker 1: western rim of unreclaimed forest, deep and luscious as the
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  Speaker 1: bloom on a plum. The birds then are hastening to
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  Speaker 1: their nests. A ger falcon high overhead is kindled with sunlight,
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  Speaker 1: capering and gamboling among the branches. The merry squirrel skips
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  Speaker 1: home for the night. The sun goes down, but the
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  Speaker 1: sky is still shining with twilight. The wild cat begins
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  Speaker 1: to hiss and squall in the forest. The herent a
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  Speaker 1: flap hastily by the stork on the top of the
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  Speaker 1: tavern chimney to poise itself on one leg for sleep
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  Speaker 1: to woo an hour, begin to wake up, hark, the
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  Speaker 1: woodcutters are coming home with a song such his Polyomia
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  Speaker 1: in summer time. And much resembling it are the hamlets
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  Speaker 1: scattered about the forest, at intervals of a few miles
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  Speaker 1: in each, the public house being the most commodious and
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  Speaker 1: best built edifice, the church whenever there is one, not
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  Speaker 1: remarkable for anything but its balbous steeple. You would hardly
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  Speaker 1: believe that amidst all this poverty a beggar could have
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  Speaker 1: picked up any subsistence. And yet a few years ago,
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  Speaker 1: Sunday after Sunday there sat a white bearded venerable man
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  Speaker 1: at the church door, asking alms. Poor people are proverbially
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  Speaker 1: compassionate and liberal, so that the old man generally got
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  Speaker 1: a few coppers, and often some good woman bade him
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  Speaker 1: come into her cottage and let him have some food. Occasionally, Spheotec,
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  Speaker 1: that was the beggar's name, went his rounds, selling small
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  Speaker 1: pinchback ornaments and beads, generally, however, only appealing to charity.
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  Speaker 1: One Sunday, after church, a maser and his wife invited
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  Speaker 1: the old man into their hut and gave him a
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  Speaker 1: crust of pie and some meat. There were several children about,
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  Speaker 1: but a little girl of nine or ten attracted the
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  Speaker 1: old man's attention by her artless tricks. Sviatec felt in
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  Speaker 1: his pocket and produced a ring enclosing a piece of
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  Speaker 1: colored glass set over foile. This he presented to the child,
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  Speaker 1: who ran off, delighted to show her acquisition to her companions.
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  Speaker 1: Is that little maid your daughter? Asked the beggar. No,
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  Speaker 1: answered the housewife. She is an orphan. There was a
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  Speaker 1: widow in this place who died leaving the child, and
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  Speaker 1: I have taken charge of her. One mouth moore will
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  Speaker 1: not matter much, and the Good God will bless us
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  Speaker 1: aye aye to be sure, he will the orphans and
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  Speaker 1: fatherless are under his own peculiar care. She's a good
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  Speaker 1: little thing and gives no trouble, observed the woman. You
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  Speaker 1: go back to Polemia tonight. I reckon, I do ah,
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  Speaker 1: exclaimed Sviatec, as the little girl girl ran up to him.
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  Speaker 1: You like the ring? Is it not beautiful? I've found
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  Speaker 1: it under a big fur to the left of the churchyard.
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  Speaker 1: There may be dozens there. You must turn round three times,
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  Speaker 1: bow to the moon, and say zaboy. Then look among
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  Speaker 1: the tree roots till you find one. Come along, screamed
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  Speaker 1: the child to its comrades. We will go and look
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  Speaker 1: for rings. You must seek separately, said Svieotec. The children
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  Speaker 1: scampered off into the wood. I have done one good
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  Speaker 1: thing for you, laughed the beggar, in ridding you for
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  Speaker 1: a time of the noise of those children. I am
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  Speaker 1: glad of a little quiet now, and then said the woman.
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  Speaker 1: The children will not let the baby sleep at times
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  Speaker 1: with their clatter. Are you going? Yes, I must reach
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  Speaker 1: Polmia tonight. I am old and very feeble and poor.
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  Speaker 1: He began to fall into his customary whine, very poor,
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  Speaker 1: But I thank and pray to God for you. Spiotek
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  Speaker 1: left the cottage. That little orphan was never seen again.
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  Speaker 1: The Austrian government has of late years been vigorously advancing
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  Speaker 1: education among the lower orders and establishing schools throughout the province.
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  Speaker 1: The children were returning from class one day and were
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  Speaker 1: scattered among the trees, some pursuing of the old mouse,
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  Speaker 1: others collecting juniper berries, and some sauntering with their hands
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  Speaker 1: in their pockets whistling. Where's Peter, asked one little boy
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  Speaker 1: of another who was beside him. We three go home
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  Speaker 1: the same way. Let us go together, Peter shouted the lad.
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  Speaker 1: Here I am, was the answer from among the trees.
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  Speaker 1: I'll be with you directly. Oh, I see him, said
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  Speaker 1: the elder boy. There was some one talking to him
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  Speaker 1: where yonder among the pines. Ah, they have gone further
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  Speaker 1: into the shadow, and I cannot see them any more.
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  Speaker 1: I wonder who was with him? A man? I think
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  Speaker 1: The boys waited till they were tired, and then they
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  Speaker 1: sauntered home, determined to thrash Peter for having kept them waiting.
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  Speaker 1: But Peter was never seen again. Some time after this,
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  Speaker 1: a servant girl belonging to a small store kept by
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  Speaker 1: a Russian disappeared from a village five miles from Polomia.
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  Speaker 1: She had been sent with a parcel of grocery to
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  Speaker 1: a cottage at no very great distance, but lying apart
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  Speaker 1: from the main cluster of hovels and surrounded by trees.
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  Speaker 1: The day closed in and her master waited her return anxiously,
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  Speaker 1: But as several hours elapsed without any sign of her, he,
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  Speaker 1: assisted by the neighbors, went in search of her. A
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  Speaker 1: slight powdering of snow covered the ground, and her footsteps
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  Speaker 1: could be traced at intervals where she had diverged from
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  Speaker 1: the beaten track. In that part of the road, where
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  Speaker 1: the trees were thickest, there were marks of two pair
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  Speaker 1: of feet leaving the path, but owing to the density
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  Speaker 1: of the trees at that spot and to the slightness
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  Speaker 1: of the fall of snow, which did not reach the
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  Speaker 1: soil where shaded by the pines, the footsteps were immediately lost.
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  Speaker 1: By the following morning, a heavy fall had obliterated any
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  Speaker 1: further traces which daylight might have discovered. The servant girl
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  Speaker 1: also was never seen again. During the winter of eighteen
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  Speaker 1: forty nine, the wolves were supposed to have been particularly ravenous,
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  Speaker 1: for thus alone did people account for the mysterious disappearances
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  Speaker 1: of children. A little boy had been sent to a
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  Speaker 1: fountain to fetch water. The pitcher was found standing by
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  Speaker 1: the well, but the boy had vanished. The villages turned out,
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  Speaker 1: and those wolves which could be found were despatched. We
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  Speaker 1: have already introduced our readers to Polomia, although the occurrences
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  Speaker 1: above related did not take place among those eight hovels,
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  Speaker 1: but in neighboring villages. The reason for our having given
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  Speaker 1: a more detailed account of this cluster of houses, rude
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  Speaker 1: cabins they were, will now become apparent. In May eighteen
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  Speaker 1: forty nine, the innkeeper of Polomia missed a couple of ducks,
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  Speaker 1: and his suspicions fell upon the beggar who lived there,
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  Speaker 1: and whom he held in no esteem, as he himself
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  Speaker 1: was a hard working industrious man, whilst Speatek maintained himself
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  Speaker 1: his wife and children by mendacity, although possessed of sufficient
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  Speaker 1: arable land to yield an excellent crop of maize and
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  Speaker 1: produce vegetables if tilled with ordinary care. As the publican
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  Speaker 1: approached the cottage, a fragrant whiff of roast greeted his nostrils.
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  Speaker 1: I'll catch the fellow in the act, said the innkeeper
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  Speaker 1: to himself, stealing up to the door and taking good
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  Speaker 1: care not to be observed. As he threw open the door,
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  Speaker 1: he saw the mendicant hurriedly shuffle something under his feet
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  Speaker 1: and conceal it beneath his long clothes. The publican was
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  Speaker 1: on him in an instant, had him by the throat,
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  Speaker 1: charged him with theft, and dragged him from his seat.
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  Speaker 1: Judge of his sickening horror, when from beneath the pauper's
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  Speaker 1: clothes rolled forth the head of a girl about the
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  Speaker 1: age of fourteen or fifteen years, carefully separated from the trunk.
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  Speaker 1: In a short while the neighbors came up. The venerable
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  Speaker 1: Sviatec was locked up, along with his wife, his daughter,
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  Speaker 1: a girl of sixteen, and a son aged five. The
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  Speaker 1: hut was thoroughly examined, and the mutilated remains of the
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  Speaker 1: poor girl discovered in a vat were found. The legs
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  Speaker 1: and thighs, partly raw, partly stewed or roasted in a chest,
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  Speaker 1: were the heart, liver and entrails, all prepared and cleaned
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  Speaker 1: as neatly as though done by a skillful butcher, And
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  Speaker 1: finally under the oven was a bowlful of fresh blood.
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  Speaker 1: On his way to the magistrate of the district, the
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  Speaker 1: wretched man flung himself repeatedly on the ground, struggled with
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  Speaker 1: his guards, and endeavored to suffocate himself by gulping down
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  Speaker 1: clods of earth and stones, but was prevented by his conductors.
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  Speaker 1: When taken before the protocol at Dabkov, he stated that
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  Speaker 1: he had already killed and assisted by his family, eaten
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  Speaker 1: six persons. His children, however, asserted most positively that the
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  Speaker 1: number was much greater than he had represented, and their
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  Speaker 1: testimony is borne out by the fact that the remains
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  Speaker 1: of fourteen different caps in suits of clothes, male as
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  Speaker 1: well as female, were found in his house. The origin
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  Speaker 1: of this horrible and depraved taste was as follows, According
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  Speaker 1: to the Theotec's own confession. In eighteen forty six, three
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  Speaker 1: years previous, a Jewish tavern in the neighborhood had been
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  Speaker 1: burned down, and the host had himself perished in the flames. Sviotec,
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  Speaker 1: whilst examining the ruins, had found the half roasted corpse
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  Speaker 1: of the publican among the charred rafters of the house.
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  Speaker 1: At that time, the old man was craving with hunger,
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  Speaker 1: having been destitute of food for some time. The scent
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  Speaker 1: and the sight of the roasted flesh inspired him with
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  Speaker 1: an uncontrollable desire to taste of it. He tore off
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  Speaker 1: a portion of the carcass and satiated his hunger upon it,
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  Speaker 1: and at the same time he conceived such a liking
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  Speaker 1: for it that he could feel no rest till he
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  Speaker 1: had tasted again. His second victim was the orphan above
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  Speaker 1: alluded to. Since then, that is, during the period of
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  Speaker 1: no less than three years, he had frequently subsisted in
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  Speaker 1: the same manner, and had actually grown sleek and fat
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  Speaker 1: upon his frightful meals. The excitement roused by the discovery
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  Speaker 1: of these atrocities was intense. Several poor mothers, who had
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  Speaker 1: bewailed the loss of their little ones, felt their wounds
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  Speaker 1: reopened agonizingly. Popular indignation rose to the highest pitch. There
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  Speaker 1: was some fear lest the criminal should be torn in
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  Speaker 1: pieces himself by the enraged people as soon as he
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  Speaker 1: was brought to trial, But he saved the necessity of
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  Speaker 1: precautions being taken to ensure his safety, for on the
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  Speaker 1: first night of his confinement, he hanged himself from the
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  Speaker 1: bars of the prison window. End of chapter fourteen,