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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Book of Were-Wolves, by Sabine Baring-Gould
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: The Book of Were-Wolves
+
+Author: Sabine Baring-Gould
+
+Release Date: July 1, 2002 [eBook #5324]
+[Most recently updated: February 24, 2021]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+Produced by: Curtis Weyant
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF WERE-WOLVES ***
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Note: Greek text is in curly braces, i.e., {}.]
+
+
+
+
+THE BOOK OF WERE-WOLVES
+
+Being an Account of Terrible Superstition
+
+by SABINE BARING-GOULD
+
+Smith, Elder & Co., London
+1865
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY
+
+CHAPTER II. LYCANTHROPY AMONG THE ANCIENTS
+
+Definition of Lycanthropy—Marcellus
+Sidetes—Virgil—Herodotus—Ovid—Pliny—Agriopas—Story from
+Petronius—Arcadian Legends—Explanation offered
+
+CHAPTER III. THE WERE-WOLF IN THE NORTH
+
+Norse Traditions—Manner in which the Change was effected—Vœlundar
+Kvœda—Instances from the Völsung Saga—Hrolf’s Saga—Kraka—Faroëse
+Poem—Helga Kvida—Vatnsdæla Saga—Eyrbyggja Saga
+
+CHAPTER IV. THE ORIGIN OF THE SCANDINAVIAN WERE-WOLF
+
+Advantage of the Study of Norse Literature—Bear and Wolf-skin
+Dresses—The Berserkir—Their Rage—The Story of Thorir—Passages from the
+Aigla—The Evening Wolf—Skallagrim and his Son-Derivation of the Word
+“Hamr:” of “Vargr”—Laws affecting Outlaws—“To become a
+Boar”—Recapitulation
+
+CHAPTER V. THE WERE-WOLF IN THE MIDDLE AGES
+
+Stories from Olaus Magnus of Livonian Were-wolves—Story from Bishop
+Majolus—Story of Albertus Pericofcius—Similar occurrence at
+Prague—Saint Patrick—Strange incident related by John of
+Nüremberg—Bisclaveret—Courland Were-wolves—Pierre Vidal—Pavian
+Lycanthropist—Bodin’s Stories—Forestus’ Account of a
+Lycanthropist—Neapolitan Were-wolf
+
+CHAPTER VI. A CHAPTER OF HORRORS
+
+Pierre Bourgot and Michel Verdung—’Me Hermit of S. Bonnot—The Gandillon
+Family—Thievenne Paget—The Tailor of Châlons—Roulet
+
+Chapter VII. JEAN GRENIER
+
+On the Sand-dunes—A Wolf attacks Marguerite Poirier—Jean Grenier
+brought to Trial—His Confessions—Charges of Cannibalism proved—His
+Sentence—Behaviour in the Monastery—Visit of Del’ancre
+
+CHAPTER VIII. FOLK-LORE RELATING TO WERE-WOLVES
+
+Barrenness of English Folk-lore—Devonshire Traditions—Derivation of
+Were-wolf—Cannibalism in Scotland—The Angus Robber—The Carle of
+Perth—French Superstitions—Norwegian Traditions—Danish Tales of
+Were-wolves—Holstein Stories—The Werewolf in the Netherlands—Among the
+Greeks; the Serbs; the White Russians; the Poles; the Russians—A
+Russian Receipt for becoming a Were-wolf—The Bohemian Vlkodlak—Armenian
+Story—Indian Tales—Abyssinian Budas—American Transformation Tales—A
+Slovakian Household Tale—Similar Greek, Béarnais, and Icelandic Tales
+
+CHAPTER IX. NATURAL CAUSES OF LYCANTHROPY
+
+Innate Cruelty—Its Three Forms—Dumollard—Andreas Bichel—A Dutch
+Priest—Other instances of Inherent Cruelty—Cruelty united to
+Refinement—A Hungarian Bather in Blood—Suddenness with which the
+Passion is developed—Cannibalism; in pregnant Women; in
+Maniacs—Hallucination; how Produced—Salves—The Story of
+Lucius—Self-deception
+
+CHAPTER X. MYTHOLOGICAL ORIGIN OF THE WERE-WOLF MYTH
+
+Metempsychosis—Sympathy between Men and Beasts—Finnbog and the
+Bear—Osage and the Beaver—The Connexion of Soul and Body—Buddism—Case
+of Mr. Holloway—Popular ideas concerning the Body—The derivation of the
+German Leichnam—Feather Dresses—Transmigration of Souls—A Basque
+Story—Story from the Pantschatantra—Savage ideas regarding Natural
+Phenomena—Thunder, Lightning, and Cloud—The origin of the Dragon—John
+of Bromton’s Dragon a Waterspout—The Legend of Typhoeus—Allegorizing of
+the Effects of a Hurricane—Anthropomorphosis—The Cirrus Cloud, a
+Heavenly Swan—Urvaci—The Storm-cloud a Daemon—Vritra and
+Rakschasas—Story of a Brahmin and a Rakschasas
+
+CHAPTER XI. THE MARÉCHAL DE REZT I: THE INVESTIGATION OF CHARGES
+
+Introduction—History of Gilles de Laval—The Castle of
+Machecoul—Surrender of the Marshal—Examination of Witnesses—Letter of
+De Retz—The Duke of Brittany reluctant to move—The Bishop of Nantes
+
+CHAPTER XII. THE MARÉCHAL DE REZT II: THE TRIAL
+
+The Appearance of the Marshal—Pierre de l’Hospital—The Requisition—The
+Trial adjourned—Meeting of the Marshal and his Servants—The Confession
+of Henriet—Pontou persuaded to confess all—The adjourned Trial not
+hurried on—The hesitation of the Duke of Brittany
+
+CHAPTER XIII. MARÉCHAL DE RETZ III: THE SENTENCE AND EXECUTION
+
+The adjourned Trial—The Marshal Confesses—The Case handed over to the
+Ecclesiastical Tribunal—Prompt steps taken by the Bishop—The
+Sentence—Ratified by the Secular Court—The Execution
+
+CHAPTER XIV. A GALICIAN WERE-WOLF
+
+The Inhabitants of Austrian Galicia—The Hamlet of Polomyja—Summer
+Evening in the Forest—The Beggar Swiatek—A Girl disappears—A School-boy
+vanishes—A Servant-girl lost—Another Boy carried of—The Discovery made
+by the Publican of Polomyja—Swiatek locked up—Brought to Dabkow—Commits
+suicide
+
+Chapter XV. ANOMALOUS CASE—THE HUMAN HYENA
+
+Ghouls—Story from Fornari—Quotation from Apuleius—Incident mentioned by
+Marcassus—Cemeteries of Paris violated—Discovery of Violator—Confession
+of M. Bertrand
+
+CHAPTER XVI. A SERMON ON WERE-WOLVES
+
+The Discourses of Dr. Johann—The Sermon—Remarks
+
+
+
+
+THE BOOK OF WERE-WOLVES.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+INTRODUCTORY.
+
+
+I shall never forget the walk I took one night in Vienne, after having
+accomplished the examination of an unknown Druidical relic, the Pierre
+labie, at La Rondelle, near Champigni. I had learned of the existence
+of this cromlech only on my arrival at Champigni in the afternoon, and
+I had started to visit the curiosity without calculating the time it
+would take me to reach it and to return. Suffice it to say that I
+discovered the venerable pile of grey stones as the sun set, and that I
+expended the last lights of evening in planning and sketching. I then
+turned my face homeward. My walk of about ten miles had wearied me,
+coming at the end of a long day’s posting, and I had lamed myself in
+scrambling over some stones to the Gaulish relic.
+
+A small hamlet was at no great distance, and I betook myself thither,
+in the hopes of hiring a trap to convey me to the posthouse, but I was
+disappointed. Few in the place could speak French, and the priest, when
+I applied to him, assured me that he believed there was no better
+conveyance in the place than a common charrue with its solid wooden
+wheels; nor was a riding horse to be procured. The good man offered to
+house me for the night; but I was obliged to decline, as my family
+intended starting early on the following morning.
+
+Out spake then the mayor—“Monsieur can never go back to-night across
+the flats, because of the—the—” and his voice dropped; “the
+loups-garoux.”
+
+“He says that he must return!” replied the priest in patois. “But who
+will go with him?”
+
+“Ah, ha,! M. le Curé. It is all very well for one of us to accompany
+him, but think of the coming back alone!”
+
+“Then two must go with him,” said the priest, and you can take care of
+each other as you return.”
+
+“Picou tells me that he saw the were-wolf only this day se’nnight,”
+said a peasant; “he was down by the hedge of his buckwheat field, and
+the sun had set, and he was thinking of coming home, when he heard a
+rustle on the far side of the hedge. He looked over, and there stood
+the wolf as big as a calf against the horizon, its tongue out, and its
+eyes glaring like marsh-fires. Mon Dieu! catch me going over the marais
+to-night. Why, what could two men do if they were attacked by that
+wolf-fiend?”
+
+“It is tempting Providence,” said one of the elders of the village;” no
+man must expect the help of God if he throws himself wilfully in the
+way of danger. Is it not so, M. le Curé? I heard you say as much from
+the pulpit on the first Sunday in Lent, preaching from the Gospel.”
+
+“That is true,” observed several, shaking their heads.
+
+“His tongue hanging out, and his eyes glaring like marsh-fires!” said
+the confidant of Picou.
+
+“Mon Dieu! if I met the monster, I should run,” quoth another.
+
+“I quite believe you, Cortrez; I can answer for it that you would,”
+said the mayor.
+
+“As big as a calf,” threw in Picou’s friend.
+
+“If the loup-garou were _only_ a natural wolf, why then, you see”—the
+mayor cleared his throat—“you see we should think nothing of it; but,
+M. le Curé, it is a fiend, a worse than fiend, a man-fiend,—a worse
+than man-fiend, a man-wolf-fiend.”
+
+“But what is the young monsieur to do?” asked the priest, looking from
+one to another.
+
+“Never mind,” said I, who had been quietly listening to their patois,
+which I understood. “Never mind; I will walk back by myself, and if I
+meet the loup-garou I will crop his ears and tail, and send them to M.
+le Maire with my compliments.”
+
+A sigh of relief from the assembly, as they found themselves clear of
+the difficulty.
+
+“Il est Anglais,” said the mayor, shaking his head, as though he meant
+that an Englishman might face the devil with impunity.
+
+A melancholy flat was the marais, looking desolate enough by day, but
+now, in the gloaming, tenfold as desolate. The sky was perfectly clear,
+and of a soft, blue-grey tinge; illumined by the new moon, a curve of
+light approaching its western bed. To the horizon reached a fen,
+blacked with pools of stagnant water, from which the frogs kept up an
+incessant trill through the summer night. Heath and fern covered the
+ground, but near the water grew dense masses of flag and bulrush,
+amongst which the light wind sighed wearily. Here and there stood a
+sandy knoll, capped with firs, looking like black splashes against the
+grey sky; not a sign of habitation anywhere; the only trace of men
+being the white, straight road extending for miles across the fen.
+
+That this district harboured wolves is not improbable, and I confess
+that I armed myself with a strong stick at the first clump of trees
+through which the road dived.
+
+This was my first introduction to were-wolves, and the circumstance of
+finding the superstition still so prevalent, first gave me the idea of
+investigating the history and the habits of these mythical creatures.
+
+I must acknowledge that I have been quite unsuccessful in obtaining a
+specimen of the animal, but I have found its traces in all directions.
+And just as the palæontologist has constructed the labyrinthodon out of
+its foot-prints in marl, and one splinter of bone, so may this
+monograph be complete and accurate, although I have no chained
+were-wolf before me which I may sketch and describe from the life.
+
+The traces left are indeed numerous enough, and though perhaps like the
+dodo or the dinormis, the werewolf may have become extinct in our age,
+yet he has left his stamp on classic antiquity, he has trodden deep in
+Northern snows. has ridden rough-shod over the mediævals, and has
+howled amongst Oriental sepulchres. He belonged to a bad breed, and we
+are quite content to be freed from him and his kindred, the vampire and
+the ghoul. Yet who knows! We may be a little too hasty in concluding
+that he is extinct. He may still prowl in Abyssinian forests, range
+still over Asiatic steppes, and be found howling dismally in some
+padded room of a Hanwell or a Bedlam.
+
+In the following pages I design to investigate the notices of
+were-wolves to be found in the ancient writers of classic antiquity,
+those contained in the Northern Sagas, and, lastly, the numerous
+details afforded by the mediæval authors. In connection with this I
+shall give a sketch of modern folklore relating to Lycanthropy.
+
+It will then be seen that under the veil of mythology lies a solid
+reality, that a floating superstition holds in solution a positive
+truth.
+
+This I shall show to be an innate craving for blood implanted in
+certain natures, restrained under ordinary circumstances, but breaking
+forth occasionally, accompanied with hallucination, leading in most
+cases to cannibalism. I shall then give instances of persons thus
+afflicted, who were believed by others, and who believed themselves, to
+be transformed into beasts, and who, in the paroxysms of their madness,
+committed numerous murders, and devoured their victims.
+
+I shall next give instances of persons suffering from the same passion
+for blood, who murdered for the mere gratification of their natural
+cruelty, but who were not subject to hallucinations, nor were addicted
+to cannibalism.
+
+I shall also give instances of persons filled with the same
+propensities who murdered and ate their victims, but who were perfectly
+free from hallucination.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+LYCANTHROPY AMONG THE ANCIENTS.
+
+
+Definition of Lycanthropy—Marcellus
+Sidetes—Virgil—Herodotus—Ovid—Pliny—Agriopas—Story from
+Petronius—Arcadian Legends—Explanation offered.
+
+
+What is Lycanthropy? The change of manor woman into the form of a wolf,
+either through magical means, so as to enable him or her to gratify the
+taste for human flesh, or through judgment of the gods in punishment
+for some great offence.
+
+This is the popular definition. Truly it consists in a form of madness,
+such as may be found in most asylums.
+
+Among the ancients this kind of insanity went by the names of
+Lycanthropy, Kuanthropy, or Boanthropy, because those afflicted with it
+believed themselves to be turned into wolves, dogs, or cows. But in the
+North of Europe, as we shall see, the shape of a bear, and in
+
+Africa that of a hyæna, were often selected in preference. A mere
+matter of taste! According to Marcellus Sidetes, of whose poem {Greek
+_perì lukanðrw’pou_} a fragment exists, men are attacked with this
+madness chiefly in the beginning of the year, and become most furious
+in February; retiring for the night to lone cemeteries, and living
+precisely in the manner of dogs and wolves.
+
+Virgil writes in his eighth Eclogue:—
+
+Has herbas, atque hæc Ponto mihi lecta venena
+Ipse dedit Mœris; nascuntur plurima Ponto.
+His ego sæpe lupum fieri et se conducere sylvis
+Mœrim, sæpe animas imis excire sepulchris,
+Atque satas alio, vidi traducere messes.
+
+
+And Herodotus:—“It seems that the Neuri are sorcerers, if one is to
+believe the Scythians and the Greeks established in Scythia; for each
+Neurian changes himself, once in the year, into the form of a wolf, and
+he continues in that form for several days, after which he resumes his
+former shape.”—(Lib. iv. c. 105.)
+
+See also Pomponius Mela (lib. ii. c. 1) “There is a fixed time for each
+Neurian, at which they change, if they like, into wolves, and back
+again into their former condition.”
+
+But the most remarkable story among the ancients is that related by
+Ovid in his “Metamorphoses,” of Lycaon, king of Arcadia, who,
+entertaining Jupiter one day, set before him a hash of human flesh, to
+prove his omniscience, whereupon the god transferred him into a
+wolf:—[1]
+
+ [1] OVID. Met. i. 237; PAUSANIAS, viii. 2, § 1; TZETZE _ad Lycoph._
+ 481; ERATOSTH. _Catas._ i. 8.
+
+
+In vain he attempted to speak; from that very instant
+His jaws were bespluttered with foam, and only he thirsted
+For blood, as he raged amongst flocks and panted for slaughter.
+His vesture was changed into hair, his limbs became crooked;
+A wolf,—he retains yet large trace of his ancient expression,
+Hoary he is as afore, his countenance rabid,
+His eyes glitter savagely still, the picture of fury.
+
+
+Pliny relates from Evanthes, that on the festival of Jupiter Lycæus,
+one of the family of Antæus was selected by lot, and conducted to the
+brink of the Arcadian lake. He then hung his clothes on a tree and
+plunged into the water, whereupon he was transformed into a wolf. Nine
+years after, if he had not tasted human flesh, he was at liberty to
+swim back and resume his former shape, which had in the meantime become
+aged, as though he had worn it for nine years.
+
+Agriopas relates, that Demænetus, having assisted at an Arcadian human
+sacrifice to Jupiter Lycæus, ate of the flesh, and was at once
+transformed into a wolf, in which shape he prowled about for ten years,
+after which he recovered his human form, and took part in the Olympic
+games.
+
+The following story is from Petronius:—
+
+“My master had gone to Capua to sell some old clothes. I seized the
+opportunity, and persuaded our guest to bear me company about five
+miles out of town; for he was a soldier, and as bold as death. We set
+out about cockcrow, and the moon shone bright as day, when, coming
+among some monuments. my man began to converse with the stars, whilst I
+jogged along singing and counting them. Presently I looked back after
+him, and saw him strip and lay his clothes by the side of the road. My
+heart was in my mouth in an instant, I stood like a corpse; when, in a
+crack, he was turned into a wolf. Don’t think I’m joking: I would not
+tell you a lie for the finest fortune in the world.
+
+“But to continue: after he was turned into a wolf, he set up a howl and
+made straight for the woods. At first I did not know whether I was on
+my head or my heels; but at last going to take up his clothes, I found
+them turned into stone. The sweat streamed from me, and I never
+expected to get over it. Melissa began to wonder why I walked so late.
+‘Had you come a little sooner,’ she said, ‘you might at least have lent
+us a hand; for a wolf broke into the farm and has butchered all our
+cattle; but though be got off, it was no laughing matter for him, for a
+servant of ours ran him through with a pike. Hearing this I could not
+close an eye; but as soon as it was daylight, I ran home like a pedlar
+that has been eased of his pack. Coming to the place where the clothes
+had been turned into stone, I saw nothing but a pool of blood; and when
+I got home, I found my soldier lying in bed, like an ox in a stall, and
+a surgeon dressing his neck. I saw at once that he was a fellow who
+could change his skin (_versipellis_), and never after could I eat
+bread with him, no, not if you would have killed me. Those who would
+have taken a different view of the case are welcome to their opinion;
+if I tell you a lie, may your genii confound me!”
+
+As every one knows, Jupiter changed himself into a bull; Hecuba became
+a bitch; Actæon a stag; the comrades of Ulysses were transformed into
+swine; and the daughters of Prœtus fled through the fields believing
+themselves to be cows, and would not allow any one to come near them,
+lest they should be caught and yoked.
+
+S. Augustine declared, in his _De Civitate Dei_, that he knew an old
+woman who was said to turn men into asses by her enchantments.
+
+Apuleius has left us his charming romance of the _Golden Ass_, in which
+the hero, through injudicious use of a magical salve, is transformed
+into that long-eared animal.
+
+It is to be observed that the chief seat of Lycanthropy was Arcadia,
+and it has been very plausibly suggested that the cause might he traced
+to the following circumstance:—The natives were a pastoral people, and
+would consequently suffer very severely from the attacks and
+depredations of wolves. They would naturally institute a sacrifice to
+obtain deliverance from this pest, and security for their flocks. This
+sacrifice consisted in the offering of a child, and it was instituted
+by Lycaon. From the circumstance of the sacrifice being human, and from
+the peculiarity of the name of its originator, rose the myth.
+
+But, on the other hand, the story is far too widely spread for us to
+attribute it to an accidental origin, or to trace it to a local source.
+
+Half the world believes, or believed in, were-wolves, and they were
+supposed to haunt the Norwegian forests by those who had never remotely
+been connected with Arcadia: and the superstition had probably struck
+deep its roots into the Scandinavian and Teutonic minds, ages before
+Lycaon existed; and we have only to glance at Oriental literature, to
+see it as firmly engrafted in the imagination of the Easterns.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+THE WERE-WOLF IN THE NORTH.
+
+
+Norse Traditions - Manner in which the Change was effected - Vœlundar
+Kvœda - Instances from the Völsung Saga - Hrolf’s Saga - Kraka -
+Faroëse Poem - Helga Kvida - Vatnsdæla Saga - Eyrbyggja Saga
+
+
+In Norway and Iceland certain men were said to be _eigi einhamir_, not
+of one skin, an idea which had its roots in paganism. The full form of
+this strange superstition was, that men could take upon them other
+bodies, and the natures of those beings whose bodies they assumed. The
+second adopted shape was called by the same name as the original shape,
+_hamr_, and the expression made use of to designate the transition from
+one body to another, was at _skipta hömum_, or _at hamaz_; whilst the
+expedition made in the second form, was the hamför. By this
+transfiguration extraordinary powers were acquired; the natural
+strength of the individual was doubled, or quadrupled; he acquired the
+strength of the beast in whose body he travelled, in addition to his
+own, and a man thus invigorated was called _hamrammr_.
+
+The manner in which the change was effected, varied. At times, a dress
+of skin was cast over the body, and at once the transformation was
+complete; at others, the human body was deserted, and the soul entered
+the second form, leaving the first body in a cataleptic state, to all
+appearance dead. The second hamr was either borrowed or created for the
+purpose. There was yet a third manner of producing this effect-it was
+by incantation; but then the form of the individual remained unaltered,
+though the eyes of all beholders were charmed so that they could only
+perceive him under the selected form.
+
+Having assumed some bestial shape, the man who is _eigi einhammr_ is
+only to be recognized by his eyes, which by no power can be changed. He
+then pursues his course, follows the instincts of the beast whose body
+he has taken, yet without quenching his own intelligence. He is able to
+do what the body of the animal can do, and do what he, as man, can do
+as well. He may fly or swim, if be is in the shape of bird or fish; if
+he has taken the form of a wolf, or if he goes on a _gandreið_, or
+wolf’s-ride, he is fall of the rage and malignity of the creatures
+whose powers and passions he has assumed.
+
+I will give a few instances of each of the three methods of changing
+bodies mentioned above. Freyja and Frigg had their falcon dresses in
+which they visited different regions of the earth, and Loki is said to
+have borrowed these, and to have then appeared so precisely like a
+falcon, that he would have escaped detection, but for the malicious
+twinkle of his eyes. In the Vælundar kviða is the following passage:—
+
+I.                            I.
+Meyjar flugu sunnan  From the south flew the maidens
+Myrkvið igögnum      Athwart the gloom,
+Alvitr unga          Alvit the young,
+Orlög drýgja;        To fix destinies;
+þær á savarströnd    They on the sea-strand
+Settusk at hvilask,  Sat them to rest,
+Dró sir suðrœnar     These damsels of the south
+Dýrt lín spunnu.     Fair linen spun.
+
+II.                           II.
+Ein nam þeirra       One of them took
+Egil at verja        Egil to press,
+Fögr mær fíra        Fair maid, in her
+Faðmi ljósum;        Dazzling arms.
+Önnur var Svanhvít,  Another was Svanhwit,
+Svanfjaðrar dró      Who wore swan feathers;
+En in þriðja         And the third,
+þeirra systir        Their sister,
+Var i hvítan         Pressed the white
+Háls Völundar.       Neck of Vœlund.
+
+The introduction of Sœmund tells us that these charming young ladies
+were caught when they had laid their swan-skins beside them on the
+shore, and were consequently not in a condition to fly.
+
+In like manner were wolves’ dresses used. The following curious passage
+is from the wild Saga of the Völsungs:—
+
+“It is now to be told that Sigmund thought Sinfjötli too young to help
+him in his revenge, and he wished first to test his powers; so during
+the summer they plunged deep into the wood and slew men for their
+goods, and Sigmund saw that he was quite of the Völsung stock. . . .
+Now it fell out that as they went through the forest, collecting
+monies, that they lighted on a house in which were two men sleeping,
+with great gold rings an them; they had dealings with witchcraft, for
+wolf-skins hung up in the house above them; it was the tenth day on
+which they might come out of their second state. They were kings’ sons.
+Sigmund and Sinfjötli got into the habits, and could not get out of
+them again, and the nature of the original beasts came over them, and
+they howled as wolves—they learned “both of them to howl. Now they went
+into the forest, and each took his own course; they made the agreement
+together that they should try their strength against as many as seven
+men, but not more, and. that he who was ware of strife should utter his
+wolf’s howl.
+
+“‘Do not fail in this,’ said Sigmund, ‘for you are young and daring,
+and men would be glad to chase you.’ Now each went his own course; and
+after that they had parted Sigmund found men, so he howled; and when
+Sinfjötli heard that, he ran up and slew them all-then they separated.
+And Sinfjötli had not been long in the wood before he met with. eleven
+men; he fell upon them and slew them every one. Then he was tired, so
+he flung himself under an oak to rest. Up came Sigmund and said, ‘Why
+did you not call out?’ Sinfjötli replied, ‘What was the need of asking
+your help to kill eleven men?’
+
+“Sigmund flew at him and rent him so that he fell, for he had bitten
+through his throat. That day they could not leave their wolf-forms.
+Sigmund laid him on his back and bare him home to the hall, and sat
+beside him, and said, ‘Deuce take the wolf-forms!”’—Völsung Saga, c. 8.
+
+There is another curious story of a were-wolf in the same Saga, which I
+must relate.
+
+“Now he did as she requested, and hewed down a great piece of timber,
+and cast it across the feet of those ten brothers seated in a row, in
+the forest; and there they sat all that day and on till night. And at
+midnight there came an old she-wolf out of the forest to them, as they
+sat in the stocks, and she was both huge and grimly. Now she fell upon
+one of them, and bit him to death, and after she had eaten him all up,
+she went away. And next morning Signy sent a trusty man to her
+brothers, to know how it had fared with them. When he returned he told
+her of the death of one, and that grieved her much, for she feared it
+might fare thus with them all, and she would be unable to assist them.
+
+“In short, nine nights following came the same she-wolf at midnight,
+and devoured them one after another till all were dead, except Sigmund,
+and he was left alone. So when the tenth night came, Signy sent her
+trusty man to Sigmund, her brother, with honey in his hand, and said
+that he was to smear it over the face of Sigmund, and to fill his mouth
+with it. Now he went to Sigmund, and did as he was bid, after which he
+returned home. And during the night came the same she-wolf, as was her
+wont, and reckoned to devour him, like his brothers.
+
+“Now she snuffed at him, where the honey was smeared, and began to lick
+his face with her tongue, and presently thrust her tongue into his
+mouth. He bore it ill, and bit into the tongue of the she-wolf; she
+sprang up and tried to break loose, setting her feet against the stock,
+so as to snap it asunder: but he held firm, and ripped the tongue out
+by the roots, so that it was the death of the wolf. It is the opinion
+of some men that this beast was the mother of King Siggeir, and that
+she had taken this form upon her through devilry and witchcraft.”—(c.
+5.)
+
+There is another story bearing on the subject in the Hrolfs Saga Kraka,
+which is pretty; it is as follows:—
+
+“In the north of Norway, in upland-dales, reigned a king called Hring;
+and he had a son named Björn. Now it fell out that the queen died, much
+lamented by the king, and by all. The people advised him to marry
+again, and so be sent men south to get him a wife. A gale and fierce
+storm fell upon them, so that they had to turn the helm, and run before
+the wind, and so they came north to Finnmark, where they spent the
+winter. One day they went inland, and came to a house in which sat two
+beautiful women, who greeted them well, and inquired whence they had
+come. They replied by giving an account of their journey and their
+errand, and then asked the women who they were, and why they were
+alone, and far from the haunts of men, although they were so comely and
+engaging. The elder replied—that her name was Ingibjorg, and that her
+daughter was called Hvit, and that she was the Finn king’s sweetheart.
+The messengers decided that they would return home, if Hvit would come
+with them and marry King Hring. She agreed, and they took her with them
+and met the king who was pleased with her, and had his wedding feast
+made, and said that he cared not though she was not rich. But the king
+was very old, and that the queen soon found out.
+
+“There was a Carle who had a farm not far from the king’s dwelling; he
+had a wife, and a daughter, who was but a child, and her name was Bera;
+she was very young and lovely. Björn the king’s son, and Bera the
+Carle’s daughter, were wont, as children, to play together, and they
+loved each other well. The Carle was well to do, he had been out
+harrying in his young days, and he was a doughty champion. Björn and
+Bera loved each other more and more, and they were often together.
+
+Time passed, and nothing worth relating occurred; but Björn, the king’s
+son, waxed strong and tall; and he was well skilled in all manly
+exercises.
+
+“King Hring was often absent for long, harrying foreign shores, and
+Hvit remained at home and governed the land. She was not liked of the
+people. She was always very pleasant with Björn, but he cared little
+for her. It fell out once that the King Hring went abroad, and he spake
+with his queen that Björn should remain at home with her, to assist in
+the government, for he thought it advisable, the queen being haughty
+and inflated with pride.
+
+“The king told his son Björn that he was to remain at home, and rule
+the land with the queen; Björn replied that he disliked the plan, and
+that he had no love for the queen; but the king was inflexible, and
+left the land with a great following. Björn walked home after his
+conversation with the king, and went up to his place, ill-pleased and
+red as blood. The queen came to speak with him, and to cheer him; and
+spake friendly with him, but he bade her be of. She obeyed him that
+time. She often came to talk with him, and said how much pleasanter it
+was for them to be together, than to have an old fellow like Hring in
+the house.
+
+“Björn resented this speech, and struck her a box in the ear, and bade
+her depart, and he spurned her from him. She replied that this was
+ill-done to drive and thrust her away: and ‘You think it better, Björn,
+to sweetheart a Carle’s daughter, than to have my love and favour, a
+fine piece of condescension and a disgrace it is to you! But, before
+long, something will stand in the way of your fancy, and your folly.’
+Then she struck at him with a wolf-skin glove, and said, that he should
+become a rabid and grim wild bear; and ‘You shall eat nothing but your
+father’s sheep, which you shall slay for your food, and never shall you
+leave this state.’
+
+After that, Björn disappeared, and none knew what had become of him;
+and men sought but found him not, as was to be expected. We must now
+relate how that the king’s sheep were slaughtered, half a score at a
+time, and it was all the work of a grey bear, both huge and grimly.
+
+“One evening it chanced that the Carle’s daughter saw this savage bear
+coming towards her, looking tenderly at her, and she fancied that she
+recognized the eyes of Björn, the king’s son, so she made a slight
+attempt to escape; then the beast retreated, but she followed it, till
+she came to a cave. Now when she entered the cave there stood before
+her a man, who greeted Bera, the Carle’s daughter; and she recognized
+him, for he was Björn, Hring’s son. Overjoyed were they to meet. So
+they were together in the cave awhile, for she would not part from him
+when she had the chance of being with him; but he said that this was
+not proper that she should be there by him, for by day he was a beast,
+and by night a man.
+
+“Hring returned from his harrying, and he was told the news, of what
+had taken place during his absence; how that Björn, his son, had
+vanished, and also, how that a monstrous beast was up the country, and
+was destroying his flocks. The queen urged the king to have the beast
+slain, but he delayed awhile.
+
+“One night, as Bera and Björn were together, he said to her:—‘Methinks
+to-morrow will be the day of my death, for they will come out to hunt
+me down. But for myself I care not, for it is little pleasure to live
+with this charm upon me, and my only comfort is that we are together;
+but now our union must be broken. I will give you the ring which is
+under my left hand. You will see the troop of hunters to-morrow coming
+to seek me; and when I am dead go to the king, and ask him to give you
+what is under the beast’s left front leg. He will consent.’
+
+“He spoke to her of many other things, till the bear’s form stole over
+him, and he went forth a bear. She followed him, and saw that a great
+body of hunters had come over the mountain ridges, and had a number of
+dogs with them. The bear rushed away from the cavern, but the dogs and
+the king’s men came upon him, and there was a desperate struggle. He
+wearied many men before he was brought to bay, and had slain all the
+dogs. But now they made a ring about him, and he ranged around it., but
+could see no means of escape, so he turned to where the king stood, and
+he seized a man who stood next him, and rent him asunder; then was the
+bear so exhausted that he cast himself down flat, and, at once, the men
+rushed in upon him and slew him. The Carle’s daughter saw this, and she
+went up to the king, and said,—‘Sire! wilt thou grant me that which is
+under the bear’s left fore-shoulder?’ The king consented. By this time
+his men had nearly flayed the bear; Bera went up and plucked away the
+ring, and kept it, but none saw what she took, nor had they looked for
+anything. The king asked her who she was, and she gave a name, but not
+her true name.
+
+“The king now went home, and Bera was in his company. The queen was
+very joyous, and treated her well, and asked who she was; but Bera
+answered as before.
+
+“The queen now made a great feast, and had the bear’s flesh cooked for
+the banquet. The Carle’s daughter was in the bower of the queen, and
+could not escape, for the queen had a suspicion who she was. Then she
+came to Bera with a dish, quite unexpectedly, and on it was bear’s
+flesh, and she bade Bera eat it. She would not do so. ‘Here is a
+marvel!’ said the queen; ‘you reject the offer which a queen herself
+deigns to make to you. Take it at once, or something worse will befall
+you.’ She bit before her, and she ate of that bite; the queen cut
+another piece, and looked into her mouth; she saw that one little grain
+of the bite had gone down, but Bera spat out all the rest from her
+mouth, and said she would take no more, though she were tortured or
+killed.
+
+“‘Maybe you have had sufficient,’ said the queen, and she
+laughed.”—(Hrolfs Saga Kraka, c. 24-27, condensed.)
+
+In the Faroëse song of Finnur hin friði, we have the following verse:—
+
+Hegar íð Finnur hetta sær,     When this peril Finn saw,
+Mannspell var at meini,        That witchcraft did him harm,
+Skapti hann seg í varglíki:    Then he changed himself into a were-wolf:
+Hann feldi allvæl fleiri.      He slew many thus.
+
+The following is from the second Kviða of Helga Hundingsbana (stroph.
+31):—
+
+May the blade bite,
+Which thou brandishest
+Only on thyself,
+when it Chimes on thy head.
+Then avenged will be
+The death of Helgi,
+When thou, as a wolf,
+Wanderest in the woods,
+Knowing nor fortune
+Nor any pleasure,
+Haying no meat,
+Save rivings of corpses.
+
+
+In all these cases the change is of the form: we shall now come to
+instances in which the person who is changed has a double shape, and
+the soul animates one after the other.
+
+The Ynglinga Saga (c. 7) says of Odin, that “he changed form; the
+bodies lay as though sleeping or dead, but he was a bird or a beast, a
+fish, or a woman, and went in a twinkling to far distant lands, doing
+his own or other people’s business.” In like manner the Danish king
+Harold sent a warlock to Iceland in the form of a whale, whilst his
+body lay stiff and stark at home. The already quoted Saga of Hrolf
+Krake gives us another example, where Bödvar Bjarki, in the shape of a
+huge bear, fights desperately with the enemy, which has surrounded the
+hall of his king, whilst his human body lies drunkenly beside the
+embers within.
+
+In the Vatnsdæla Saga, there is a curious account of three Finns, who
+were shut up in a hut for three nights, and ordered by Ingimund, a
+Norwegian chief, to visit Iceland and inform him of the lie of the
+country, where he was to settle. Their bodies became rigid, and they
+sent their souls the errand, and, on their awaking at the end of three
+days, gave an accurate description of the Vatnsdal, in which Ingimund
+was eventually to establish himself. But the Saga does not relate
+whether these Finns projected their souls into the bodies of birds or
+beasts.
+
+The third manner of transformation mentioned, was that in which the
+individual was not changed himself, but the eyes of others were
+bewitched, so that they could not detect him, but saw him only under a
+certain form. Of this there are several examples in the Sagas; as, for
+instance, in the Hromundar Saga Greypsonar, and in the Fostbræðra Saga.
+But I will translate the most curious, which is that of Odd, Katla’s
+son, in the Eyrbyggja Saga.—(c. 20.)
+
+“Geirrid, housewife in Mafvahlið, sent word into Bolstad, that she was
+ware of the fact that Odd, Katla’s son, had hewn off Aud’s hand.
+
+“Now when Thorarinn and Arnkell heard that, they rode from home with
+twelve men. They spent the night in Mafvahlið, and rode on next morning
+to Holt: and Odd was the only man in the house.
+
+“Katla sat on the high seat spinning yarn, and she bade Odd sit beside
+her; also, she bade her women sit each in her place, and hold their
+tongues. ‘For,’ said she, ‘I shall do all the talking.’ Now when
+Arnkell and his company arrived, they walked straight in, and when they
+came into the chamber, Katla greeted Arnkell, and asked the news. He
+replied that there was none, and he inquired after Odd. Katla said that
+he had gone to Breidavik. ‘We shall ransack the house though,’ quoth
+Arnkell. ‘Be it so,’ replied Katla, and she ordered a girl to carry a
+light before them, and unlock the different parts of the house. All
+they saw was Katla spinning yarn off her distaff. Now they search the
+house, but find no Odd, so they depart. But when they had gone a little
+way from the garth, Arnkell stood still and said: ‘How know we but that
+Katla has hoodwinked us, and that the distaff in her hand was nothing
+more than Odd.’ ‘Not impossible!’ said Thorarinn; ‘let us turn back.’
+They did so; and when those at Holt raw that they were returning, Katla
+said to her maids, ‘Sit still in your places, Odd and I shall go out.’
+
+“Now as they approached the door, she went into the porch, and began to
+comb and clip the hair of her son Odd. Arnkell came to the door and saw
+where Katla was, and she seemed to be stroking her goat, and
+disentangling its mane and beard and smoothing its wool. So he and his
+men went into the house, but found not Odd. Katla’s distaff lay against
+the bench, so they thought that it could not have been Odd, and they
+went away. However, when they had come near the spot where they had
+turned before, Arnkell said, ‘Think you not that Odd may have been in
+the goat’s form?’ ‘There is no saying,’ replied Thorarinn; ‘but if we
+turn back we will lay hands on Katla.’ ‘We can try our luck again,’
+quoth Arnkell; ‘and see what comes of it.’ So they returned.
+
+“Now when they were seen on their way back, Katla bade Odd follow her;
+and she lea him to the ash-heap, and told him to lie there and not to
+stir on any account. But when Arnkell, and his men came to the farm,
+they rushed into the chamber, and saw Katla seated in her place,
+spinning. She greeted them and said that their visits followed with
+rapidity. Arnkell replied that what she said was true. His comrades
+took the distaff and cut it in twain. ‘Come now!’ said Katla, ‘you
+cannot say, when you get home, that you have done nothing, for you have
+chopped up my distaff.’ Then Arnkell and the rest hunted high and low
+for Odd, but could not find him; indeed they saw nothing living about
+the place, beside a boar-pig which lay under the ash-heap, so they went
+away once more.
+
+“Well, when they got half-way to Mafvahlið, came Geirrid to meet them,
+with her workmen. ‘They had not gone the right way to work in seeking
+Odd,’ she said, ‘but she would help them.’ So they turned back again.
+Geirrid had a blue cloak on her. Now when the party was seen and
+reported to Katla, and it was said that they were thirteen in number,
+and one had on a coloured dress, Katla exclaimed, ‘That troll Geirrid
+is come! I shall not be able to throw a glamour over their eyes any
+more.’ She started up from her place and lifted the cushion of the
+seat, and there was a hole and a cavity beneath: into this she thrust
+Odd, clapped the cushion over him, and sat down, saying she felt sick
+at heart.
+
+“Now when they came into the room, there were small greetings. Geirrid
+cast of her the cloak and went up to Katla, and took the seal-skin bag
+which she had in her hand, and drew it over the head of Katla.[1] Then
+Geirrid bade them break up the seat. They did so, and found Odd. Him
+they took and carried to Buland’s head, where they hanged him. . . .
+But Katla they stoned to death under the headland.”
+
+ [1] A precaution against the “evil eye.” Compare _Gisla Saga
+ Surssonnar_, p. 34. _Laxdæla Saga_, cc. 37, 38.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+THE ORIGIN OF THE SCANDINAVIAN WERE-WOLF.
+
+
+Advantage of the Study of Norse Literature—Bear and Wolf-skin
+Dresses—The Berserkir—Their Rage—The Story of Thorir—Passages from the
+Aigla—The Evening Wolf—Skallagrim and his Son—Derivation of the Words
+Hamr and Vargr—Laws affecting Outlaws—“To become a
+Boar”—Recapitulation.
+
+
+One Of the great advantages of the study of old Norse or Icelandic
+literature is the insight given by it into the origin of world-wide
+superstitions. Norse tradition is transparent as glacier ice, and its
+origin is as unmistakable.
+
+Mediæval mythology, rich and gorgeous, is a compound like Corinthian
+brass, into which many pure ores have been fused, or it is a full
+turbid river drawn from numerous feeders, which had their sources in
+remote climes. It is a blending of primæval Keltic, Teutonic,
+Scandinavian, Italic, and Arab traditions, each adding a beauty, each
+yielding a charm, bat each accretion rendering the analysis more
+difficult.
+
+Pacciuchelli says:—“The Anio flows into the Tiber; pure as crystal it
+meets the tawny stream, and is lost in it, so that there is no more
+Anio, but the united stream is all Tiber.” So is it with each tributary
+to the tide of mediæval mythology. The moment it has blended its waters
+with the great and onward rolling flood, it is impossible to detect it
+with certainty; it has swollen the stream, but has lost its own
+identity. If we would analyse a particular myth, we must not go at once
+to the body of mediæval superstition, but strike at one of the
+tributaries before its absorption. This we shall proceed to do, and in
+selecting Norse mythology, we come upon abundant material, pointing
+naturally to the spot whence it has been derived, as glacial moraines
+indicate the direction which they have taken, and point to the
+mountains whence they have fallen. It will not be difficult for us to
+arrive at the origin of the Northern belief in were-wolves, and the
+data thus obtained will be useful in assisting us to elucidate much
+that would otherwise prove obscure in mediæval tradition.
+
+Among the old Norse, it was the custom for certain warriors to dress in
+the skins of the beasts they had slain, and thus to give themselves an
+air of ferocity, calculated to strike terror into the hearts of their
+foes.
+
+Such dresses are mentioned in some Sagas, without there being any
+supernatural qualities attached to them. For instance, in the Njála
+there is mention of a man _i geitheðni_, in goatskin dress. Much in the
+same way do we hear of Harold Harfagr having in his company a band of
+berserkir, who were all dressed in wolf-skins, _ulfheðnir_, and this
+expression, wolf-skin coated, is met with as a man’s name. Thus in the
+Holmverja Saga, there is mention of a Björn, “son of _Ulfheðin_,
+wolfskin coat, son of _Ulfhamr_, wolf-shaped, son of _Ulf_, wolf, son
+of _Ulfhamr_, wolf-shaped, who could change forms.”
+
+But the most conclusive passage is in the Vatnsdæla Saga, and is as
+follows:—“Those berserkir who were called _ulfheðnir_, had got
+wolf-skins over their mail coats” (c. xvi.) In like manner the word
+_berserkr_, used of a man possessed of superhuman powers, and subject.
+to accesses of diabolical fury, was originally applied to one of those
+doughty champions who went about in bear-sarks, or habits made of
+bear-skin over their armour. I am well aware that Björn Halldorson’s
+derivation of berserkr, bare of sark, or destitute of clothing, has
+been hitherto generally received, but Sveibjörn Egilsson, an
+indisputable authority, rejects this derivation as untenable, and
+substitutes for it that which I have adopted.
+
+It may be well imagined that a wolf or a bear-skin would make a warm
+and comfortable great-coat to a man, whose manner of living required
+him to defy all weathers, and that the dress would not only give him an
+appearance of grimness and ferocity, likely to produce an unpleasant
+emotion in the breast of a foe, but also that the thick fur might prove
+effectual in deadening the blows rained on him in conflict.
+
+The berserkr was an object of aversion and terror to the peaceful
+inhabitants of the land, his avocation being to challenge quiet country
+farmers to single combat. As the law of the land stood in Norway, a man
+who declined to accept a challenge, forfeited all his possessions, even
+to the wife of his bosom, as a poltroon unworthy of the protection of
+the law, and every item of his property passed into the hands of his
+challenger. The berserkr accordingly had the unhappy man at his mercy.
+If he slew him, the farmer’s possessions became his, and if the poor
+fellow declined to fight, he lost all legal right to his inheritance. A
+berserkr would invite himself to any feast, and contribute his quota to
+the hilarity of the entertainment, by snapping the backbone, or
+cleaving the skull, of some merrymaker who incurred his displeasure, or
+whom he might single out to murder, for no other reason than a desire
+to keep his hand in practice.
+
+It may well be imagined that popular superstition went along with the
+popular dread of these wolf-and-bear-skinned rovers, and that they were
+believed to be endued with the force, as they certainly were with the
+ferocity, of the beasts whose skins they wore.
+
+Nor would superstition stop there, but the imagination of the trembling
+peasants would speedily invest these unscrupulous disturbers of the
+public peace with the attributes hitherto appropriated to trolls and
+jötuns.
+
+The incident mentioned in the Völsung Saga, of the sleeping men being
+found with their wolf-skins hanging to the wall above their heads, is
+divested of its improbability, if we regard these skins as worn over
+their armour, and the marvellous in the whole story is reduced to a
+minimum, when we suppose that Sigmund and Sinfjötli stole these for the
+purpose of disguising themselves, whilst they lived a life of violence
+and robbery.
+
+In a similar manner the story of the northern “Beauty and Beast,” in
+Hrolf’s Saga Kraka, is rendered less improbable, on the supposition
+that Björn was living as an outlaw among the mountain fastnesses in a
+bearskin dress, which would effectually disguise him—_all but his
+eyes_—which would gleam out of the sockets in his hideous visor,
+unmistakably human. His very name, Björn, signifies a bear; and these
+two circumstances may well have invested a kernel of historic fact with
+all the romance of fable; and if divested of these supernatural
+embellishments, the story would resolve itself into the very simple
+fact of there having been a King Hring of the Updales, who was at
+variance with his son, and whose son took to the woods, and lived a
+berserkr life, in company with his mistress, till he was captured and
+slain by his father.
+
+I think that the circumstance insisted on by the Saga-writers, of the
+eyes of the person remaining unchanged, is very significant, and points
+to the fact that the skin was merely drawn over the body as a disguise.
+
+But there was other ground for superstition to fasten on the berserkir,
+and invest them with supernatural attributes.
+
+No fact in connection with the history of the Northmen is more firmly
+established, on reliable evidence, than that of the berserkr rage being
+a species of diabolical possession. The berserkir were said to work
+themselves up into a state of frenzy, in which a demoniacal power came
+over them, impelling them to acts from which in their sober senses they
+would have recoiled. They acquired superhuman force, and were as
+invulnerable and as insensible to pain as the Jansenist convulsionists
+of S. Medard. No sword would wound them, no fire would barn them, a
+club alone could destroy them, by breaking their bones, or crushing in
+their skulls. Their eyes glared as though a flame burned in the
+sockets, they ground their teeth, and frothed at the mouth; they gnawed
+at their shield rims, and are said to have sometimes bitten them
+through, and as they rushed into conflict they yelped as dogs or howled
+as wolves.[1]
+
+ [1] Hic (Syraldus) septem filios habebat, tanto veneficiorum usu
+ callentes, ut sæpe subitis furoris viribus instincti solerent ore
+ torvum infremere, scuta morsibus attrectare, torridas fauce prunas
+ absumere, extructa quævis incendia penetrare, nec posset conceptis
+ dementiæ motus alio remedii genere quam aut vinculorum injuriis aut
+ cædis humanæ piaculo temperari. Tantam illis rabiem site sævitia
+ ingenii sive furiaram ferocitas inspirabat.—_Saxo Gramm_. VII.
+
+
+According to the unanimous testimony of the old Norse historians, the
+berserkr rage was extinguished by baptism, and as Christianity
+advanced, the number of these berserkir decreased.
+
+But it must not be supposed that this madness or possession came only
+on those persons who predisposed themselves to be attacked by it;
+others were afflicted with it, who vainly struggled against its
+influence, and who deeply lamented their own liability to be seized
+with these terrible accesses of frenzy. Such was Thorir Ingimund’s son,
+of whom it is said, in the _Vatnsdæla Saga_, that “at times there came
+over Thorir berserkr fits, and it was considered a sad misfortune to
+such a man, as they were quite beyond control.”
+
+The manner in which he was cured is remarkable; pointing as it does to
+the craving in the heathen mind for a better and more merciful creed:—
+
+“Thorgrim of Kornsá had a child by his concubine Vereydr, and, by order
+of his wife, the child was carried out to perish.
+
+“The brothers (Thorsteinn and Thorir) often met, and it was now the
+turn of Thorsteinn to visit Thorir, and Thorir accompanied him
+homeward. On their way Thorsteinn asked Thorir which he thought was the
+first among the brethren; Thorir answered that the reply was easy, for
+‘you are above us all in discretion and talent; Jökull is the best in
+all perilous adventures, but I,’ he added, ‘I am the least worth of us
+brothers, because the berserkr fits come over me, quite against my
+will, and I wish that you, my brother, with your shrewdness, would
+devise some help for me.’
+
+“Thorsteinn said,—‘I have heard that our kinsman, Thorgrim, has just
+suffered his little babe to be carried out, at the instigation of his
+wife. That is ill done. I think also that it is a grievous matter for
+you to be different in nature from other men.’
+
+“Thorir asked how he could obtain release from his affliction . . . .
+Then said Thorsteinn, ‘Now will I make a vow to Him who created the
+sun, for I ween that he is most able to take the ban of you, and I will
+undertake for His sake, in return, to rescue the babe and to bring it
+up for him, till He who created man shall take it to Himself-for this I
+reckon He will do!’ After this they left their horses and sought the
+child, and a thrall of Thorir had found it near the Marram river. They
+saw that a kerchief had been spread over its face, but it had rumpled
+it up over its nose; the little thing was all but dead, but they took
+it up and flitted it home to Thorir’s house, and he brought the lad up,
+and called him Thorkell Rumple; as for the berserkr fits, they came on
+him no more.” (c. 37)
+
+But the most remarkable passages bearing on our subject will be found
+in the _Aigla_.
+
+There was a man, Ulf (the wolf) by name, son of Bjálfi and Hallbera.
+Ulf was a man so tall and strong that the like of him was not to be
+seen in the land at that time. And when he was young he was out viking
+expeditions and harrying . . . He was a great landed proprietor. It was
+his wont to rise early, and to go about the men’s work, or to the
+smithies, and inspect all his goods and his acres; and sometimes he
+talked with those men who wanted his advice; for he was a good adviser,
+he was so clear-headed; however, every day, when it drew towards dusk,
+he became so savage that few dared exchange a word with him, for he was
+given to dozing in the afternoon.
+
+“People said that he was much given to changing form (_hamrammr_), so
+he was called the evening-wolf, _kveldúlfr_.”—(c. 1.) In this and the
+following passages, I do not consider _hamrammr_ to have its primary
+signification of actual transformation, but simply to mean subject to
+fits of diabolical possession, under the influence of which the bodily
+powers were greatly exaggerated. I shall translate pretty freely from
+this most interesting Saga, as I consider that the description given in
+it of Kveldulf in his fits greatly elucidates our subject.
+
+“Kveldulf and Skallagrim got news during summer of an expedition.
+Skallagrim. was the keenest-sighted of men, and he caught sight of the
+vessel of Hallvard and his brother, and recognized it at once. He
+followed their course and marked the haven into which they entered at
+even. Then he returned to his company, and told Kveldulf of what he had
+seen . . . . Then they busked them and got ready both their boats; in
+each they put twenty men, Kveldulf steering one and Skallagrim the
+other, and they rowed in quest of the ship. Now when they came to the
+place where it was, they lay to. Hallvard and his men had spread an
+awning over the deck, and were asleep. Now when Kveldulf and his party
+came upon them, the watchers who were seated at the end of the bridge
+sprang up and called to the people on board to wake up, for there was
+danger in the wind. So Hallvard and his men sprang to arms. Then came
+Kveldulf over the bridge and Skallagrim with him into the ship.
+Kveldulf had in his hand a cleaver, and he bade his men go through the
+vessel and hack away the awning. But he pressed on to the quarter-deck.
+It is said the were-wolf fit came over him and many of his companions.
+They slow all the men who were before them. Skallagrim did the same as
+he went round the vessel. He and his father paused not till they had
+cleared it. Now when Kveldulf came upon the quarter-deck he raised his
+cleaver, and smote Hallvard through helm and head, so that the haft was
+buried in the flesh; but he dragged it to him so violently that he
+whisked Hallvard into the air., and flung him overboard. Skallagrim
+cleared the forecastle and slew Sigtrygg. Many men flung themselves
+overboard, but Skallagrim’s men took to the boat and rowed about,
+killing all they found. Thus perished Hallvard with fifty men.
+Skallagrim and his party took the ship and all the goods which had
+belonged to Hallvard . . . and flitted it and the wares to their own
+vessel, and then exchanged ships, lading their capture, but quitting
+their own. After which they filled their old ship with stones, brake it
+up and sank it. A good breeze sprang up, and they stood out to sea.
+
+It is said of these men in the engagement who were were-wolves, or
+those on whom came the berserkr rage, that as long as the fit was on
+them no one could oppose them, they were so strong; but when it had
+passed off they were feebler than usual. It was the same with Kveldulf
+when the were-wolf fit went off him—he then felt the exhaustion
+consequent on the fight, and he was so completely ‘done up,’ that he
+was obliged to take to his bed.”
+
+In like manner Skallagrim had his fits of frenzy, taking after his
+amiable father.
+
+“Thord and his companion were opposed to Skallagrim in the game, and
+they were too much for him, he wearied, and the game went better with
+them. But at dusk, after sunset, it went worse with Egill and Thord,
+for Skallagrim became so strong that he caught up Thord and cast him
+down, so that he broke his bones, and that was the death of him. Then
+he caught at Egill. Thorgerd Brák was the name of a servant of
+Skallagrim, who had been foster-mother to Egill. She was a woman of
+great stature, strong as a man and a bit of a witch. Brák
+exclaimed,—‘Skallagrim! are you now falling upon your son?’ (hamaz þú
+at syni þínum). Then Skallagrim let go his hold of Egill and clutched
+at her. She started aside and fled. Skallagrim. followed. They ran out
+upon Digraness, and she sprang off the headland into the water.
+Skallagrim cast after her a huge stone which struck her between the
+shoulders, and she never rose after it. The place is now called Brak’s
+Sound.”—(c. 40.)
+
+Let it be observed that in these passages from the _Aigla_, the words
+að hamaz, hamrammr, &c. are used without any intention of conveying the
+idea of a change of bodily shape, though the words taken literally
+assert it. For they are derived from _hamr_, a skin or habit; a word
+which has its representatives in other Aryan languages, and is
+therefore a primitive word expressive of the skin of a beast.
+
+The Sanskrit ### _carmma_; the Hindustanee ### _cam_, hide or skin; and
+### _camra_, leather; the Persian ### _game_, clothing, disguise; the
+Gothic _ham_ or _hams_, skin; and even the Italian _camicia_, and the
+French _chemise_, are cognate words.[2]
+
+ [2] I shall have more to say on this subject in the chapter on the
+ Mythology of Lycanthropy.
+
+
+It seems probable accordingly that the verb _að hamaz_ was first
+applied to those who wore the skins of savage animals, and went about
+the country as freebooters; but that popular superstition soon invested
+them with supernatural powers, and they were supposed to assume the
+forms of the beasts in whose skins they were disguised. The verb then
+acquired the significance “to become a were-wolf, to change shape.” It
+did not stop there, but went through another change of meaning, and was
+finally applied to those who were afflicted with paroxysms of madness
+or demoniacal possession.
+
+This was not the only word connected with were-wolves which helped on
+the superstition. The word _vargr_, a wolf, had a double significance,
+which would be the means of originating many a were-wolf story. _Vargr_
+is the same as _u-argr_, restless; _argr_ being the same as the
+Anglo-Saxon _earg_. _Vargr_ had its double signification in Norse. It
+signified a wolf, and also a godless man. This _vargr_ is the English
+_were_, in the word were-wolf, and the _garou_ or _varou_ in French.
+The Danish word for were-wolf is _var-ulf_, the Gothic _vaira-ulf_. In
+the _Romans de Garin_, it is “Leu warou, sanglante beste.” In the _Vie
+de S. Hildefons_ by Gauthier de Coinsi,—
+
+Cil lou desve, cil lou garol,
+Ce sunt deable, que saul
+Ne puent estre de nos mordre.
+
+
+Here the loup-garou is a devil. The Anglo-Saxons regarded him as an
+evil man: _wearg_, a scoundrel; Gothic _varys_, a fiend. But very often
+the word meant no more than an outlaw. Pluquet in his _Contes
+Populaires_ tells us that the ancient Norman laws said of the criminals
+condemned to outlawry for certain offences, _Wargus esto_: be an
+outlaw!
+
+In like manner the Lex Ripuaria, tit. 87, “Wargus sit, hoe est
+expulsus.” In the laws of Canute, he is called verevulf. (_Leges
+Canuti_, Schmid, i. 148.) And the Salic Law (tit. 57) orders: “Si quis
+corpus jam sepultum effoderit, aut expoliaverit, _wargus_ sit.” “If any
+one shall have dug up or despoiled an already buried corpse, let him be
+a varg.”
+
+Sidonius Apollinaris. says, “Unam feminam quam forte _vargorum_, hoc
+enim nomine indigenas latrunculos nuncupant,”[3] as though the common
+name by which those who lived a freebooter life were designated, was
+varg.
+
+ [3] SIDONIUS APOLLINARIS: Opera, lib. vi. ep. 4.
+
+
+In like manner Palgrave assures us in his _Rise and Progress of the
+English Commonwealth_, that among the Anglo, Saxons an _utlagh_, or
+out-law, was said to have the head of a wolf. If then the term _vargr_
+was applied at one time to a wolf, at another to an outlaw who lived
+the life of a wild beast, away from the haunts of men “he shall be
+driven away as a wolf, and chased so far as men chase wolves farthest,”
+was the legal form of sentence—it is certainly no matter of wonder that
+stories of out-laws should have become surrounded with mythical
+accounts of their transformation into wolves.
+
+But the very idiom of the Norse was calculated to foster this
+superstition. The Icelanders had curious expressions which are
+sufficiently likely to have produced misconceptions.
+
+Snorri not only relates that Odin changed himself into another form,
+but he adds that by his spells he turned his enemies into boars. In
+precisely the same manner does a hag, Ljot, in the Vatnsdæla Saga, say
+that she could have turned Thorsteinn and Jökull into boars to run
+about with the wild beasts (c. xxvi.); and the expression _verða at
+gjalti_, or at _gjöltum_, to become a boar, is frequently met with in
+the Sagas.
+
+“Thereupon came Thorarinn and his men upon them, and Nagli led the way;
+but when he saw weapons drawn he was frightened, and ran away up the
+mountain, and became a boar. . . . And Thorarinn and his men took to
+run, so as to help Nagli, lest he should tumble off the cliffs into the
+sea” (Eyrbyggja Saga, c. xviii.) A similar expression occurs in the
+Gisla Saga Surssonar, p. 50. In the Hrolfs Saga Kraka, we meet with a
+troll in boar’s shape, to whom divine honours are paid; and in the
+Kjalnessinga Saga, c. xv., men are likened to boars—“Then it began to
+fare with them as it fares with boars when they fight each other, for
+in the same manner dropped their foam.” The true signification of
+_verða at gjalti_ is to be in such a state of fear as to lose the
+senses; but it is sufficiently peculiar to have given rise to
+superstitious stories.
+
+I have dwelt at some length on the Northern myths relative to
+were-wolves and animal transformations, because I have considered the
+investigation of these all-important towards the elucidation of the
+truth which lies at the bottom of mediæval superstition, and which is
+nowhere so obtainable as through the Norse literature. As may be seen
+from the passages quoted above at length, and from an examination of
+those merely referred to, the result arrived at is pretty conclusive,
+and may be summed up in very few words.
+
+The whole superstructure of fable and romance relative to
+transformation into wild beasts, reposes simply on this basis of
+truth—that among the Scandinavian nations there existed a form of
+madness or possession, under the influence of which men acted as though
+they were changed into wild and savage brutes, howling, foaming at the
+mouth, ravening for blood and slaughter, ready to commit any act of
+atrocity, and as irresponsible for their actions as the wolves and
+bears, in whose skins they often equipped themselves.
+
+The manner in which this fact became invested with supernatural
+adjuncts I have also pointed out, to wit, the change in the
+significance of the word designating the madness, the double meaning of
+the word _vargr_, and above all, the habits and appearance of the
+maniacs. We shall see instances of berserkr rage reappearing in the
+middle ages, and late down into our own times, not exclusively in the
+North, but throughout France, Germany, and England, and instead of
+rejecting the accounts given by chroniclers as fabulous, because there
+is much connected with them which seems to be fabulous, we shall be
+able to refer them to their true origin.
+
+It may be accepted as an axiom, that no superstition of general
+acceptance is destitute of a foundation of truth; and if we discover
+the myth of the were-wolf to be widely spread, not only throughout
+Europe, but through the whole world, we may rest assured that there is
+a solid core of fact, round which popular superstition has
+crystallized; and that fact is the existence of a species of madness,
+during the accesses of which the person afflicted believes himself to
+be a wild beast, and acts like a wild beast.
+
+In some cases this madness amounts apparently to positive possession,
+and the diabolical acts into which the possessed is impelled are so
+horrible, that the blood curdles in reading them, and it is impossible
+to recall them without a shudder.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+THE WERE-WOLF IN THE MIDDLE-AGES.
+
+
+Stories from Olaus Magnus of Livonian Were-wolves—Story from Bishop
+Majolus—Story of Albertus Pericofcius—Similar occurrence at
+Prague—Saint Patrick—Strange incident related by John of
+Nüremberg—Bisclaveret—Courland Were-wolves—Pierre Vidal—Pavian
+Lycanthropist—Bodin’s Stories—Forestus’ Account of a
+Lycanthropist—Neapolitan Were-wolf
+
+
+Olaus Magnus relates that—“In Prussia, Livonia, and Lithuania, although
+the inhabitants suffer considerably from the rapacity of wolves
+throughout the year, in that these animals rend their cattle, which are
+scattered in great numbers through the woods, whenever they stray in
+the very least, yet this is not regarded by them as such a serious
+matter as what they endure from men turned into wolves.
+
+“On the feast of the Nativity of Christ, at night, such a multitude of
+wolves transformed from men gather together in a certain spot, arranged
+among themselves, and then spread to rage with wondrous ferocity
+against human beings, and those animals which are not wild, that the
+natives of these regions suffer more detriment from these, than they do
+from true and natural wolves; for when a human habitation has been
+detected by them isolated in the woods, they besiege it with atrocity,
+striving to break in the doors, and in the event of their doing so,
+they devour all the human beings, and every animal which is found
+within. They burst into the beer-cellars, and there they empty the tuns
+of beer or mead, and pile up the empty casks one above another in the
+middle of the cellar, thus showing their difference from natural and
+genuine wolves. . . . Between Lithuania, Livonia, and Courland are the
+walls of a certain old ruined castle. At this spot congregate
+thousands, on a fixed occasion, and try their agility in jumping. Those
+who are unable to bound over the wall, as; is often the case with the
+fattest, are fallen upon with scourges by the captains and slain.”[1]
+Olaus relates also in c. xlvii. the story of a certain nobleman who was
+travelling through a large forest with some peasants in his retinue who
+dabbled in the black art. They found no house where they could lodge
+for the night, and were well-nigh famished. Then one of the peasants
+offered, if all the rest would hold their tongues as to what he should
+do, that he would bring them a lamb from a distant flock.
+
+ [1] OLAUS MAGNUS: _Historia de Vent. Septent_. Basil. 15, lib. xviii.
+ cap. 45.
+
+
+He thereupon retired into the depths of the forest and changed his form
+into that of a wolf, fell upon the flock, and brought a lamb to his
+companions in his mouth. They received it with gratitude. Then he
+retired once more into the thicket, and transformed himself back again
+into his human shape.
+
+The wife of a nobleman in Livonia expressed her doubts to one of her
+slaves whether it were possible for man or woman thus to change shape.
+The servant at once volunteered to give her evidence of the
+possibility. He left the room, and in another moment a wolf was
+observed running over the country. The dogs followed him, and
+notwithstanding his resistance, tore out one of his eyes. Next day the
+slave appeared before his mistress blind of an eye.
+
+Bp. Majolus[2] and Caspar Peucer[3] relate the following circumstances
+of the Livonians:—
+
+ [2] MAJOLI _Episc. Vulturoniensis Dier. Canicul._ Helenopolis, 1612,
+ tom. ii. colloq. 3.
+
+
+ [3] CASPAR PEUCER: _Comment. de Præcipuis Divin. Generibus_, 1591, p.
+ 169.
+
+
+At Christmas a boy lame of a leg goes round the country summoning the
+devil’s followers, who are countless, to a general conclave. Whoever
+remains behind, or goes reluctantly, is scourged by another with an
+iron whip till the blood flows, and his traces are left in blood. The
+human form vanishes, and the whole multitude become wolves. Many
+thousands assemble. Foremost goes the leader armed with an iron whip,
+and the troop follow, “firmly convinced in their imaginations that they
+are transformed into wolves.” They fall upon herds of cattle and flocks
+of sheep, but they have no power to slay men. When they come to a
+river, the leader smites the water with his scourge, and it divides,
+leaving a dry path through the midst, by which the pack may go. The
+transformation lasts during twelve days, at the expiration of which
+period the wolf-skin vanishes, and the human form reappears. This
+superstition was expressly forbidden by the church. “Credidisti, quod
+quidam credere solent, ut illæ quæ a vulgo Parcæ vocantur, ipsæ, vel
+sint vel possint hoc facere quod creduntur, id est, dum aliquis homo
+nascitur, et tunc valeant illum designare ad hoc quod velint, ut
+quandocunque homo ille voluerit, in lupum transformari possit, quod
+vulgaris stultitia, _werwolf_ vocat, aut in aliam aliquam figuram?”—Ap.
+Burchard. (d. 1024). In like manner did S. Boniface preach against
+those who believed superstitiously in it strigas et fictos lupos.”
+(_Serm_. apud Mart. et Durand. ix. 217.)
+
+In a dissertation by Müller[4] we learn, on the authority of Cluverius
+and Dannhaverus (_Acad. Homilet._ p. ii.), that a certain Albertus
+Pericofcius in Muscovy was wont to tyrannize over and harass his
+subjects in the most unscrupulous manner. One night when he was absent
+from home, his whole herd of cattle, acquired by extortion, perished.
+On his return he was informed of his loss, and the wicked man broke out
+into the most horrible blasphemies, exclaiming, “Let him who has slain,
+eat; if God chooses, let him devour me as well.”
+
+ [4] De {Greek _Lukanðrwpía_}. Lipsiæ, 1736.
+
+
+As he spoke, drops of blood fell to earth, and the nobleman,
+transformed into a wild dog, rushed upon his dead cattle, tore and
+mangled the carcasses and began to devour them; possibly he may be
+devouring them still (_ac forsan hodie que pascitur_). His wife, then
+near her confinement, died of fear. Of these circumstances there were
+not only ear but also eye witnesses. (_Non ab auritis tantum, sed et
+ocidatis accepi, quod narro_). Similarly it is related of a nobleman in
+the neighbourhood of Prague, that he robbed his subjects of their goods
+and reduced them to penury through his exactions. He took the last cow
+from a poor widow with five children, but as a judgment, all his own
+cattle died. He then broke into fearful oaths, and God transformed him
+into a dog: his human head, however, remained.
+
+S. Patrick is said to have changed Vereticus, king of Wales, into a
+wolf, and S. Natalis, the abbot, to have pronounced anathema upon an
+illustrious family in Ireland; in consequence of which, every male and
+female take the form of wolves for seven years and live in the forests
+and career over the bogs, howling mournfully, and appeasing their
+hunger upon the sheep of the peasants.[5] A duke of Prussia, according
+to Majolus, had a countryman brought for sentence before him, because
+he had devoured his neighbour’s cattle. The fellow was an ill-favoured,
+deformed man, with great wounds in his face, which he had received from
+dogs’ bites whilst he had been in his wolf’s form. It was believed that
+he changed shape twice in the year, at Christmas and at Midsummer. He
+was said to exhibit much uneasiness and discomfort when the wolf-hair
+began to break out and his bodily shape to change.
+
+ [5] PHIL. HARTUNG: _Conciones Tergeminæ_, pars ii. p. 367.
+
+
+He was kept long in prison and closely watched, lest he should become a
+were-wolf during his confinement and attempt to escape, but nothing
+remarkable took place. If this is the same individual as that mentioned
+by Olaus Magnus, as there seems to be a probability, the poor fellow
+was burned alive.
+
+John of Nüremberg relates the following curious story.[6] A priest was
+once travelling in a strange country, and lost his way in a forest.
+Seeing a fire, he made towards it, and beheld a wolf seated over it.
+The wolf addressed him in human-voice, and bade him not fear, as “he
+was of the Ossyrian race, of which a man and a woman were doomed to
+spend a certain number of years in wolf’s form. Only after seven years
+might they return home and resume their former shapes, if they were
+still alive.” He begged the priest to visit and console his sick wife,
+and to give her the last sacraments. This the priest consented to do,
+after some hesitation, and only when convinced of the beasts being
+human beings, by observing that the wolf used his front paws as hands,
+and when he saw the she-wolf peel off her wolf-skin from her head to
+her navel, exhibiting the features of an aged woman.
+
+ [6] JOHN EUS. NIERENBERG _de Miracul. in Europa_, lib. ii. cap. 42.
+
+
+Marie de France says in the _Lais du Bisclaveret:_—[7]
+
+Bisclaveret ad nun en Bretan
+Garwall Papelent li Norman.
+*    *    *    *
+Jadis le poet-hum oir
+Et souvent suleit avenir,
+Humes pluseirs Garwall deviendrent
+E es boscages meisun tindrent
+
+
+ [7] An epitome of this curious were-wolf tale will be found in Ellis’s
+ _Early English Metrical Romances_.
+
+
+There is an interesting paper by Rhanæus, on the Courland were-wolves,
+in the _Breslauer Sammlung_.[8] The author says,—“There are too many
+examples derived not merely from hearsay, but received on indisputable
+evidence, for us to dispute the fact, that Satan—if we do not deny that
+such a being exists, and that he has his work in the children of
+darkness—holds the Lycanthropists in his net in three ways:—
+
+ [8] Supplement III. _Curieuser_ und nutzbarer Anmerkungen von Natur
+ und Kunstgeschichten, gesammelt von Kanold. 1728.
+
+
+“1. They execute as wolves certain acts, such as seizing a sheep, or
+destroying cattle, &c., not changed into wolves, which no scientific
+man in Courland believes, but in their human frames, and with their
+human limbs, yet in such a state of phantasy and hallucination, that
+they believe themselves transformed into wolves, and are regarded as
+such by others suffering under similar hallucination, and in this
+manner run these people in packs as wolves, though not true wolves.
+
+“2. They imagine, in deep sleep or dream, that they injure the cattle,
+and this without leaving their conch; but it is their master who does,
+in their stead, what their fancy points out, or suggests to him.
+
+“3. The evil one drives natural wolves to do some act, and then
+pictures it so well to the sleeper, immovable in his place, both in
+dreams and at awaking, that he believes the act to have been committed
+by himself.”
+
+Rhanæus, under these heads, relates three stories, which he believes be
+has on good authority. The first is of a gentleman starting on a
+journey, who came upon a wolf engaged in the act of seizing a sheep in
+his own flock; he fired at it, and wounded it, so that it fled howling
+to the thicket. When the gentleman returned from his expedition he
+found the whole neighbourhood impressed with the belief that he had, on
+a given day and hour, shot at one of his tenants, a publican, Mickel.
+On inquiry, the man’s Wife, called Lebba, related the following
+circumstances, which were fully corroborated by numerous
+witnesses:—When her husband had sown his rye he had consulted with his
+wife how he was to get some meat, so as to have a good feast. The woman
+urged him on no account to steal from his landlord’s flock, because it
+was guarded by fierce dogs. He, however, rejected her advice, and
+Mickel fell upon his landlord’s sheep, but he had suffered and had come
+limping home, and in his rage at the ill success of his attempt, had
+fallen upon his own horse and had bitten its throat completely through.
+This took place in the year 1684.
+
+In 1684, a man was about to fire upon a pack of wolves, when he heard
+from among the troop a voice exclaiming—“Gossip! Gossip! don’t fire. No
+good will come of it.”
+
+The third story is as follows:—A lycanthropist was brought before a
+judge and accused of witchcraft, but as nothing could be proved against
+him, the judge ordered one of his peasants to visit the man in his
+prison, and to worm the truth out of him, and to persuade the prisoner
+to assist him in revenging himself upon another peasant who had injured
+him; and this was to be effected by destroying one of the man’s cows;
+but the peasant was to urge the prisoner to do it secretly, and, if
+possible, in the disguise of a wolf. The fellow undertook the task, but
+he had great difficulty in persuading the prisoner to fall in with his
+wishes: eventually, however, he succeeded. Next morning the cow was
+found in its stall frightfully mangled, but the prisoner had not left
+his cell: for the watch, who had been placed to observe him, declared
+that he had spent the night in profound sleep, and that he had only at
+one time made a slight motion with his head and hands and feet.
+
+Wierius and Forestus quote Gulielmus Brabantinus as an authority for
+the fact, that a man of high position had been so possessed by the evil
+one, that often during the year he fell into a condition in which he
+believed himself to be turned into a wolf, and at that time he roved in
+the woods and tried to seize and devour little children, but that at
+last, by God’s mercy, he recovered his senses.
+
+Certainly the famous Pierre Vidal, the Don Quixote of Provençal
+troubadours, must have had a touch of this madness, when, after having
+fallen in love with a lady of Carcassone, named Loba, or the Wolfess,
+the excess of his passion drove him over the country, howling like a
+wolf, and demeaning himself more like an irrational beast than a
+rational man.
+
+He commemorates his lupine madness in the poem _A tal Donna_:—[9]
+
+ [9] BRUCE WHYTE: _Histoire des Langues Romaines_, tom. ii. p. 248.
+
+
+Crowned with immortal joys I mount
+The proudest emperors above,
+For I am honoured with the love
+Of the fair daughter of a count.
+A lace from Na Raymbauda’s hand
+I value more than all the land
+Of Richard, with his Poïctou,
+His rich Touraine and famed Anjou.
+    When _loup-garou_ the rabble call me,
+When vagrant shepherds hoot,
+Pursue, and buffet me to boot,
+It doth not for a moment gall me;
+I seek not palaces or halls,
+Or refuge when the winter falls;
+Exposed to winds and frosts at night,
+My soul is ravished with delight.
+    Me claims my she-wolf (_Loba_) so divine:
+And justly she that claim prefers,
+For, by my troth, my life is hers
+More than another’s, more than mine.
+
+
+Job Fincelius[10] relates the sad story of a farmer of Pavia, who, as a
+wolf, fell upon many men in the open country and tore them to pieces.
+After much trouble the maniac was caught, and he then assured his
+captors that the only difference which existed between himself and a
+natural wolf, was that in a true wolf the hair grew outward, whilst in
+him it struck inward. In order to put this assertion to the proof, the
+magistrates, themselves most certainly cruel and bloodthirsty wolves,
+cut off his arms and legs; the poor wretch died of the mutilation. This
+took place in 1541. The idea of the skin being reversed is a very
+ancient one: _versipellis_ occurs as a name of reproach in Petronius,
+Lucilius, and Plautus, and resembles the Norse _hamrammr_.
+
+ [10] FINCELIUS _de Mirabilibus_, lib. xi.
+
+
+Fincelius relates also that, in 1542, there was such a multitude of
+were-wolves about Constantinople that the Emperor, accompanied by his
+guard, left the city to give them a severe correction, and slew one
+hundred and fifty of them.
+
+Spranger speaks of three young ladies who attacked a labourer, under
+the form of cats, and were wounded by him. They were found bleeding in
+their beds next morning.
+
+Majolus relates that a man afflicted with lycanthropy was brought to
+Pomponatius. The poor fellow had been found buried in hay, and when
+people approached, he called to them to flee, as he was a were wolf,
+and would rend them. The country-folk wanted to flay him, to discover
+whether the hair grew inwards, but Pomponatius rescued the man and
+cured him.
+
+Bodin tells some were-wolf stories on good authority; it is a pity that
+the good authorities of Bodin were such liars, but that, by the way. He
+says that the Royal Procurator-General Bourdin had assured him that he
+had shot a wolf, and that the arrow had stuck in the beast’s thigh. A
+few hours after, the arrow was found in the thigh of a man in bed. In
+Vernon, about the year 1566, the witches and warlocks gathered in great
+multitudes, under the shape of cats. Four or five men were attacked in
+a lone place by a number of these beasts. The men stood their ground
+with the utmost heroism, succeeded in slaying one puss, and in wounding
+many others. Next day a number of wounded women were found in the town,
+and they gave the judge an accurate account of all the circumstances
+connected with their wounding.
+
+Bodin quotes Pierre Marner, the author of a treatise on sorcerers, as
+having witnessed in Savoy the transformation of men into wolves.
+Nynauld[11] relates that in a village of Switzerland, near Lucerne, a
+peasant was attacked by a wolf, whilst he was hewing timber; he
+defended himself, and smote off a fore-leg of the beast. The moment
+that the blood began to flow the wolf’s form changed, and he recognized
+a woman without her arm. She was burnt alive.
+
+ [11] NYNAULD, _De la Lycanthropie_. Paris, 1615, p. 52.
+
+
+An evidence that beasts are transformed witches is to be found in their
+having no tails. When the devil takes human form, however, he keeps his
+club-foot of the Satyr, as a token by which he may be recognized. So
+animals deficient in caudal appendages are to be avoided, as they are
+witches in disguise. The Thingwald should consider the case of the Manx
+cats in its next session.
+
+Forestus, in his chapter on maladies of the brain, relates a
+circumstance which came under his own observation, in the middle of the
+sixteenth century, at Alcmaar in the Netherlands. A peasant there was
+attacked every spring with a fit of insanity; under the influence of
+this he rushed about the churchyard, ran into the church, jumped over
+the benches, danced, was filled with fury, climbed up, descended, and
+never remained quiet. He carried a long staff in his hand, with which
+he drove away the dogs, which flew at him and wounded him, so that his
+thighs were covered with scars. His face was pale, his eyes deep sunk
+in their sockets. Forestus pronounces the man to be a lycanthropist,
+but he does not say that the poor fellow believed himself to be
+transformed into a wolf. In reference to this case, however, he
+mentions that of a Spanish nobleman who believed himself to be changed
+into a bear, and who wandered filled with fury among the woods.
+
+Donatus of Altomare[12] affirms that he saw a man in the streets of
+Naples, surrounded by a ring of people, who in his were-wolf frenzy had
+dug up a corpse and was carrying off the leg upon his shoulders. This
+was in the middle of the sixteenth century.
+
+ [12] _De Medend. Human. Corp_. lib. i. cap. 9.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+A CHAMBER OF HORRORS.
+
+
+Pierre Bourgot and Michel Verdung—’Me Hermit of S. Bonnot—The Gandillon
+Family—Thievenne Paget—The Tailor of Châlons—Roulet.
+
+
+In December, 1521, the Inquisitor-General for the diocese of Besançon,
+Boin by name, heard a case of a sufficiently terrible nature to produce
+a profound sensation of alarm in the neighbourhood. Two men were under
+accusation of witchcraft and cannibalism. Their names were Pierre
+Bourgot, or Peter the Great, as the people had nicknamed him from his
+stature, and Michel Verdung. Peter had not been long under trial,
+before he volunteered a full confession of his crimes. It amounted to
+this:—
+
+About nineteen years before, on the occasion of a New Year’s market at
+Poligny, a terrible storm had broken over the country, and among other
+mischiefs done by it, was the scattering of Pierre’s flock. “In vain,”
+said the prisoner, “did I labour, in company with other peasants, to
+find the sheep and bring them together. I went everywhere in search of
+them.
+
+“Then there rode up three black horsemen, and the last said to me:
+‘Whither away? you seem to be in trouble?’
+
+“I related to him my misfortune with my flock. He bade me pluck up my
+spirits, and promised that his master would henceforth take charge of
+and protect my flock., if I would only rely upon him. He told me, as
+well, that I should find my strayed sheep very shortly, and he promised
+to provide me with money. We agreed to meet again in four or five days.
+My flock I soon found collected together. At my second meeting I
+learned of the stranger that he was a servant of the devil. I forswore
+God and our Lady and all saints and dwellers in Paradise. I renounced
+Christianity, kissed his left hand, which was black and ice-cold as
+that of a corpse. Then I fell on my knees and gave in my allegiance to
+Satan. I remained in the service of the devil for two years, and never
+entered a church before the end of mass, or at all events till the holy
+water had been sprinkled, according to the desire of my master, whose
+name I afterwards learned was Moyset.
+
+“All anxiety about my flock was removed, for the devil had undertaken
+to protect it and to keep off the wolves.
+
+“This freedom from care, however, made me begin to tire of the devil’s
+service, and I recommenced my attendance at church, till I was brought
+back into obedience to the evil one by Michel Verdung, when I renewed
+my compact on the understanding that I should be supplied with money.
+
+“In a wood near Chastel Charnon we met with many others whom I did not
+recognize; we danced, and each had in his or her hand a green taper
+with a blue flame. Still under the delusion that I should obtain money,
+Michel persuaded me to move with the greatest celerity, and in order to
+do this, after I had stripped myself, he smeared me with a salve, and I
+believed myself then to be transformed into a wolf. I was at first
+somewhat horrified at my four wolf’s feet, and the fur with which I was
+covered all at once, but I found that I could now travel with the speed
+of the wind. This could not have taken place without the help of our
+powerful master, who was present during our excursion, though I did not
+perceive him till I had recovered my human form. Michel did the same as
+myself.
+
+“When we had been one or two hours in this condition of metamorphosis,
+Michel smeared us again, and quick as thought we resumed our human
+forms. The salve was given us by our masters; to me it was given by
+Moyset, to Michel by his own master, Guillemin.”
+
+Pierre declared that he felt no exhaustion after his excursions, though
+the judge inquired particularly whether he felt that prostration after
+his unusual exertion, of which witches usually complained. Indeed the
+exhaustion consequent on a were-wolf raid was so great that the
+lycanthropist was often confined to his bed for days, and could hardly
+move hand or foot, much in the same way as the berserkir and _ham
+rammir_ in the North were utterly prostrated after their fit had left
+them.
+
+In one of his were-wolf runs, Pierre fell upon a boy of six or seven
+years old, with his teeth, intending to rend and devour him, but the
+lad screamed so loud that he was obliged to beat a retreat to his
+clothes, and smear himself again, in order to recover his form and
+escape detection. He and Michel, however, one day tore to pieces a
+woman as she was gathering peas; and a M. de Chusnée, who came to her
+rescue, was attacked by them and killed.
+
+On another occasion they fell upon a little girl of four years old, and
+ate her up, with the exception of one arm. Michel thought the flesh
+most delicious.
+
+Another girl was strangled by them, and her blood lapped up. Of a third
+they ate merely a portion of the stomach. One evening at dusk, Pierre
+leaped over a garden wall, and came upon a little maiden of nine years
+old, engaged upon the weeding of the garden beds. She fell on her knees
+and entreated Pierre to spare her; but he snapped the neck, and left
+her a corpse, lying among her flowers. On this occasion he does not
+seem to have been in his wolf’s shape. He fell upon a goat which he
+found in the field of Pierre Lerugen, and bit it in the throat, but he
+killed it with a knife.
+
+Michel was transformed in his clothes into a wolf, but Pierre was
+obliged to strip, and the metamorphosis could not take place with him
+unless he were stark naked.
+
+He was unable to account for the manner in which the hair vanished when
+he recovered his natural condition.
+
+The statements of Pierre Bourgot were fully corroborated by Michel
+Verdung.
+
+Towards the close of the autumn of 1573, the peasants of the
+neighbourhood of Dôle, in Franche Comté, were authorized by the Court
+of Parliament at Dôle, to hunt down the were-wolves which infested the
+country. The authorization was as follows:— “According to the
+advertisement made to the sovereign Court of Parliament at Dole, that,
+in the territories of Espagny, Salvange, Courchapon, and the
+neighbouring villages, has often been seen and met, for some time past,
+a were-wolf, who, it is said, has already seized and carried off
+several little children, so that they have not been seen since, and
+since he has attacked and done injury in the country to some horsemen,
+who kept him of only with great difficulty and danger to their persons:
+the said Court, desiring to prevent any greater danger, has permitted,
+and does permit, those who are abiding or dwelling in the said places
+and others, notwithstanding all edicts concerning the chase, to
+assemble with pikes, halberts, arquebuses, and sticks, to chase and to
+pursue the said were-wolf in every place where they may find or seize
+him; to tie and to kill, without incurring any pains or penalties. . .
+. Given at the meeting of the said Court, on the thirteenth day of the
+month September, 1573.” It was some time, however, before the
+loup-garou was caught.
+
+In a retired spot near Amanges, half shrouded in trees, stood a small
+hovel of the rudest construction; its roof was of turf, and its walls
+were blotched with lichen. The garden to this cot was run to waste, and
+the fence round it broken through. As the hovel was far from any road,
+and was only reached by a path over moorland and through forest, it was
+seldom visited, and the couple who lived in it were not such as would
+make many friends. The man, Gilles Garnier, was a sombre, ill-looking
+fellow, who walked in a stooping attitude, and whose pale face, livid
+complexion, and deep-set eyes under a pair of coarse and bushy brows,
+which met across the forehead, were sufficient to repel any one from
+seeking his acquaintance. Gilles seldom spoke, and when he did it was
+in the broadest patois of his country. His long grey beard and retiring
+habits procured for him the name of the Hermit of St. Bonnot, though no
+one for a moment attributed to him any extraordinary amount of
+sanctity.
+
+The hermit does not seem to have been suspected for some time, but one
+day, as some of the peasants of Chastenoy were returning home from
+their work, through the forest, the screams of a child and the deep
+baying of a wolf, attracted their notice, and on running in the
+direction whence the cries sounded, they found a little girl defending
+herself against a monstrous creature, which was attacking her tooth and
+nail, and had already wounded her severely in five places. As the
+peasants came up, the creature fled on all fours into the gloom of the
+thicket; it was so dark that it could not be identified with certainty,
+and whilst some affirmed that it was a wolf, others thought they had
+recognized the features of the hermit. This took place on the 8th
+November.
+
+On the 14th a little boy of ten years old was missing, who had been
+last seen at a short distance from the gates of Dole.
+
+The hermit of S. Bonnot was now seized and brought to trial at Dole,
+when the following evidence was extracted from him and his wife, and
+substantiated in many particulars by witnesses.
+
+On the last day of Michaelmas, under the form of a wolf, at a mile from
+Dole, in the farm of Gorge, a vineyard belonging to Chastenoy, near the
+wood of La Serre, Gilles Gamier had attacked a little maiden of ten or
+twelve years old, and had slain her with his teeth and claws; he had
+then drawn her into the wood, stripped her, gnawed the flesh from her
+legs and arms, and had enjoyed his meal so much, that, inspired with
+conjugal affection, he had brought some of the flesh home for his wife
+Apolline.
+
+Eight days after the feast of All Saints, again in the form of a
+were-wolf, he had seized another girl, near the meadow land of La
+Pouppe, on the territory of Athume and Chastenoy, and was on the point
+of slaying and devouring her, when three persons came up, and he was
+compelled to escape. On the fourteenth day after All Saints, also as a
+wolf, he had attacked a boy of ten years old, a mile from Dôle, between
+Gredisans and Menoté, and had strangled him. On that occasion he had
+eaten all the flesh off his legs and arms, and had also devoured a
+great part of the belly; one of the legs he had rent completely from
+the trunk with his fangs.
+
+On the Friday before the last feast of S. Bartholomew, he had seized a
+boy of twelve or thirteen, under a large pear-trees near the wood of
+the village Perrouze, and had drawn him into the thicket and killed
+him, intending to eat him as he had eaten the other children, but the
+approach of men hindered him from fulfilling his intention. The boy
+was, however, quite dead, and the men who came up declared that Gilles
+appeared as a man and not as a wolf. The hermit of S. Bonnot was
+sentenced to be dragged to the place of public execution, and there to
+be burned alive, a sentence which was rigorously carried out.
+
+In this instance the poor maniac fully believed that actual
+transformation into a wolf took place; he was apparently perfectly
+reasonable on other points, and quite conscious of the acts he had
+committed.
+
+We come now to a more remarkable circumstance, the affliction of a
+whole family with the same form of insanity. Our information is derived
+from Boguet’s _Discours de Sorciers_, 1603-1610.
+
+Pernette Gandillon was a poor girl in the Jura, who in 1598 ran about
+the country on all fours, in the belief that she was a wolf. One day as
+she was ranging the country in a fit of lycanthropic madness, she came
+upon two children who were plucking wild strawberries. Filled with a
+sudden passion for blood, she flew at the little girl and would have
+brought her down, had not her brother, a lad of four years old,
+defended her lustily with a knife. Pernette, however, wrenched the
+weapon from his tiny hand, flung him down and gashed his throat, so
+that he died of the wound. Pernette was tom to pieces by the people in
+their rage and horror.
+
+Directly after, Pierre, the brother of Pernette Gandillon, was accused
+of witchcraft. He was charged with having led children to the sabbath,
+having made hail, and having run about the country in the form of a
+wolf. The transformation was effected by means of a salve which he had
+received from the devil. He had on one occasion assumed the form of a
+hare, but usually he appeared as a wolf, and his skin became covered
+with shaggy grey hair. He readily acknowledged that the charges brought
+against him were well founded, and he allowed that he had, during the
+period of his transformation, fallen on, and devoured, both beasts and
+human beings. When he desired to recover his true form, he rolled
+himself in the dewy grass. His son Georges asserted that he had also
+been anointed with the salve, and had gone to the sabbath in the shape
+of a wolf. According to his own testimony, he had fallen upon two goats
+in one of his expeditions.
+
+One Maundy-Thursday night he had lain for three hours in his bed in a
+cataleptic state, and at the end of that time had sprung out of bed.
+During this period he had been in the form of a wolf to the witches’
+sabbath.
+
+His sister Antoinnette confessed that she had made hail, and that she
+had sold herself to the devil, who had appeared to her in the shape of
+a black he-goat. She had been to the sabbath on several occasions.
+
+Pierre and Georges in prison behaved as maniacs, running on all fours
+about their cells and howling dismally. Their faces, arms, and legs
+were frightfully scarred with the wounds they had received from dogs
+when they had been on their raids. Boguet accounts for the
+transformation not taking place, by the fact of their not having the
+necessary salves by them.
+
+All three, Pierre, Georges, and Antoinnette, were hung and burned.
+
+Thievenne Paget, who was a witch of the most unmistakable character,
+was also frequently changed into a she-wolf, according to her own
+confession, in which state she had often accompanied the devil over
+hill and dale, slaying cattle, and falling on and devouring children.
+The same thing may be said of Clauda Isan Prost, a lame woman, Clauda
+Isan Guillaume, and Isan Roquet, who owned to the murder of five
+children.
+
+On the 14th of December, in the same year as the execution of the
+Gandillon family (1598), a tailor of Châlons was sentenced to the
+flames by the Parliament of Paris for lycanthropy. This wretched man
+had decoyed children into his shop, or attacked them in the gloaming
+when they strayed in the woods, had torn them with his teeth, and
+killed them, after which he seems calmly to have dressed their flesh as
+ordinary meat, and to have eaten it with great relish. The number of
+little innocents whom he destroyed is unknown. A whole cask full of
+bones was discovered in his house. The man was perfectly hardened, and
+the details of his trial were so full of horrors and abominations of
+all kinds, that the judges ordered the documents to be burned.
+
+Again in 1598, a year memorable in the annals of lycanthropy, a trial
+took place in Angers, the details of which are very terrible.
+
+In a wild and unfrequented spot near Caude, some countrymen came one
+day upon the corpse of a boy of fifteen, horribly mutilated and
+bespattered with blood. As the men approached, two wolves, which had
+been rending the body, bounded away into the thicket. The men gave
+chase immediately, following their bloody tracks till they lost them;
+when suddenly crouching among the bushes, his teeth chattering with
+fear, they found a man half naked, with long hair and beard, and with
+his hands dyed in blood. His nails were long as claws, and were clotted
+with fresh gore, and shreds of human flesh.
+
+This is one of the most puzzling and peculiar cases which come under
+our notice.
+
+The wretched man, whose name was Roulet, of his own accord stated that
+he had fallen upon the lad and had killed him by smothering him, and
+that he had been prevented from devouring the body completely by the
+arrival of men on the spot.
+
+Roulet proved on investigation to be a beggar from house to house, in
+the most abject state of poverty. His companions in mendicity were his
+brother John and his cousin Julien. He had been given lodging out of
+charity in a neighbouring village, but before his apprehension he had
+been absent for eight days.
+
+Before the judges, Roulet acknowledged that he was able to transform
+himself into a wolf by means of a salve which his parents had given
+him. When questioned about the two wolves which had been seen leaving
+the corpse, he said that he knew perfectly well who they were, for they
+were his companions, Jean and Julian, who possessed the same secret as
+himself. He was shown the clothes he had worn on the day of his
+seizure, and he recognized them immediately; he described the boy whom
+he had murdered, gave the date correctly, indicated the precise spot
+where the deed had been done, and recognized the father of the boy as
+the man who had first run up when the screams of the lad had been
+heard. In prison, Roulet behaved like an idiot. When seized, his belly
+was distended and hard; in prison he drank one evening a whole pailful
+of water, and from that moment refused to eat or drink.
+
+His parents, on inquiry, proved to be respectable and pious people, and
+they proved that his brother John and his cousin Julien had been
+engaged at a distance on the day of Roulet’s apprehension.
+
+“What is your name, and what your estate?” asked the judge, Pierre
+Hérault.
+
+“My name is Jacques Roulet, my age thirty-five; I am poor, and a
+mendicant.”
+
+“What are you accused of having done?”
+
+“Of being a thief—of having offended God. My parents gave me an
+ointment; I do not know its composition.”
+
+“When rubbed with this ointment do you become a wolf?”
+
+“No; but for all that, I killed and ate the child Cornier: I was a
+wolf.”
+
+“Were you dressed as a wolf?”
+
+“I was dressed as I am now. I had my hands and my face bloody, because
+I had been eating the flesh of the said child.”
+
+“Do your hands and feet become paws of a wolf?”
+
+“Yes, they do.”
+
+“Does your head become like that of a wolf-your mouth become larger?”
+
+“I do not know how my head was at the time; I used my teeth; my head
+was as it is to-day. I have wounded and eaten many other little
+children; I have also been to the sabbath.”
+
+The _lieutenant criminel_ sentenced Roulet to death. He, however,
+appealed to the Parliament at Paris; and this decided that as there was
+more folly in the poor idiot than malice and witchcraft, his sentence
+of death should be commuted to two years’ imprisonment in a madhouse,
+that he might be instructed in the knowledge of God, whom he had
+forgotten in his utter poverty.[1]
+
+ [1] “La cour du Parliament, par arrêt, mist l’appellation et la
+ sentence dont il avoit esté appel au néant, et, néanmoins, ordonna que
+ le dit Roulet serait mis à l’hospital Saint Germain des Prés, où on a
+ accoustumé de mettre les folz, pour y demeurer l’espace de deux ans,
+ afin d’y estre instruit et redressé tant de son esprit, que ramené à
+ la cognoissance de Dieu, que l’extrême pauvreté lui avoit fait
+ mescognoistre.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+JEAN GRENIER
+
+
+On the Sand-dunes—A Wolf attacks Marguerite Poirier—Jean Grenier
+brought to Trial—His Confessions—Charges of Cannibalism proved—His
+Sentence—Behaviour in the Monastery—Visit of Del’ancre.
+
+
+One fine afternoon in the spring, some village girls were tending their
+sheep on the sand-dunes which intervene between the vast forests of
+pine covering the greater portion of the present department of _Landes_
+in the south of France, and the sea.
+
+The brightness of the sky, the freshness of the air puffing up off the
+blue twinkling Bay of Biscay, the hum or song of the wind as it made
+rich music among the pines which stood like a green uplifted wave on
+the East, the beauty of the sand-hills speckled with golden cistus, or
+patched with gentian-blue, by the low growing _Gremille couchée_, the
+charm of the forest-skirts, tinted variously with the foliage of
+cork-trees, pines, and acacia, the latter in full bloom, a pile of
+rose-coloured or snowy flowers,—all conspired to fill the peasant
+maidens with joy, and to make their voices rise in song and laughter,
+which rung merrily over the hills, and through the dark avenues of
+evergreen trees.
+
+Now a gorgeous butterfly attracted their attention, then a flight of
+quails skimming the surface.
+
+“Ah!” exclaimed Jacquiline Auzun,” ah, if I had my stilts and bats, I
+would strike the little birds down, and we should have a fine supper.”
+
+“Now, if they would fly ready cooked into one’s mouth, as they do in
+foreign parts!” said another girl.
+
+“Have you got any new clothes for the S. Jean?” asked a third; “my
+mother has laid by to purchase me a smart cap with gold lace.”
+
+“You will turn the head of Etienne altogether, Annette!” said Jeanne
+Gaboriant. “But what is the matter with the sheep?”
+
+She asked because the sheep which had been quietly browsing before her,
+on reaching a small depression in the dune, had started away as though
+frightened at something. At the same time one of the dogs began to
+growl and show his fangs.
+
+The girls ran to the spot, and saw a little fall in the ground, in
+which, seated on a log of fir, was a boy of thirteen. The appearance of
+the lad was peculiar. His hair was of a tawny red and thickly matted,
+falling over his shoulders and completely covering his narrow brow. His
+small pale-grey eyes twinkled with an expression of horrible ferocity
+and cunning, from deep sunken hollows. The complexion was of a dark
+olive colour; the teeth were strong and white, and the canine teeth
+protruded over the lower lip when the mouth was closed. The boy’s hands
+were large and powerful, the nails black and pointed like bird’s
+talons. He was ill clothed, and seemed to be in the most abject
+poverty. The few garments he had on him were in tatters, and through
+the rents the emaciation of his limbs was plainly visible.
+
+The girls stood round him, half frightened and much surprised, but the
+boy showed no symptoms of astonishment. His face relaxed into a ghastly
+leer, which showed the whole range of his glittering white fangs.
+
+“Well, my maidens,” said he in a harsh voice, “which of you is the
+prettiest, I should like to know; can you decide among you?”
+
+“What do you want to know for?” asked Jeanne Gaboriant, the eldest of
+the girls, aged eighteen, who took upon herself to be spokesman for the
+rest.
+
+“Because I shall marry the prettiest,” was the answer.
+
+“Ah!” said Jeanne jokingly; “that is if she will have you, which is not
+very likely, as we none of us know you, or anything about you.”
+
+“I am the son of a priest,” replied the boy curtly.
+
+“Is that why you look so dingy and black?”
+
+“No, I am dark-coloured, because I wear a wolf-skin sometimes.”
+
+“A wolf-skin!” echoed the girl; “and pray who gave it you?”
+
+“One called Pierre Labourant.”
+
+“There is no man of that name hereabouts. Where does he live?”
+
+A scream of laughter mingled with howls, and breaking into strange
+gulping bursts of fiendlike merriment from the strange boy.
+
+The little girls recoiled, and the youngest took refuge behind Jeanne.
+
+“Do you want to know Pierre Labourant, lass? Hey, he is a man with an
+iron chain about his neck, which he is ever engaged in gnawing. Do you
+want to know where he lives, lass? Ha., in a place of gloom and fire,
+where there are many companions, some seated on iron chairs, burning,
+burning; others stretched on glowing beds, burning too. Some cast men
+upon blazing coals, others roast men before fierce flames, others again
+plunge them into caldrons of liquid fire.”
+
+The girls trembled and looked at each other with scared faces, and then
+again at the hideous being which crouched before them.
+
+“You want to know about the wolf-skin cape?” continued he. “Pierre
+Labourant gave me that; he wraps it round me, and every Monday, Friday,
+and Sunday, and for about an hour at dusk every other day, I am a wolf,
+a were-wolf. I have killed dogs and drunk their blood; but little girls
+taste better, their flesh is tender and sweet, their blood rich and
+warm. I have eaten many a maiden, as I have been on my raids together
+with my nine companions. I am a were-wolf! Ah, ha! if the sun were to
+set I would soon fall on one of you and make a meal of you!” Again he
+burst into one of his frightful paroxysms of laughter, and the girls
+unable to endure it any longer, fled with precipitation.
+
+Near the village of S. Antoine de Pizon, a little girl of the name of
+Marguerite Poirier, thirteen years old, was in the habit of tending her
+sheep, in company with a lad of the same age, whose name was Jean
+Grenier. The same lad whom Jeanne Gaboriant had questioned.
+
+The little girl often complained to her parents of the conduct of the
+boy: she said that he frightened her with his horrible stories; but her
+father and mother thought little of her complaints, till one day she
+returned home before her usual time so thoroughly alarmed that she had
+deserted her flock. Her parents now took the matter up and investigated
+it. Her story was as follows:—
+
+Jean had often told her that he had sold himself to the devil, and that
+he had acquired the power of ranging the country after dusk, and
+sometimes in broad day, in the form of a wolf. He had assured her that
+he had killed and devoured many dogs, but that he found their flesh
+less palatable than the flesh of little girls, which he regarded as a
+supreme delicacy. He had told her that this had been tasted by him not
+unfrequently, but he had specified only two instances: in one he had
+eaten as much as he could, and had thrown the rest to a wolf, which had
+come up during the repast. In the other instance he had bitten to death
+another little girl, had lapped her blood, and, being in a famished
+condition at the time, had devoured every portion of her, with the
+exception of the arms and shoulders.
+
+The child told her parents, on the occasion of her return home in a fit
+of terror, that she had been guiding her sheep as usual, but Grenier
+had not been present. Hearing a rustle in the bushes she had looked
+round, and a wild beast bad leaped upon her, and torn her clothes on
+her left side with its sharp fangs. She added that she had defended
+herself lustily with her shepherd’s staff, and had beaten the creature
+off. It had then retreated a few paces, had seated itself on its hind
+legs like a dog when it is begging, and had regarded her with such a
+look of rage, that she had fled in terror. She described the animal as
+resembling a wolf, but as being shorter and stouter; its hair was red,
+its tail stumpy, and the head smaller than that of a genuine wolf.
+
+The statement of the child produced general consternation in the
+parish. It was well known that several little girls had vanished in a
+most mysterious way of late, and the parents of these little ones were
+thrown into an agony of terror lest their children had become the prey
+of the wretched boy accused by Marguerite Poirier. The case was now
+taken up by the authorities and brought before the parliament of
+Bordeaux.
+
+The investigation which followed was as complete as could be desired.
+
+Jean Grenier was the son of a poor labourer in the village of S.
+Antoine do Pizon, and not the son of a priest, as he had asserted.
+Three months before his seizure he had left home, and had been with
+several masters doing odd work, or wandering about the country begging.
+He had been engaged several times to take charge of the flocks
+belonging to farmers, and had as often been discharged for neglect of
+his duties. The lad exhibited no reluctance to communicate all he knew
+about himself, and his statements were tested one by one, and were
+often proved to be correct.
+
+The story he related of himself before the court was as follows:—
+
+“When I was ten or eleven years old, my neighbour, Duthillaire,
+introduced me, in the depths of the forest, to a M. de la Forest, a
+black man, who signed me with his nail, and then gave to me and
+Duthillaire a salve and a wolf-skin. From that time have I run about
+the country as a wolf.
+
+“The charge of Marguerite Poirier is correct. My intention was to have
+killed and devoured her, but she kept me off with a stick. I have only
+killed one dog, a white one, and I did not drink its blood.”
+
+When questioned touching the children, whom he said he had killed and
+eaten as a wolf, he allowed that he had once entered an empty house on
+the way between S. Coutras and S. Anlaye, in a small village, the name
+of which he did not remember, and had found a child asleep in its
+cradle; and as no one was within to hinder him, he dragged the baby out
+of its cradle, carried it into the garden, leaped the hedge, and
+devoured as much of it as satisfied his hunger. What remained he had
+given to a wolf. In the parish of S. Antoine do Pizon he had attacked a
+little girl, as she was keeping sheep. She was dressed in a black
+frock; he did not know her name. He tore her with his nails and teeth,
+and ate her. Six weeks before his capture he had fallen upon another
+child, near the stone-bridge, in the same parish. In Eparon he had
+assaulted the hound of a certain M. Millon, and would have killed the
+beast, had not the owner come out with his rapier in his hand.
+
+Jean said that he had the wolf-skin in his possession, and that he went
+out hunting for children, at the command of his master, the Lord of the
+Forest. Before transformation he smeared himself with the salve, which
+be preserved in a small pot, and hid his clothes in the thicket.
+
+He usually ran his courses from one to two hours in the day, when the
+moon was at the wane, but very often he made his expeditions at night.
+On one occasion he had accompanied Duthillaire, but they had killed no
+one.
+
+He accused his father of having assisted him, and of possessing a
+wolf-skin; he charged him also with having accompanied him on one
+occasion, when he attacked and ate a girl in the village of Grilland,
+whom he had found tending a flock of geese. He said that his stepmother
+was separated from his father. He believed the reason to be, because
+she had seen him once vomit the paws of a dog and the fingers of a
+child. He added that the Lord of the Forest had strictly forbidden him
+to bite the thumb-nail of his left hand, which nail was thicker and
+longer than the others, and had warned him never to lose sight of it,
+as long as he was in his were-wolf disguise.
+
+Duthillaire was apprehended, and the father of Jean Grenier himself
+claimed to be heard by examination.
+
+The account given by the father and stepmother of Jean coincided in
+many particulars with the statements made by their son.
+
+The localities where Grenier declared he had fallen on children were
+identified, the times when he said the deeds had been done accorded
+with the dates given by the parents of the missing little ones, when
+their losses had occurred.
+
+The wounds which Jean affirmed that he had made, and the manner in
+which he had dealt them, coincided with the descriptions given by the
+children he had assaulted.
+
+He was confronted with Marguerite Poirier, and he singled her out from
+among five other girls, pointed to the still open gashes in her body,
+and stated that he had made them with his teeth, when he attacked her
+in wolf-form, and she had beaten him off with a stick. He described an
+attack he had made on a little boy whom he would have slain, had not a
+man come to the rescue, and exclaimed, “I’ll have you presently.”
+
+The man who saved the child was found, and proved to be the uncle of
+the rescued lad, and he corroborated the statement of Grenier, that he
+had used the words mentioned above.
+
+Jean was then confronted with his father. He now began to falter in his
+story, and to change his statements. The examination had lasted long,
+and it was seen that the feeble intellect of the boy was wearied out,
+so the case was adjourned. When next confronted with the elder Grenier,
+Jean told his story as at first, without changing it in any important
+particular.
+
+The fact of Jean Grenier having killed and eaten several children, and
+of his having attacked and wounded others, with intent to take their
+life, were fully established; but there was no proof whatever of the
+father having had the least hand in any of the murders, so that he was
+dismissed the court without a shadow of guilt upon him.
+
+The only witness who corroborated the assertion of Jean that he changed
+his shape into that of a wolf was Marguerite Poirier.
+
+Before the court gave judgment, the first president of assize, in an
+eloquent speech, put on one side all questions of witchcraft and
+diabolical compact, and bestial transformation, and boldly stated that
+the court had only to consider the age and the imbecility of the child,
+who was so dull and idiotic—that children of seven or eight years old
+have usually a larger amount of reason than he. The president went on
+to say that Lycanthropy and Kuanthropy were mere hallucinations, and
+that the change of shape existed only in the disorganized brain of the
+insane, consequently it was not a crime which could be punished. The
+tender age of the boy must be taken into consideration, and the utter
+neglect of his education and moral development. The court sentenced
+Grenier to perpetual imprisonment within the walls of a monastery at
+Bordeaux, where he might be instructed in his Christian and moral
+obligations; but any attempt to escape would be punished with death.
+
+A pleasant companion for the monks! a promising pupil for them to
+instruct! No sooner was he admitted into the precincts of the religious
+house, than he ran frantically about the cloister and gardens upon all
+fours, and finding a heap of bloody and raw offal, fell upon it and
+devoured it in an incredibly short space of time.
+
+Delancre visited him seven years after, and found him diminutive in
+stature, very shy, and unwilling to look any one in the face. His eyes
+were deep set and restless; his teeth long and protruding; his nails
+black, and in places worn away; his mind was completely barren; he
+seemed unable to comprehend the smallest things. He related his story
+to Delancre, and told him how he had run about formerly in the woods as
+a wolf, and he said that he still felt a craving for raw flesh,
+especially for that of little girls, which he said was delicious, and
+he added that but for his confinement it would not be long before he
+tasted it again. He said that the Lord of the Forest had visited him
+twice in the prison, but that he had driven him off with the sign of
+the cross. The account be then gave of his murders coincided exactly
+with what had come out in his trial; and beside this, his story of the
+compact he had made with the Black One, and the manner in which his
+transformation was effected, also coincided with his former statements.
+
+He died at the age of twenty, after an imprisonment of seven years,
+shortly after Delancre’s visit.[1]
+
+ [1] DELANCRE: _Tableau de l’Inconstance_, p 305.
+
+
+In the two cases of Roulet and Grenier the courts referred the whole
+matter of Lycanthropy, or animal transformation, to its true and
+legitimate cause, an aberration of the brain. From this time medical
+men seem to have regarded it as a form of mental malady to be brought
+under their treatment, rather than as a crime to be punished by law.
+But it is very fearful to contemplate that there may still exist
+persons in the world filled with a morbid craving for human blood,
+which is ready to impel them to commit the most horrible atrocities,
+should they escape the vigilante of their guards, or break the bars of
+the madhouse which restrains them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+FOLK-LORE RELATING TO WERE-WOLVES.
+
+
+Barrenness of English Folk-lore—Devonshire Traditions—Derivation of
+Were-wolf—Cannibalism in Scotland—The Angus Robber—The Carle of
+Perth—French Superstitions—Norwegian Traditions—Danish Tales of
+Were-wolves—Holstein Stories—The Werewolf in the Netherlands—Among the
+Greeks; the Serbs; the White Russians; the Poles; the Russians—A
+Russian Receipt for becoming a Were-wolf—The Bohemian Vlkodlak—Armenian
+Story—Indian Tales—Abyssinian Budas—American Transformation Tales—A
+Slovakian Household Tale—Similar Greek, Béarnais, and Icelandic Tales.
+
+
+English folk-lore is singularly barren of were-wolf stories, the reason
+being that wolves had been extirpated from England under the
+Anglo-Saxon kings, and therefore ceased to be objects of dread to the
+people. The traditional belief in were-wolfism must, however, have
+remained long in the popular mind, though at present it has
+disappeared, for the word occurs in old ballads and romances. Thus in
+Kempion—
+
+O was it _war-wolf_ in the wood?
+    Or was it mermaid in the sea?
+Or was it man, or vile woman,
+    My ain true love, that mis-shaped thee?
+
+
+There is also the romance of _William and the Were-wolf_ in
+Hartshorn;[1] but this professes to be a translation from the French:—
+
+ [1] HARTSHORN: _Ancient Metrical Tales_, p. 256. See also “The Witch
+ Cake,” in CRUMEK’S _Remains of Nithsdale Song_.
+
+
+For he of Frenche this fayre tale ferst dede translate,
+In ese of Englysch men in Englysch speche.
+
+
+In the popular mind the cat or the hare have taken the place of the
+wolf for witches’ transformation, and we hear often of the hags
+attending the devil’s Sabbath in these forms.
+
+In Devonshire they range the moors in the shape of black dogs, and I
+know a story of two such creatures appearing in an inn and nightly
+drinking the cider, till the publican shot a silver button over their
+heads, when they were instantly transformed into two ill-favoured old
+ladies of his acquaintance. On Heathfield, near Tavistock, the wild
+huntsman rides by full moon with his “wush hounds;” and a white hare
+which they pursued was once rescued by a goody returning from market,
+and discovered to be a transformed young lady.
+
+Gervaise of Tilbury says in his _Otia Imperalia_—
+
+“Vidimus frequenter in Anglia, per lunationes, homines in lupos mutari,
+quod hominum genus _gerulfos_ Galli vocant, Angli vero _wer-wlf,_
+dicunt: _wer_ enim Anglice virum sonat, _wlf_, lupum.” Gervaise may be
+right in his derivation of the name, and were-wolf may mean man-wolf,
+though I have elsewhere given a different derivation, and one which I
+suspect is truer. But Gervaise has grounds for his assertion that _wér_
+signifies man; it is so in Anglo-Saxon, _vair_ in Gothic, _vir_ in
+Latin, _verr_, in Icelandic, _vîra_, Zend, _wirs_, old Prussian,
+_wirs_, Lettish, _vîra_, Sanskrit, _bîr_, Bengalee.
+
+There have been cases of cannibalism in Scotland, but no bestial
+transformation is hinted at in connection with them.
+
+Thus Bœthius, in his history of Scotland, tells us of a robber and his
+daughter who devoured children, and Lindsay of Pitscottie gives a full
+account.
+
+“About this time (1460) there was ane brigand ta’en with his haill
+family, who haunted a place in Angus. This mischievous man had ane
+execrable fashion to take all young men and children he could steal
+away quietly, or tak’ away without knowledge, and eat them, and the
+younger they were, esteemed them the mair tender and delicious. For the
+whilk cause and damnable abuse, he with his wife and bairns were all
+burnt, except ane young wench of a year old who was saved and brought
+to Dandee, where she was brought up and fostered; and when she came to
+a woman’s years, she was condemned and burnt quick for that crime. It
+is said that when she was coming to the place of execution, there
+gathered ane huge multitude of people, and specially of women, cursing
+her that she was so unhappy to commit so damnable deeds. To whom she
+turned about with an ireful countenance, saying:—‘Wherefore chide ye
+with me, as if I had committed ane unworthy act? Give me credence and
+trow me, if ye had experience of eating men and women’s flesh, ye wold
+think it so delicious that ye wold never forbear it again.’ So, but any
+sign of repentance, this unhappy traitor died in the sight of the
+people.”[2]
+
+ [2] LINDSAY’S _Chronicles of Scotland_, 1814, p. 163.
+
+
+Wyntoun also has a passage in his metrical chronicle regarding a
+cannibal who lived shortly before his own time, and he may easily have
+heard about him from surviving contemporaries. It was about the year
+1340, when a large portion of Scotland had been devastated by the arms
+of Edward III.
+
+About Perth thare was the countrie
+Sae waste, that wonder wes to see; For intill well-great space thereby,
+Wes nother house left nor herb’ry.
+Of deer thare wes then sic foison (profusion),
+That they wold near come to the town,
+Sae great default was near that stead,
+That mony were in hunger dead.
+A carle they said was near thereby,
+That wold act settis (traps) commonly,
+Children and women for to slay,
+And swains that he might over-ta;
+And ate them all that he get might;
+Chwsten Cleek till name behight.
+That sa’ry life continued he,
+While waste but folk was the countrie.[3]
+
+
+ [3] WYNTOUN’S _Chronicle_, ii. 236.
+
+
+We have only to compare these two cases with those recorded in the last
+two chapters, and we see at once how the popular mind in Great Britain
+had lost the idea of connecting change of form with cannibalism. A man
+guilty of the crimes committed by the Angus brigand, or the carle of
+Perth, would have been regarded as a were-wolf in France or Germany,
+and would have been tried for Lycanthropy.
+
+S. Jerome, by the way, brought a sweeping charge against the Scots. He
+visited Gaul in his youth, about 880, and he writes:—“When I was a
+young man in Gaul, I may have seen the Attacotti, a British people who
+live upon human flesh; and when they find herds of pigs, droves of
+cattle, or flocks of sheep in the woods, they cut off the haunches of
+the men and the breasts of the women, and these they regard as great
+dainties;” in other words they prefer the shepherd to his flock. Gibbon
+who quotes this passage says on it: “If in the neighbourhood of the
+commercial and literary town of Glasgow, a race of cannibals has really
+existed, we may contemplate, in the period of the Scottish history, the
+opposite extremes of savage and civilized life. Such reflections tend
+to enlarge the circle of our ideas, and to encourage the pleasing hope
+that New Zealand may produce in a future age, the Hume of the Southern
+hemisphere.”
+
+If traditions of were-wolves are scanty in England, it is quite the
+reverse if we cross the water.
+
+In the south of France, it is still believed that fate has destined
+certain men to be lycanthropists—that they are transformed into wolves
+at full moon. The desire to run comes upon them at night. They leave
+their beds, jump out of a window, and plunge into a fountain. After the
+bath, they come out covered with dense fur, walking on all fours, and
+commence a raid over fields and meadows, through woods and villages,
+biting all beasts and human beings that come in their way. At the
+approach of dawn, they return to the spring, plunge into it, lose their
+furry skins, and regain their deserted beds. Sometimes the loup-garou
+is said to appear under the form of a white dog, or to be loaded with
+chains; but there is probably a confusion of ideas between the
+were-wolf and the church-dog, bar-ghest, pad-foit, wush-hound, or by
+whatever name the animal supposed to haunt a churchyard is designated.
+
+In the Périgord, the were-wolf is called louléerou. Certain men,
+especially bastards, are obliged at each full moon to transform
+themselves into these diabolic beasts.
+
+It is always at night that the fit comes on. The lycanthropist dashes
+out of a window, springs into a well, and, after having struggled in
+the water for a few moments, rises from it, dripping, and invested with
+a goatskin which the devil has given him. In this condition, the
+louléerous run upon four legs, pass the night in ranging over the
+country, and in biting and devouring all the dogs they meet. At break
+of day they lay aside their goatskins and return home. Often they are
+ill in consequence of having eaten tough old hounds, and they vomit up
+their undigested paws. One great nuisance to them is the fact that they
+may be wounded or killed in their louléerou state. With the first
+effusion of blood their diabolic covering vanishes, and they are
+recognized, to the disgrace of their families.
+
+A were-wolf may easily be detected, even when devoid of his skin; for
+his hands are broad, and his fingers short, and there are always some
+hairs in the hollow of his hand.
+
+In Normandy, those who are doomed to be loups-garoux, clothe themselves
+every evening with a skin called their _hère_ or _hure_, which is a
+loan from the devil. When they run in their transformed state, the evil
+one accompanies them and scourges them at the foot of every cross they
+pass. The only way in which a werewolf can be liberated from this cruel
+bondage, is by stabbing him three times in the forehead with a knife.
+However, some people less addicted to allopathic treatment, consider
+that three drops of blood drawn by a needle, will be sufficient to
+procure release.
+
+According to an opinion of the vulgar in the same province, the
+loup-garou is sometimes a metamorphosis forced upon the body of a
+damned person, who, after having been tormented in his grave, has torn
+his way out of it. The first stage in the process consists in his
+devouring the cerecloth which enveloped his face; then his moans and
+muffled howls ring from the tomb, through the gloom of night, the earth
+of the grave begins to heave, and at last, with a scream, surrounded by
+a phosphorescent glare, and exhaling a fœtid odour, he bursts away as a
+wolf.
+
+In Le Bessin, they attribute to sorcerers the power of metamorphosing
+certain men into beasts, but the form of a dog is that principally
+affected by them.
+
+In Norway it is believed that there are persons who can assume the form
+of a wolf or a bear (Huse-björn), and again resume their own; this
+property is either imparted to them by the Trollmen, or those
+possessing it are themselves Trolls.
+
+In a hamlet in the midst of a forest, there dwelt a cottager named
+Lasse, and his wife. One day he went out in the forest to fell a tree,
+but had forgot to cross himself and say his paternoster, so that some
+troll or wolf-witch (varga mor) obtained power over him and transformed
+him into a wolf. His wife mourned him for many years, but, one
+Christmas-eve, there came a beggar-woman, very poor and ragged, to the
+door, and the good woman of the house took her in, fed her well, and
+entreated her kindly. At her departure the beggar-woman said that the
+wife would probably see her husband again, as he was not dead, but was
+wandering in the forest as a wolf. Towards night-fall the wife went to
+her pantry to place in it a piece of meat for the morrow, when, on
+turning to go out, she perceived a wolf standing before her, raising
+itself with its paws on the pantry steps, regarding her with sorrowful
+and hungry looks. Seeing this she exclaimed, “If I were sure that thou
+wert my own Lasse, I would give thee a bit of meat.” At that instant
+the wolf-skin fell off, and her husband stood before her in the clothes
+he wore on the unlucky morning when she had last beheld him.
+
+Finns, Lapps, and Russians are held in particular aversion, because the
+Swedes believe that they have power to change people into wild beasts.
+During the last year of the war with Russia, when Calmar was overrun
+with an unusual number of wolves, it was generally said that the
+Russians had transformed their Swedish prisoners into wolves, and sent
+them home to invest the country.
+
+In Denmark the following stories are told:—
+
+A man, who from his childhood had been a were-wolf, when returning one
+night with his wife from a merrymaking, observed that the hour was at
+hand when the evil usually came upon him; giving therefore the reins to
+his wife, he descended from the vehicle, saying to her, “If anything
+comes to thee, only strike at it with thine apron.” He then withdrew,
+but immediately after, the woman, as she was sitting in the vehicle,
+was attached by a were-wolf. She did as the man had enjoined her, and
+struck it with her apron, from which it rived a portion, and then ran
+away. After some time the man returned, holding in his mouth the rent
+portion of his wife’s apron, on seeing which, she cried out in
+terror,—“Good Lord, man, why, thou art a were-wolf!” “Thank thee,
+wife,” said he, “now I am free.” And from that time he was no more
+afflicted.
+
+If a female at midnight stretches between four sticks the membrane
+which envelopes the foal when it is brought forth, and creeps through
+it, naked, she will bear children without pain; but all the boys will
+be were-wolves, and all the girls maras. By day the were-wolf has the
+human form, though he may be known by the meeting of his eyebrows above
+the nose. At a certain time of the night he has the form of a dog on
+three legs. It is only when another person tells him that he is a
+were-wolf, or reproaches him with being such, that a man can be freed
+from the ban.
+
+According to a Danish popular song, a hero transformed by his
+step-mother into a bear, fights with a knight:—
+
+For ’tis she who hath bewitched me,
+A woman false and fell,
+Bound an iron girdle round me,
+If thou can’st not break this belt,
+Knight, I’ll thee destroy!
+*    *    *    *
+The noble made the Christian sign,
+The girdle snapped, the bear was changed,
+And see! he was a lusty knight,
+His father’s realm regained.
+
+
+_Kjæmpeviser_, p. 147.
+
+
+When an old bear in Ofodens Priestegjeld was killed, after it had
+caused the death of six men und sixty horses, it was found to be girded
+with a similar girdle.
+
+In Schleswig and Holstein they say that if the were-wolf be thrice
+addressed by his baptismal name, he resumes his human form.
+
+On a hot harvest day some reapers lay down in the field to take their
+noontide sleep, when one who could not sleep observed that the fellow
+next to him rose softly, and having girded himself with a strap, became
+a were-wolf.
+
+A young man belonging to Jägerup returning late one night from Billund,
+was attacked, when near Jägerup, by three were-wolves, and would
+probably have been torn to pieces, had he not saved himself by leaping
+into a rye-field, for there they had no more power over him.
+
+At Caseburg, on the isle of Usedom, a man and his wife were busy in the
+field making hay, when after some time the woman said to the man that
+she had no more peace, she could stay no longer, and went away. But she
+had previously desired her husband to promise, that if perchance a wild
+beast should come that way, he would cast his hat at it and then run
+away, and it would do him no injury. She had been gone but a short
+while, when a wolf came swimming across the Swine, and ran directly
+towards the haymakers. The man threw his hat at it, which the animal
+instantly tore to rags. But in the meantime a boy had run up with a
+pitchfork, and he dabbed the wolf from behind: in the same moment it
+became changed, and all saw that the boy had killed the man’s wife.
+
+Formerly there were individuals in the neighbourhood of Steina, who, by
+putting on a certain girdle, could transform themselves into
+were-wolves. A man of the neighbourhood, who had such a girdle, forgot
+one day when going out to lock it up, as was his wont. During his
+absence, his little son chanced to find it; he buckled it round him.,
+and was instantaneously turned into an animal, to all outward
+appearance like a bundle of peat-straw, and he rolled about like an
+unwieldy bear. When those who were in the room perceived this, they
+hastened in search of the father, who was found in time to come and
+unbuckle the belt, before the child had done any mischief. The boy
+afterwards said, that when he had put on the girdle, he was seized with
+such a raging hunger, that he was ready to tear in pieces and devour
+all that came in his way.
+
+The girdle is supposed to be made of human skin, and to be three
+finger-breadths wide.
+
+In East Friesland, it is believed, when seven girls succeed each other
+in one family, that among them one is of necessity a were-wolf, so that
+youths are slow in seeking one of seven sisters in marriage.
+
+According to a curious Lithuanian story related by Schleicher in his
+_Litauische Märchen_, a person who is a were-wolf or bear has to remain
+kneeling in one spot for one hundred years before he can hope to obtain
+release from his bestial form.
+
+In the Netherlands they relate the following tale:—A man had once gone
+out with his bow to attend a shooting match at Rousse, but when about
+half way to the place, he saw on a sudden, a large wolf spring from a
+thicket, and rush towards a young girl, who was sitting in a meadow by
+the roadside watching cows. The man did not long hesitate, but quickly
+drawing forth an arrow, took aim, and luckily hit the wolf in the right
+side, so that the arrow remained sticking in the wound, and the animal
+fled howling to the wood.
+
+On the following day he heard that a serving-man of the burgomaster’s
+household lay at the point of death, in consequence of having been shot
+in the right side, on the preceding day. This so excited the archer’s
+curiosity, that he went to the wounded man, and requested to see the
+arrow. He recognized it immediately as one of his own. Then, having
+desired all present to leave the room, he persuaded the man to confess
+that he was a were-wolf and that he had devoured little children. On
+the following day he died.
+
+Among the Bulgarians and Sloyakians the were-wolf is called _vrkolak_,
+a name resembling that given it by the modern Greeks {Greek
+_brúkolakas_}. The Greek were-wolf is closely related to the vampire.
+The lycanthropist falls into a cataleptic trance, during which his soul
+leaves his body, enters that of a wolf and ravens for blood. On the
+return of the soul, the body is exhausted and aches as though it had
+been put through violent exercise. After death lycanthropists become
+vampires. They are believed to frequent battlefields in wolf or hyæna
+shapes, and to suck the breath from dying soldiers, or to enter houses
+and steal the infants from their cradles. Modern Greeks call any
+savage-looking man, with dark complexion, and with distorted, misshapen
+limbs, a {Greek _brúkolakas_}, and suppose him to be invested with
+power of running in wolf-form.
+
+The Serbs connect the vampire and the were-wolf together, and call them
+by one name _vlkoslak_. These rage chiefly in the depths of winter:
+they hold their annual gatherings, and at them divest themselves of
+their wolf-skins, which they hang on the trees around them. If any one
+succeeds in obtaining the skin and burning it, the vlkoslak is
+thenceforth disenchanted.
+
+The power to become a were-wolf is obtained by drinking the water which
+settles in a foot-print left in clay by a wolf.
+
+Among the White Russians the _wawkalak_ is a man who has incurred the
+wrath of the devil, and the evil one punishes him by transforming him
+into a wolf and sending him among his relations, who recognize him and
+feed him well. He is a most amiably disposed were-wolf, for he does no
+mischief, and testifies his affection for his kindred by licking their
+hands. He cannot, however, remain long in any place, but is driven from
+house to house, and from hamlet to hamlet, by an irresistible passion
+for change of scene. This is an ugly superstition, for it sets a
+premium on standing well with the evil one.
+
+The Sloyakians merrily term a drunkard a vlkodlak, because, forsooth,
+he makes a beast of himself. A Slovakian household were-wolf tale
+closes this chapter.
+
+The Poles have their were-wolves, which rage twice in the year—at
+Christmas and at midsummer.
+
+According to a Polish story, if a witch lays a girdle of human skin on
+the threshold of a house in which a marriage is being celebrated, the
+bride and bridegroom, and bridesmaids and groomsmen, should they step
+across it, are transformed into wolves. After three years, however, the
+witch will cover them with skins with the hair. turned outward;
+immediately they will recover their natural form. On one occasion, a
+witch cast a skin of too scanty dimensions over the bridegroom, so that
+his tail was left uncovered: he resumed his human form, but retained
+his lupine caudal appendage {_i.e. tail—jbh_}.
+
+The Russians call the were-wolf _oborot_, which signifies “one
+transformed.” The following receipt is given by them for becoming one.
+
+“He who desires to become an oborot, let him seek in the forest a
+hewn-down tree; let him stab it with a small copper knife, and walk
+round the tree, repeating the following incantation:—
+
+On the sea, on the ocean, on the island, on Bujan,
+On the empty pasture gleams the moon, on an ashstock lying
+In a green wood, in a gloomy vale.
+Toward the stock wandereth a shaggy wolf.
+Horned cattle seeking for his sharp white fangs;
+But the wolf enters not the forest,
+But the wolf dives not into the shadowy vale,
+Moon, moon, gold-horned moon,
+Cheek the flight of bullets, blunt the hunters’ knives,
+Break the shepherds’ cudgels,
+Cast wild fear upon all cattle,
+On men, on all creeping things,
+That they may not catch the grey wolf,
+That they may not rend his warm skin
+My word is binding, more binding than sleep,
+More binding than the promise of a hero!
+
+
+“Then he springs thrice over the tree and runs into the forest,
+transformed into a wolf.”[4]
+
+ [4] SACHAROW: _Inland_, 1838, No. 17.
+
+
+In the ancient Bohemian Lexicon of Vacerad (A. D. 1202) the were-wolf
+is called vilkodlak, and is explained as faunus. Safarik says under
+that head,-
+
+“Incubi sepe improbi existunt mulieribus, et earum peragunt concubitum,
+quos demones Galli _dusios_ nuncupant.” And in another place:
+“Vilkodlaci, incubi, sive invidi, ab inviando passim cum animalibus,
+unde et incubi dicuntur ab incubando homines, i. e. stuprando, quos
+Romani faunos ficarios dicunt.”
+
+That the same belief in lycanthropy exists in Armenia is evident from
+the following story told by Haxthausen, in his _Trans-Caucasia_
+(Leipzig, i. 322):—“A man once saw a wolf, which had carried off a
+child, dash past him. He pursued it hastily, but was unable to overtake
+it. At last he came upon the hands and feet of a child, and a little
+further on he found a cave, in which lay a wolf-skin. This he cast into
+a fire, and immediately a woman appeared, who howled and tried to
+rescue the skin from the flames. The man, however, resisted, and, as
+soon as the hide was consumed, the woman had vanished in the smoke.”
+
+In India, on account of the prevalence of the doctrine of
+metempsychosis, the belief in transformation is widely diffused. Traces
+of genuine lycanthropy are abundant in all regions whither Buddism has
+reached. In Ceylon, in Thibet, and in China, we find it still forming a
+portion of the national creed.
+
+In the Pantschatantra is a story of an enchanted Brahmin’s son, who by
+day was a serpent, by night a man.
+
+Vikramâditya’s father, the son of Indra, was condemned to be an ass by
+day and a man by night.
+
+A modern Indian tale is to this effect:—A prince marries a female ape,
+but his brothers wed handsome princesses. At a feast given by the queen
+to her stepdaughters, there appears an exquisitely beautiful lady in
+gorgeous robes. This is none other than the she-ape, who has laid aside
+her skin for the occasion: the prince slips out of the room and burns
+the skin, so that his wife is prevented from resuming her favourite
+appearance.
+
+Nathaniel Pierce[5] gives an account of an Abyssinian superstition very
+similar to that prevalent in Europe.
+
+ [5] _Life and Adventures of Nathaniel Pierce_, written by himself
+ during a residence in Abyssinia from 1810-19. London, 1831.
+
+
+He says that in Abyssinia the gold. and silversmiths are highly
+regarded, but that the ironworkers are looked upon with contempt, as an
+inferior grade of beings. Their kinsmen even ascribe to them the power
+of transforming themselves into hyænas, or other savage beasts. All
+convulsions and hysterical disorders are attributed to the effect of
+their evil eye. The Amhara call them _Buda_, the Tigré, _Tebbib_. There
+are also Mahomedan and Jewish Budas. It is difficult to explain the
+origin of this strange superstition. These Budas are distinguished from
+other people by wearing gold ear-rings, and Coffin declares that he has
+often found hyænas with these rings in their ears, even among the
+beasts which he has shot or speared himself. But how the rings got into
+their ears is more than Coffin was able to ascertain.
+
+Beside their power to transform themselves into hyænas or other wild
+beasts, all sorts of other strange things are ascribed to them; and the
+Abyssinians are firmly persuaded that they rob the graves by midnight,
+and no one would venture to touch what is called _quanter_, or dried
+meat in their houses, though they would not object to partake of fresh
+meat, if they had seen the animal, from which it came, killed before
+them. Coffin relates, as eye-witness of the fact, the following story:—
+
+Among his servants was a Buda, who, one evening, whilst it was still
+light, came to his master and asked leave of absence till the following
+morning. He obtained the required leave and departed; but scarcely had
+Coffin turned his head, when one of his men exclaimed,—“Look! there he
+is, changing himself into hyæna,” pointing in the direction taken by
+the Buda. Coffin turned to look, and although he did not witness the
+process of transformation, the young man had vanished from the spot on
+which he had been standing, not a hundred paces distant, and in his
+place was a hyæna running away. The place was a plain without either
+bush or tree to impede the view. Next morning the young man returned,
+and was charged by his companions with the transformation: this he
+rather acknowledged than denied, for he excused himself on the plea
+that it was the habit of his class. This statement of Pierce is
+corroborated by a note contributed by Sir Gardner Wilkinson to
+Rawlinson’s _Herodotus_ (book iv. chap. 105). “A class of people in
+Abyssinia are believed to change themselves into hyænas when they like.
+On my appearing to discredit it, I was told by one who lived for years
+there, that no well-informed person doubted it, and that he was once
+walking with one of them, when he happened to look away for a moment,
+and on turning again towards his companion, he saw him trotting off in
+the shape of a hyæna. He met him afterwards in his old form. These
+worthies are blacksmiths.—G. W.”
+
+A precisely similar superstition seems to have existed in America, for
+Joseph Acosta (_Hist. Nat. des Indes_) relates that the ruler of a city
+in Mexico, who was sent for by the predecessor of Montezuma,
+transformed himself, before the eyes of those who were sent to seize
+him, into an eagle, a tiger, and an enormous serpent. He yielded at
+last, and was condemned to death. No longer in his own house, he was
+unable to work miracles so as to save his life. The Bishop of Chiapa, a
+province of Guatemala, in a writing published in 1702, ascribes the
+same power to the Naguals, or national priests, who laboured to bring
+back to the religion of their ancestors, the children brought up as
+Christians by the government. After various ceremonies, when the child
+instructed advanced to embrace him, the Nagual suddenly assumed a
+frightful aspect, and under the form of a lion or tiger, appeared
+chained to the young Christian convert.—(_Recueil de Voyages_, tom. ii.
+187.)
+
+Among the North American Indians, the belief in transformation is very
+prevalent. The following story closely resembles one very prevalent all
+over the world.
+
+“One Indian fixed his residence on the borders of the Great Bear lake,
+taking with him only a dog big with young. In due time, this dog
+brought forth eight pups. Whenever the Indian went out to fish, he tied
+up the pups, to prevent the straying of the litter. Several times, as
+he approached his tent, he heard noises proceeding from it, which
+sounded like the talking, the laughing, the crying, the wail, and the
+merriment of children; but, on entering it, he only perceived the pups
+tied up as usual. His curiosity being excited by the noises he had
+heard, he determined to watch and learn whence these sounds proceeded,
+and what they were. One day he pretended to go out to fish, but,
+instead of doing so, he concealed himself in a convenient place. In a
+short time he again heard -voices, and, rushing suddenly into the tent,
+beheld some beautiful children sporting and laughing, with the
+dog-skins lying by their side. He threw the dog-skins into the fire,
+and the children, retaining their proper forms, grew up, and were the
+ancestors of the dog-rib nation.”—(_Traditions of the North American
+Indians_, by T. A. Jones, 1830, Vol. ii. p. 18.)
+
+In the same work is a curious story entitled _The Mother of the World_,
+which bears a close analogy to another world-wide myth: a woman marries
+a dog, by night the dog lays aside its skin, and appears as a man. This
+may be compared with the tale of Björn and Bera already given.
+
+I shall close this chapter with a Slovakian household tale given by T.
+T. Hanush in the third volume of _Zeitschrift für Deutsche Mythologie_.
+
+_The Daughter of the Vlkolak._
+
+
+“There was once a father, who had nine daughters, and they were all
+marriageable, but the youngest was the most beautiful. The father was a
+were-wolf. One day it came into his head: ‘What is the good of having
+to support so many girls?’ so he determined to put them all out of the
+way.
+
+“He went accordingly into the forest to hew wood, and he ordered his
+daughters to let one of them bring him his dinner. It was the eldest
+who brought it.
+
+“‘Why, how come you so early with the food?’ asked the woodcutter.
+
+“‘Truly, father, I wished to strengthen you, lest you should fall upon
+us, if famished!’
+
+“‘A good lass! Sit down whilst I eat.’ He ate, and whilst he ate he
+thought of a scheme. He rose and said: I My girl, come, and I will show
+you a pit I have been digging.’
+
+“‘And what is the pit for?’
+
+“‘That we may be buried in it when we die, for poor folk will not be
+cared for much after they are dead and gone.’
+
+“So the girl went with him to the side of the deep pit. ‘Now hear,’
+said the were-wolf, ‘you must die and be cast in there.’
+
+“She begged for her life, but all in vain, so he laid hold of her and
+cast her into the grave. Then he took a great stone and flung it in
+upon her and crushed her head, so the poor thing breathed out her soul.
+When the were-wolf had done this he went back to his work, and as dusk
+came on, the second daughter arrived, bringing him food. He told her of
+the pit, and brought her to it, and cast her in, and killed her as the
+first. And so he dealt with all his girls up to the last. The youngest
+knew well that her father was a were-wolf, and she was grieved that her
+sisters did not return; she thought, ‘Now where can they be? Has my
+father kept them for companionship; or to help him in his work?’ So she
+made the food which she was to take him, and crept cautiously through
+the wood. When she came near the place where her father worked, she
+heard his strokes felling timber, and smelt smoke. She saw presently a
+large fire and two human heads roasting at it. Turning from the fire,
+she went in the direction of the axe-strokes, and found her father.
+
+“See,’ said she, ‘father, I have brought you food.’
+
+“That is a good lass,’ said he. ‘Now stack the wood for me whilst I
+eat.’
+
+“‘But where are my sisters?’ she asked.
+
+“‘Down in yon valley drawing wood,’ he replied ‘follow me, and I will
+bring you to them.’
+
+“They came to the pit; then he told her that he had dug it for a grave.
+‘Now,’ said he, ‘you must die, and be cast into the pit with your
+sisters.’
+
+“‘Turn aside, father,’ she asked, ‘whilst I strip of my clothes, and
+then slay me if you will.’
+
+“He turned aside as she requested, and then—tchich! she gave him a
+push, and he tumbled headlong into the hole he had dug for her.
+
+“She fled for her life, for the were-wolf was not injured, and he soon
+would scramble out of the pit.
+
+“Now she hears his howls resounding through the gloomy alleys of the
+forest, and swift as the wind she runs. She hears the tramp of his
+approaching feet, and the snuffle of his breath. Then she casts behind
+her her handkerchief. The were-wolf seizes this with teeth and nails,
+and rends it till it is reduced to tiny ribands. In another moment he
+is again in pursuit foaming at the mouth, and howling dismally, whilst
+his red eyes gleam like burning coals. As he gains on her, she casts
+behind her her gown, and bids him tear that. He seizes the gown and
+rives it to shreds, then again he pursues. This time she casts behind
+her her apron, next her petticoat, then her shift, and at last rums
+much in the condition in which she was born. Again the were-wolf
+approaches; she bounds out of the forest into a hay-field, and hides
+herself in the smallest heap of hay. Her father enters the field, runs
+howling about it in search of her, cannot find her, and begins to upset
+the different haycocks, all the while growling and gnashing his
+gleaming white fangs in his rage at her having escaped him. The foam
+flakes drop at every step from his mouth, and his skin is reeking with
+sweat. Before he has reached the smallest bundle of hay his strength
+leaves him, he feels exhaustion begin to creep over him, and he retires
+to the forest.
+
+“The king goes out hunting every clay; one of his dogs carries food to
+the hay-field, which has most unaccountably been neglected by the
+hay-makers for three days. The king, following the dog, discovers the
+fair damsel, not exactly ‘in the straw,’ but up to her neck in hay. She
+is carried, hay and all, to the palace, where she becomes his wife,
+making only one stipulation before becoming his bride, and that is,
+that no beggar shall be permitted to enter the palace.
+
+“After some years a beggar does get in, the beggar being, of course,
+none other than her were-wolf father. He steals upstairs, enters the
+nursery, cuts the throats of the two children borne by the queen to her
+lord, and lays the knife under her pillow.
+
+“In the morning, the king, supposing his wife to be the murderess,
+drives her from home, with the dead princes hung about her neck. A
+hermit comes to the rescue, and restores the babies to life. The king
+finds out his mistake, is reunited to the lady out of the hay, and the
+were-wolf is cast off a high cliff into the sea, and that is the end of
+him. The king, the queen, and the princes live happily, and may be
+living yet, for no notice of their death has appeared in the
+newspaper.”
+
+This story bears some resemblance to one told by Von Hahn in his
+_Griechische und Albanesische Märchen_; I remember having heard a very
+similar one in the Pyrenees; but the man who flies from the were-wolf
+is one who, after having stripped off all his clothes, rushes into a
+cottage and jumps into a bed. The were-wolf dares not, or cannot,
+follow. The cause of his flight was also different. He was a freemason
+who had divulged the secret, and the were-wolf was the master of his
+lodge in pursuit of him. In the Bearnais story, there is nothing
+similar to the last part of the Slovakian tale, and in the Greek one
+the transformation and the pursuit are omitted, though the woman-eater
+is called “dog’s-head,” much as an outlaw in the north of Europe was
+said to be wolf-headed.
+
+It is worthy of notice in the tale of _The Daughter of the Ulkolak_,
+that the were-wolf fit is followed by great exhaustion,[6] and that the
+wolf is given clothes to tear, much as in the Danish stories already
+related. There does not seem to be any indication of his Laving changed
+his shape, at least no change is mentioned, his hands are spoken of,
+and he swears and curses his daughter in broad Slovakian. The fit very
+closely resembles that to which Skallagrim, the Icelander, was subject.
+It is a pity that the maid Bràk in the Icelandic tale did not fall upon
+her legs like the young lady in the hay.
+
+ [6] Compare this with the exhaustion following a Berserkir fit, and
+ that which succeeded the attacks to which M. Bertrand was subject.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+NATURAL CAUSES OF LYCANTHROPY.
+
+
+Innate Cruelty—Its Three Forms—Dumollard—Andreas Bichel—A Dutch
+Priest—Other instances of Inherent Cruelty—Cruelty united to
+Refinement—A Hungarian Bather in Blood—Suddenness with which the
+Passion is developed—Cannibalism; in pregnant Women; in
+Maniacs—Hallucination; how Produced—Salves—The Story of
+Lucius—Self-deception.
+
+
+What I have related from the chronicles of antiquity, or from the
+traditional lore of the people, is veiled under the form of myth or
+legend; and it is only from Scandinavian descriptions of those
+afflicted with the wolf-madness, and from the trials of those charged
+with the crime of lycanthropy in the later Middle Ages, that we can
+arrive at the truth respecting that form of madness which was invested
+by the superstitious with so much mystery.
+
+It was not till the close of the Middle Ages that lycanthropy was
+recognized as a disease; but it is one which has so much that is
+ghastly and revolting in its form, and it is so remote from all our
+ordinary experience, that it is not surprising that the casual observer
+should leave the consideration of it, as a subject isolated and
+perplexing, and be disposed to regard as a myth that which the feared
+investigation might prove a reality.
+
+In this chapter I purpose briefly examining the conditions under which
+men have been regarded as werewolves.
+
+Startling though the assertion may be, it is a matter of fact, that
+man, naturally, in common with other carnivora, is actuated by an
+impulse to kill, and by a love of destroying life.
+
+It is positively true that there are many to whom the sight of
+suffering causes genuine pleasure, and in whom the passion to kill or
+torture is as strong as any other passion. Witness the number of boys
+who assemble around a sheep or pig when it is about to be killed, and
+who watch the struggle of the dying brute with hearts beating fast with
+pleasure, and eyes sparkling with delight. Often have I seen an eager
+crowd of children assembled around the slaughterhouses of French towns,
+absorbed in the expiring agonies of the sheep and cattle, and hushed
+into silence as they watched the flow of blood.
+
+The propensity, however, exists in different degrees. In some it is
+manifest simply as indifference to suffering, in others it appears as
+simple pleasure in seeing killed, and in others again it is dominant as
+an irresistible desire to torture and destroy.
+
+This propensity is widely diffused; it exists in children and adults,
+in the gross-minded and the refined., in the well-educated and the
+ignorant, in those who have never had the opportunity of gratifying it,
+and those who gratify it habitually, in spite of morality, religion,
+laws, so that it can only depend on constitutional causes.
+
+The sportsman and the fisherman follow a natural instinct to destroy,
+when they make wax on bird, beast, and fish: the pretence that the
+spoil is sought for the table cannot be made with justice, as the
+sportsman cares little for the game he has obtained, when once it is
+consigned to his pouch. The motive for his eager pursuit of bird or
+beast must be sought elsewhere; it will be found in the natural craving
+to extinguish life, which exists in his soul. Why does a child
+impulsively strike at a butterfly as it flits past him? He cares
+nothing for the insect when once it is beaten down at his feet, unless
+it be quivering in its agony, when he will watch it with interest. The
+child strikes at the fluttering creature because it has _life_ in it,
+and he has an instinct within him impelling him to destroy life
+wherever he finds it.
+
+Parents and nurses know well that children by nature are cruel, and
+that humanity has to be acquired by education. A child will gloat over
+the sufferings of a wounded animal till his mother bids him “put it out
+of its misery.” An unsophisticated child would not dream of terminating
+the poor creature’s agonies abruptly, any more than he would swallow
+whole a bon-bon till he had well sucked it. Inherent cruelty may be
+obscured by after impressions, or may be kept under moral restraint;
+the person who is constitutionally a Nero, may scarcely know his own
+nature, till by some accident the master passion becomes dominant, and
+sweeps all before it. A relaxation of the moral check, a shock to the
+controlling intellect, an abnormal condition of body, are sufficient to
+allow the passion to assert itself.
+
+As I have already observed, this passion exists in different persons in
+different degrees.
+
+In some it is exhibited in simple want of feeling for other people’s
+sufferings. This temperament may lead to crime, for the individual who
+is regardless of pain in another, will be ready to destroy that other,
+if it suit his own purposes. Such an one was the pauper Dumollard, who
+was the murderer of at least six poor girls, and who attempted to kill
+several others. He seems not to have felt much gratification in
+murdering them, but to have been so utterly indifferent to their
+sufferings, that he killed them solely for the sake of their clothes,
+which were of the poorest description. He was sentenced to the
+guillotine, and executed in 1862.[1]
+
+ [1] A full account of this man’s trial is given by one who was
+ present, in _All the Year Round_, No. 162.
+
+
+In others, the passion for blood is developed alongside with
+indifference to suffering.
+
+Thus Andreas Bichel enticed young women into his house, under the
+pretence that he was possessed of a magic mirror, in which he would
+show them their future husbands; when he had them in his power he bound
+their hands behind their backs, and stunned them with a blow. He then
+stabbed them and despoiled them of their clothes, for the sake of which
+he committed the murders; but as he killed the young women the passion
+of cruelty took possession of him, and he hacked the poor girls to
+pieces whilst they were still alive, in his anxiety to examine their
+insides. Catherine Seidel he opened with a hammer and a wedge, from her
+breast downwards, whilst still breathing. “I may say,” he remarked at
+his trial, “that during the operation I was so eager, that I trembled
+all over, and I longed to rive off a piece and eat it.”
+
+Andreas Bichel was executed in 1809.[2]
+
+ [2] The case of Andreas Bichel is given in Lady Duff Gordon’s
+ _Remarkable Criminal Trials_.
+
+
+Again, a third class of persons are cruel and bloodthirsty, because in
+them bloodthirstiness is a raging insatiable passion. In a civilized
+country those possessed by this passion are forced to control it
+through fear of the consequences, or to gratify it upon the brute
+creation. But in earlier days, when feudal lords were supreme in their
+domains, there have been frightful instances of their excesses, and the
+extent to which some of the Roman emperors indulged their passion for
+blood is matter of history.
+
+Gall gives several authentic instances of bloodthirstiness.[3] A Dutch
+priest had such a desire to kill and to see killed, that he became
+chaplain to a regiment that he might have the satisfaction of seeing
+deaths occurring wholesale in engagements. The same man kept a large
+collection of various kinds of domestic animals, that he might be able
+to torture their young. He killed the animals for his kitchen, and was
+acquainted with all the hangmen in the country, who sent him notice of
+executions, and he would walk for days that he might have the
+gratification of seeing a man executed.
+
+ [3] GALL: _Sur les Fonctions du Cerveau_, tom. iv.
+
+
+In the field of battle the passion is variously developed; some feel
+positive delight in slaying, others are indifferent. An old soldier,
+who had been in Waterloo, informed me that to his mind there was no
+pleasure equal to running a man through the body, and that he could lie
+awake at night musing on the pleasurable sensations afforded him by
+that act.
+
+Highwaymen are frequently not content with robbery, but manifest a
+bloody inclination to torment and kill. John Rosbeck, for instance, is
+well known to have invented and exercised the most atrocious cruelties,
+merely that he might witness the sufferings of his victims, who were
+especially women and children. Neither fear nor torture could break him
+of the dreadful passion till he was executed.
+
+Gall tells of a violin-player, who, being arrested, confessed to
+thirty-four murders, all of which he had committed, not from enmity or
+intent to rob, but solely because it afforded him an intense pleasure
+to kill.
+
+Spurzheim[4] tells of a priest at Strasbourg, who, though rich, and
+uninfluenced by envy or revenge, from exactly the same motive, killed
+three persons.
+
+ [4] _Doctrine of the Mind_, p. 158.
+
+
+Gall relates the case of a brother of the Duke of Bourbon, Condé, Count
+of Charlois, who, from infancy, had an inveterate pleasure in torturing
+animals: growing older, he lived to shed the blood of human beings, and
+to exercise various kinds of cruelty. He also murdered many from no
+other motive, and shot at slaters for the pleasure of seeing them fall
+from the roofs of houses.
+
+Louis XI. of France caused the death of 4,000 people during his reign;
+he used to watch their executions from a neighbouring lattice. He had
+gibbets placed outside his own palace, and himself conducted the
+executions.
+
+It must not be supposed that cruelty exists merely in the coarse and
+rude; it is quite as frequently observed in the refined and educated.
+Among the former it is manifest chiefly in insensibility to the
+sufferings of others; in the latter it appears as a passion, the
+indulgence of which causes intense pleasure.
+
+Those bloody tyrants, Nero and Caligula, Alexander Borgia, and
+Robespierre, whose highest enjoyment consisted in witnessing the
+agonies of their fellow-men, were full of delicate sensibilities and
+great refinement of taste and manner.
+
+I have seen an accomplished young woman of considerable refinement and
+of a highly strung nervous temperament, string flies with her needle on
+a piece of thread, and watch complacently their flutterings. Cruelty
+may remain latent till, by some accident. it is aroused, and then it
+will break forth in a devouring flame. It is the same with the passion
+for blood as with the passions of love and hate; we have no conception
+of the violence with which they can rage till circumstances occur which
+call them into action. Love or hate will be dominant in a breast which
+has been in serenity, till suddenly the spark falls, passion blazes
+forth, and the serenity of the quiet breast is shattered for ever. A
+word, a glance, a touch, are sufficient to fire the magazine of passion
+in the heart, and to desolate for ever an existence. It is the same
+with bloodthirstiness. It may lurk in the deeps of some heart very dear
+to us. It may smoulder in the bosom which is most cherished by us, and
+we may be perfectly unconscious of its existence there. Perhaps
+circumstances will not cause its development; perhaps moral principle
+may have bound it down with fetters it can never break.
+
+Michael Wagener[5] relates a horrible story which occurred in Hungary,
+suppressing the name of the person, as it was that of a still powerful
+family in the country. It illustrates what I have been saying, and
+shows how trifling a matter may develope the passion in its most
+hideous proportions.
+
+ [5] _Beitrage zur philosophischen Anthropologie_, Wien, 1796.
+
+
+“Elizabeth ——— was wont to dress well in order to please her husband,
+and she spent half the day over her toilet. On one occasion, a
+lady’s-maid saw something wrong in her head-dress, and as a recompence
+for observing it, received such a severe box on the ears that the blood
+gushed from her nose, and spirted on to her mistress’s face. When the
+blood drops were washed off her face, her skin appeared much more
+beautiful—whiter and more transparent on the spots where the blood had
+been.
+
+“Elizabeth formed the resolution to bathe her face and her whole body
+in human blood so as to enhance her beauty. Two old women and a certain
+Fitzko assisted her in her undertaking. This monster used to kill the
+luckless victim, and the old women caught the blood, in which Elizabeth
+was wont to bathe at the hour of four in the morning. After the bath
+she appeared more beautiful than before.
+
+“She continued this habit after the death of her husband (1604) in the
+hopes of gaining new suitors. The unhappy girls who were allured to the
+castle, under the plea that they were to be taken into service there,
+were locked up in a cellar. Here they were beaten till their bodies
+were swollen. Elizabeth not unfrequently tortured the victims herself;
+often she changed their clothes which dripped with blood, and then
+renewed her cruelties. The swollen bodies were then cut up with razors.
+
+“Occasionally she had the girls burned, and then cut up, but the great
+majority were beaten to death.
+
+“At last her cruelty became so great, that she would stick needles into
+those who sat with her in a carriage, especially if they were of her
+own sex. One of her servant-girls she stripped naked, smeared her with
+honey, and so drove her out of the house.
+
+“When she was ill, and could not indulge her cruelty, she bit a person
+who came near her sick bed as though she were a wild beast.
+
+“She caused, in all, the death of 650 girls, some in Tscheita, on the
+neutral ground, where she had a cellar constructed for the purpose;
+others in different localities; for murder and bloodshed became with
+her a necessity.
+
+“When at last the parents of the lost children could no longer be
+cajoled, the castle was seized, and the traces of the murders were
+discovered. Her accomplices were executed, and she was imprisoned for
+life.”
+
+An equally remarkable example will be found in the account of the
+Mareschal de Retz given at some length in the sequel. He vas an
+accomplished man, a scholar, an able general, and a courtier; but
+suddenly the impulse to murder and destroy came upon him whilst sitting
+in the library reading Suetonius; he yielded to the impulse, and became
+one of the greatest monsters of cruelty the world has produced.
+
+The case of Sviatek, the Gallician cannibal, is also to the purpose.
+This man was a harmless pauper, till one day accident brought him to
+the scene of a conflagration. Hunger impelled him to taste of the roast
+fragments of a human being who had perished in the fire, and from that
+moment he ravened for man’s flesh.
+
+M. Bertrand was a French gentleman of taste and education. He one day
+lounged over the churchyard wall in a quiet country village and watched
+a funeral. Instantly an overwhelming desire to dig up and rend the
+corpse which he had seen committed to the ground came upon him, and for
+years he lived as a human hyæna, preying upon the dead. His story is
+given in detail in the fifteenth chapter.
+
+An abnormal condition of body sometimes produces this desire for blood.
+It is manifest in certain cases of pregnancy, when the constitution
+loses its balance, and the appetite becomes diseased. Schenk[6] gives
+instances.
+
+ [6] _Observationes Medic_. lib. iv. De Gravidis.
+
+
+A pregnant woman saw a baker carrying loaves on his bare shoulder. She
+was at once filled with such a craving for his flesh that she refused
+to taste any food till her husband persuaded the baker, by the offer of
+a large sum, to allow his wife to bite him. The man yielded, and the
+woman fleshed her teeth in his shoulder twice; but he held out no
+longer. The wife bore twins on three occasions, twice living, the third
+time dead.
+
+A woman in an interesting condition, near Andernach on the Rhine,
+murdered her husband, to whom she was warmly attached, ate half his
+body, and salted the rest. When the passion left her she became
+conscious of the horrible nature of her act, and she gave herself up to
+justice.
+
+In 1553, a wife cut her husband’s throat, and gnawed the nose and the
+left arm, whilst the body was yet warm. She then gutted the corpse, and
+salted it for future consumption. Shortly after, she gave birth to
+three children, and she only became conscious of what she had done when
+her neighbours asked after the father, that they might announce to him
+the arrival of the little ones.
+
+In the summer of 1845, the Greek papers contained an account of a
+pregnant woman murdering her husband for the purpose of roasting and
+eating his liver.
+
+That the passion to destroy is prevalent in certain maniacs is well
+known; this is sometimes accompanied by cannibalism.
+
+Gruner[7] gives an account of a shepherd who was evidently deranged,
+who killed and ate two men. Marc[8] relates that a woman of Unterelsas,
+during the absence of her husband, a poor labourer, murdered her son, a
+lad fifteen months old. She chopped of his legs and stewed them with
+cabbage. She ate a portion, and offered the rest to her husband. It is
+true that the family were very poor, but there was food in the house at
+the time. In prison the woman gave evident signs of derangement.
+
+ [7] _De Anthropophago Bucano_. Jen. 1792.
+
+
+ [8] _Die Geistes Krankheiten_. Berlin, 1844.
+
+
+The cases in which bloodthirstiness and cannibalism are united with
+insanity are those which properly fall under the head of Lycanthropy.
+The instances recorded in the preceding chapter point unmistakably to
+hallucination accompanying the lust for blood. Jean Grenier, Roulet,
+and others, were firmly convinced that they had undergone
+transformation. A disordered condition of mind or body may produce
+hallucination in a form depending on the character and instincts of the
+individual. Thus, an ambitious man labouring under monomania will
+imagine himself to be a king; a covetous man will be plunged in
+despair, believing himself to be penniless, or exult at the vastness of
+the treasure which he imagines that he has discovered.
+
+The old man suffering from rheumatism or gout conceives himself to be
+formed of china or glass, and the foxhunter tallyhos! at each new moon,
+as though he were following a pack. In like manner, the naturally cruel
+man, if the least affected in his brain, will suppose himself to be
+transformed into the most cruel and bloodthirsty animal with which he
+is acquainted.
+
+The hallucinations under which lycanthropists suffered may have arisen
+from various causes. The older writers, as Forestus and Burton, regard
+the were-wolf mania as a species of melancholy madness, and some do not
+deem it necessary for the patient to believe in his transformation for
+them to regard him as a lycanthropist.
+
+In the present state of medical knowledge, we know that very different
+conditions may give rise to hallucinations.
+
+In fever cases the sensibility is so disturbed that the patient is
+often deceived as to the space occupied by his limbs, and he supposes
+them to be preternaturally distended or contracted. In the case of
+typhus, it is not uncommon for the sick person, with deranged nervous
+system, to believe himself to be double in the bed, or to be severed in
+half, or to have lost his limbs. He may regard his members as composed
+of foreign and often fragile materials, as glass, or he may so lose his
+personality as to suppose himself to have become a woman.
+
+A monomaniac who believes himself to be some one else, seeks to enter
+into the feelings, thoughts, and habits of the assumed personality, and
+from the facility with which this is effected, he draws an argument,
+conclusive to himself, of the reality of the change. He thenceforth
+speaks of himself under the assumed character, and experiences all its
+needs, wishes, passions, and the like. The closer the identification
+becomes, the more confirmed is the monomaniac in his madness, the
+character of which varies with the temperament of the individual. If
+the person’s mind be weak, or rude and uncultivated, the tenacity with
+which he clings to his metamorphosis is feebler, and it becomes more
+difficult to draw the line between his lucid and insane utterances.
+Thus Jean Grenier, who laboured under this form of mania, said in his
+trial much that was true, but it was mixed with the ramblings of
+insanity.
+
+Hallucination may also be produced by artificial means, and there are
+evidences afforded by the confessions of those tried for lycanthropy,
+that these artificial means were employed by them. I refer to the salve
+so frequently mentioned in witch and were-wolf trials. The following
+passage is from the charming _Golden Ass of Apuleius_; it proves that
+salves were extensively used by witches for the purpose of
+transformation, even in his day:—
+
+“Fotis showed me a crack in the door, and bade me look through it, upon
+which I looked and saw Pamphile first divest herself of all her
+garments, and then, having unlocked a chest, take from it several
+little boxes, and open one of the latter, which contained a certain
+ointment. Rubbing this ointment a good while previously between the
+palms of her hands, she anointed her whole body, from the very nails of
+her toes to the hair on the crown of her head, and when she was
+anointed all over, she whispered many magic words to a lamp, as if she
+were talking to it. Then she began to move her arms, first with
+tremulous jerks, and afterwards by a gentle undulating motion, till a
+glittering, downy surface by degrees overspread her body, feathers and
+strong quills burst forth suddenly, her nose became a hard crooked
+beak, her toes changed to curved talons, and Pamphile was no longer
+Pamphile, but it was an owl I saw before me. And now, uttering a harsh,
+querulous scream, leaping from the ground by little and little, in
+order to try her powers, and presently poising herself aloft on her
+pinions, she stretched forth her wings on either Side to their full
+extent, and flew straight away.
+
+“Having now been actually a witness of the performance of the magical
+art, and of the metamorphosis of Pamphile, I remained for some time in
+a stupefied state of astonishment. . . . At last, after I had rubbed my
+eyes some time, had recovered a little from the amazement and
+abstraction of mind, and begun to feel a consciousness of the reality
+of things about me, I took hold of the hand of Fotis and said,—‘Sweet
+damsel, bring me, I beseech thee, a portion of the ointment with which
+thy mistress hath just now anointed, and when thou hast made me a bird,
+I will be thy slave, and even wait upon thee like a winged Cupid.’
+Accordingly she crept gently into the apartment, quickly returned with
+the box of ointment, hastily placed it in my hands, and then
+immediately departed.
+
+“Elated to an extraordinary degree at the sight of the precious
+treasure, I kissed the box several times successively; and uttering
+repeated aspirations in hopes of a prosperous flight, I stripped off my
+clothes as quick as possible, dipped my fingers greedily into the box,
+and having thence extracted a good large lump of ointment, rubbed it
+all over my body and limbs. When I was thoroughly anointed, I swung my
+arms up and down, in imitation of the movement of a bird’s pinions, and
+continued to do so a little while, when instead of any perceptible
+token of feathers or wings making their appearance, my own thin skin,
+alas! grew into a hard leathern hide, covered with bristly hair, my
+fingers and toes disappeared, the palms of my hands and the soles of my
+feet became four solid hoofs, and from the end of my spine a long tail
+projected. My face was enormous, my mouth wide, my nostrils gaping, my
+lips pendulous, and I had a pair of immoderately long, rough, hairy
+ears. In short, when I came to contemplate my transformation to its
+full extent, I found that, instead of a bird, I had become—an ASS.”[9]
+
+ [9] APULEIUS, Sir George Head’s translation, bk. iii.
+
+
+Of what these magical salves were composed we know. They were composed
+of narcotics, to wit, _Solanum somniferum_, aconite, hyoscyamus,
+belladonna, opium, _acorus vulgaris_, _sium_. These were boiled down
+with oil, or the fat of little children who were murdered for the
+purpose. The blood of a bat was added, but its effects could have been
+_nil_. To these may have been added other foreign narcotics, the names
+of which have not transpired.
+
+Whatever may have been the cause of the hallucination, it is not
+surprising that the lycanthropist should have imagined himself
+transformed into a beast. The cases I have instanced are those of
+shepherds, who were by nature of their employment, brought into
+collision with wolves; and it is not surprising that these persons, in
+a condition liable to hallucinations, should imagine themselves to be
+transformed into wild beasts, and that their minds reverting to the
+injuries sustained from these animals, they should, in their state of
+temporary insanity, accuse themselves of the acts of rapacity committed
+by the beasts into which they believed themselves to be transformed. It
+is a well-known fact that men, whose minds are unhinged, will deliver
+themselves up to justice, accusing themselves of having committed
+crimes which have actually taken place, and it is only on investigation
+that their self-accusation proves to be false; and yet they will
+describe the circumstances with the greatest minuteness, and be
+thoroughly convinced of their own criminality. I need give but a single
+instance.
+
+In the war of the French Revolution, the _Hermione_ frigate was
+commanded by Capt. Pigot, a harsh man and a severe commander. His crew
+mutinied, and carried the ship into an enemy’s port, having murdered
+the captain and several of the officers, under circumstances of extreme
+barbarity. One midshipman escaped, by whom many of the criminals, who
+were afterwards taken and delivered over to justice, one by one, were
+identified. Mr. Finlayson, the Government actuary, who at that time
+held an official situation in the Admiralty, states:—“In my own
+experience I have known, on separate occasions, _more than six sailors_
+who voluntarily confessed to having struck the first blow at Capt.
+Pigot. These men detailed all the horrid circumstances of the mutiny
+with extreme minuteness and perfect accuracy; nevertheless, not one of
+them had ever been in the ship, nor had so much as seen Capt. Pigot in
+their lives. They had obtained by tradition, from their messmates, the
+particulars of the story. When long on a foreign station, hungering and
+thirsting for home, their minds became enfeebled; at length they
+actually believed themselves guilty of the crime over which they had so
+long brooded, and submitted with a gloomy pleasure to being sent to
+England in irons, for judgment. At the Admiralty we were always able to
+detect and establish their innocence, in defiance of their own solemn
+asseverations.”—(_London Judicial Gazette_, January, 1803.)
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+MYTHOLOGICAL ORIGIN OF THE WERE-WOLF MYTH.
+
+
+Metempsychosis—Sympathy between Men and Beasts—Finnbog and the
+Bear—Osage and the Beaver—The Connexion of Soul and Body—Buddism—Case
+of Mr. Holloway—Popular ideas concerning the Body—The derivation of the
+German Leichnam—Feather Dresses—Transmigration of Souls—A Basque
+Story—Story from the Pantschatantra—Savage ideas regarding Natural
+Phenomena—Thunder, Lightning, and Cloud—The origin of the Dragon—John
+of Bromton’s Dragon a Waterspout—The Legend of Typhoeus—Allegorizing of
+the Effects of a Hurricane—Anthropomorphosis—The Cirrus Cloud, a
+Heavenly Swan—Urvaci—The Storm-cloud a Daemon—Vritra and
+Rakschasas—Story of a Brahmin and a Rakschasas
+
+
+Transformation into beasts forms an integral portion of all
+mythological systems. The gods of Greece were wont to change themselves
+into animals in order to carry out their designs with greater speed,
+security, and secrecy, than in human forms. In Scandinavian mythology,
+Odin changed himself into the shape of an eagle, Loki into that of a
+salmon. Eastern religions abound in stories of transformation.
+
+The line of demarcation between this and the translation of a beast’s
+soul into man, or a man’s soul into a beast’s (metempsychosis) is very
+narrow.
+
+The doctrine of metempsychosis is founded on the consciousness of
+gradation between beasts and men. The belief in a soul-endowed animal
+world was present among the ancients, and the laws of intelligence and
+instinct were misconstrued, or were regarded as a puzzle, which no man
+might solve.
+
+The human soul with its consciousness seemed to be something already
+perfected in a pre-existing state, and, in the myth of metempsychosis,
+we trace the yearnings and gropings of the soul after the source whence
+its own consciousness was derived, counting its dreams and
+hallucinations as gleams of memory, recording acts which had taken
+place in a former state of existence.
+
+Modern philosophy has resumed the same thread of conjecture, and thinks
+to see in man the perfected development of lower organisms.
+
+After death the translation of the soul was supposed to continue. It
+became either absorbed into the _nous_, into Brahma, into the deity, or
+it sank in the scale of creation, and was degraded to animate a brute.
+Thus the doctrine of metempsychosis was emphatically one of rewards and
+punishments, for the condition of the soul after death depended on its
+training during life. A savage and bloodthirsty man was exiled, as in
+the case of Lycaon, into the body of a wild beast: the soul of a
+timorous man entered a hare, and drunkards or gluttons became swine.
+
+The intelligence which was manifest in the beasts bore such a close
+resemblance to that of man, in the childhood and youth of the world,
+that it is not to be wondered at, if our forefathers failed to detect
+the line of demarcation drawn between instinct and reason. And failing
+to distinguish this, they naturally fell into the belief in
+metempsychosis.
+
+It was not merely a fancied external resemblance between the beast and
+man, but it was the perception of skill, pursuits, desires, sufferings,
+and griefs like his own, in the animal creation, which led man to
+detect within the beast something analogous to the soul within himself;
+and this, notwithstanding the points of contrast existing between them,
+elicited in his mind so strong a sympathy that, without a great stretch
+of imagination, he invested the beast with his own attributes, and with
+the full powers of his own understanding. He regarded it as actuated by
+the same motives, as subject to the same laws of honour, as moved by
+the same prejudices, and the higher the beast was in the scale, the
+more he regarded it as an equal. A singular illustration of this will
+be found in the Finnboga Saga, c. xi.
+
+“Now we must relate about Finnbog. Afterward in the evening, when men
+slept, he rose, took his weapons, and went forth, following the tracks
+which led to the dairy farm. As was his wont, he stepped out briskly
+along the spoor till he came to the dairy. There he found the bear
+lying down, and he had slain the sheep, and he was lying on them
+lapping their blood. Then said Finnbog: ‘Stand up, Brain! make ready
+against me; that becomes you more than crouching over those sheep’s
+carcases.’
+
+“The bear sat up, looked at him, and lay down again. Finnbog said, ‘If
+you think that I am too fully armed to match with you, I will do this,’
+and he took of his helmet and laid aside his shield. Then he said,
+Stand up now, if you dare!’
+
+“The bear sat up, shook his head, and then cast himself down again.
+“Finnbog exclaimed, ‘I see, you want us both to be _boune_ alike!’ so
+he flung aside his sword and said, ‘Be it as you will; now stand up if
+you have the heart that I believe you have, rather than one such as was
+possessed by these rent sheep.’
+
+“Then Bruin stood up and prepared to fight.”
+
+The following story taken from the mouth of an Osage Indian by J. A.
+Jones, and published in his _Traditions of the North American Indians_,
+shows how thoroughly the savage mind misses the line of demarcation
+between instinct and reason, and how the man of the woods looks upon
+beasts as standing on an equality with himself.
+
+An Osage warrior is in search of a wife: he admires the tidy and shrewd
+habits of the beaver. He accordingly goes to a beaver-hut to obtain one
+of that race for a bride. “In one corner of the room sat a beaver-woman
+combing the heads of some little beavers, whose ears she boxed very
+soundly when they would not lie still. The warrior, _i. e._ the
+beaver-chief, whispered the Osage that she was his second wife, and was
+very apt to be cross when there was work to be done, which prevented
+her from going to see her neighbours. Those whose heads she was combing
+were her children, he said, and she who had made them rub their noses
+against each other and be friends, was his eldest daughter. Then
+calling aloud, ‘Wife,’ said he, ‘what have you to eat? The stranger is
+undoubtedly hungry; see, he is pale, his eye has no fire, and his step
+is like that of a moose.’
+
+“Without replying to him, for it was a sulky day with her, she called
+aloud, and a dirty-looking beaver entered. ‘Go,’ said she, ‘and fetch
+the stranger something to eat.’ With that the beaver girl passed
+through a small door into another room, from which she soon returned,
+bringing some large pieces of willow-bark, which she laid at the feet
+of the warrior and his guest. While the warrior-beaver was chewing the
+willow, and the Osage was pretending to do so, they fell to talking
+over many matters, particularly the wars of the beavers with the
+otters, and their frequent victories over them. He told our father by
+what means the beavers felled large trees, and moved them to the places
+where they wished to make dams; how they raised to an erect position
+the poles for their lodges, and how they plastered them so as to keep
+out rain. Then he spoke of their employments when they had buried the
+hatchet; of the peace and happiness and tranquillity they enjoyed when
+gathered into companies, they rested from their labours, and passed
+their time in talking and feasting, and bathing, and playing the game
+of bones, and making love. All the while the young beaver-maiden sat
+with her eyes fixed upon the Osage, at every pause moving a little
+nearer, till at length she was at his side with her forepaw upon his
+arm; a minute more and she had placed it around his neck, and was
+rubbing her soft furry cheek against his. Our ancestor, on his part,
+betrayed no disinclination to receive her caresses, but returned them
+with equal ardour. The old beaver seeing what was going on, turned his
+back upon them, and suffered them to be as kind to each other as they
+pleased. At last, turning quickly round, while the maiden, suspecting
+what was coming, and pretending to be abashed, ran behind her mother,
+he said, ‘To end this foolery, what say you to marrying my daughter?
+She is well brought up, and is the most industrious girl in the
+village. She will flap more wall with her tail in a day than any maiden
+in the nation; she will gnaw down a larger tree betwixt the rising of
+the sun and the coming of the shadows than many a smart beaver of the
+other sex. As for her wit, try her at the game of the dish, and see who
+gets up master; and for cleanliness, look at her petticoat?’ Our father
+answered that he did not doubt that she was industrious and cleanly,
+able to gnaw down a very large tree, and to use her tail to very good
+purpose; that he loved her much, and wished to make her the mother of
+his children. And thereupon the bargain was concluded.”
+
+These two stories, the one taken from Icelandic saga, the other from
+American Indian tradition, shew clearly the oneness which the
+uncultivated mind believes to exist between the soul of man and the
+soul of beast. The same sentiments actuate both man and brute, and if
+their actions are unlike, it is because of the difference in their
+formation. The soul within is identical, but the external accidents of
+body are unlike.
+
+Among many rude as well as cultivated people, the body is regarded as a
+mere garment wrapped around the soul. The Buddist looks upon identity
+as existing in the soul alone, and the body as no more constituting
+identity, than the clothes he puts on or takes off. He exists as a
+spirit; for convenience he vests himself in a body; sometimes that body
+is human, sometimes it is bestial. As his soul rises in the spiritual
+scale, the nobler is the animal form which it tenants. Budda himself
+passed through various stages of existence; in one he was a hare, and
+his soul being noble, led him to immolate himself, in order that he
+might offer hospitality to Indra, who, in the form of an old man,
+craved of him food and shelter. The Buddist regards animals with
+reverence; an ancestor may be tenanting the body of the ox he is
+driving, or a descendant may be running at his side barking, and
+wagging his tail. When he falls into an ecstasy, his soul is leaving
+his body for a little while, it is laying aside its raiment of flesh
+and blood and bone, to return to it once more when the trance is over.
+But this idea is not confined to Buddists, it is common everywhere. The
+spirit or soul is supposed to be imprisoned in the body, the body is
+but the lantern through which the spirit shines, “the corruptible body”
+is believed to “press down the soul,” and the soul is unable to attain
+to perfect happiness till it has shuffled off this earthy coil. Butler
+regards the members of the body as so many instruments used by the soul
+for the purpose of seeing, hearing, feeling, &c., just as we use
+telescopes or crutches, and which may be rejected without injury to our
+individuality.
+
+The late Mr. J. Holloway, of the Bank of England, brother to the
+engraver of that name, related of himself that, being one night in bed,
+and unable to sleep, he had fixed his eyes and thoughts with uncommon
+intensity on a beautiful star that was shining in at the window, when
+he suddenly found his spirit released from his body and soaring into
+space. But instantly seized with anxiety for the anguish of his wife,
+if she discovered his body apparently dead beside her, he returned, and
+re-entered it with difficulty. He described that returning as a
+returning from light into darkness, and that whilst the spirit was
+free, he was alternately in the light or the dark, accordingly as his
+thoughts were with his wife or with the star. Popular mythology in most
+lands regards the soul as oppressed by the body, and its liberation is
+considered a deliverance from the “burden” of the flesh. Whether the
+soul is at all able to act or express itself without a body, any more
+than a fire is able to make cloth without the apparatus of boiler and
+machinery, is a question which has not commended itself to the popular
+mind. But it may be remarked that the Christian religion alone is that
+which raises the body to a dignity equal to that of the soul, and gives
+it a hope of ennoblement and resurrection never dreamed of in any
+mythological system.
+
+But the popular creed, in spite of the most emphatic testimony of
+Scripture, is that the soul is in bondage so long as it is united to a
+body, a creed entirely in accordance with that of Buddism.
+
+If the body be but the cage, as a poet[1] of our own has been pleased
+to call it, in which dwells the imprisoned soul, it is quite possible
+for the soul to change its cage. If the body be but a vesture clothing
+the soul, as the Buddist asserts, it is not improbable that it may
+occasionally change its vesture.
+
+ [1] VAUGHN, _Sitex Scintillans_.
+
+
+This is self-evident, and thus have arisen the countless tales of
+transformation and transmigration which are found all over the world.
+That the same view of the body as a mere clothing of the soul was taken
+by our Teutonic and Scandinavian ancestors, is evident even from the
+etymology of the words _leichnam_, _lîkhama_, used to express the
+soulless body.
+
+I have already spoken of the Norse word _hamr_, I wish now to make some
+further remarks upon it. _Hamr_ is represented in Anglo-Saxon by
+_hama_, _homa_, in Saxon by _hamo_, in old High German by _hamo_, in
+old French by _homa_, _hama_, to which are related the Gothic
+_gahamon_, _ufar-hamon_, _ana-hamon_, {Greek _e?ndúesðai_}, {Greek
+_e?pendúesðai_}; _and-hamon_, _af-hamon_, {Greek _a?pekdúein_} {Greek
+_e?kdúesðai?_} thence also the old High German _hemidi_, and the modern
+_Hemde_, garment. In composition we find this word, as _lîk-hagnr_, in
+old Norse; in old High German _lîk-hamo_, Anglo-Saxon _lîk-hama_, and
+_flæsc-hama_, Old Saxon, _lîk-hamo_, modern German _Leich-nam_, a body,
+_i. e._ a garment of flesh, precisely as the bodies of birds are called
+in old Norse _fjaðr-hamr_, in Anglo-Saxon _feðerhoma_, in Old Saxon
+_fetherhamo_, or feather-dresses and the bodies of wolves are called in
+old Norse _ûlfshamr_, and seals’ bodies in Faroëse _kôpahamr_. The
+significance of the old verb _að hamaz_ is now evident; it is to
+migrate from one body to another, and _hama-skipti_ is a transmigration
+of the soul. The method of this transmigration consisted in simply
+investing the body with the skin of the animal into which the soul was
+to migrate. When Loki, the Northern god of evil, went in quest of the
+stolen Idunn, he borrowed of Freyja her falcon dress, and at once
+became, to all intents and purposes, a falcon. Thiassi pursued him as
+he left Thrymheimr, having first taken upon him an eagle’s dress, and
+thereby become an eagle.
+
+In order to seek Thor’s lost hammer, Loki borrowed again of Freyja her
+feather dress, and as be flew away in it, the feathers sounded as they
+winnowed the breeze (_fjaðrhamr dunði_).
+
+In like manner Cædmon speaks of an evil spirit flying away in
+feather-dress: “þät he mid feðerhomon fleôgan meahte, windan on wolkne”
+(Gen. ed. Gr. 417), and of an angel, “þuo þar suogan quam engil þes
+alowaldon obhana fun radure faran an feðerhamon” (Hêlj. 171, 23), the
+very expression made use of when speaking of a bird: “farad an
+feðarhamun” (Hêlj. 50,11).
+
+The soul, in certain cases, is able to free itself from the body and to
+enter that of beast or man—in this form stood the myth in various
+theological systems.
+
+Among the Finns and Lapps it is not uncommon for a magician to fall
+into a cataleptic condition, and during the period his soul is believed
+to travel very frequently in bodily form, having assumed that of any
+animal most suitable for its purpose. I have given instances in a
+former chapter. The same doctrine is evident in most cases of
+lycanthropy. The patient is in a state of trance, his body is watched,
+and it remains motionless, but his soul has migrated into the carcase
+of a wolf, which it vivifies, and in which it runs its course. A
+curious Basque story shows that among this strange Turanian people, cut
+off by such a flood of Aryan nations from any other members of its
+family, the same superstition remains. A huntsman was once engaged in
+the chase of it bear among the Pyreneean peaks, when Bruin turned
+suddenly on him and hugged him to death, but not before he had dealt
+the brute its mortal wound. As the huntsman expired, he breathed his
+soul into the body of the bear, and thenceforward ranged the mountains
+as a beast.
+
+One of the tales of the Sanskrit book of fables, the _Pantschatantra_,
+affords such a remarkable testimony to the Indian belief in
+metempsychosis, that I am tempted to give it in abstract.
+
+A king was one day passing through the marketplace of his city, when he
+observed a hunchbacked merryandrew, whose contortions and jokes kept
+the bystanders in a roar of laughter. Amused with the fellow, the king
+brought him to his palace. Shortly after, in the hearing of the clown,
+a necromancer taught the monarch the art of sending his soul into a
+body not his own.
+
+Some little while after this, the monarch, anxious to put in practice
+his newly acquired knowledge, rode into the forest accompanied by his
+fool, who, he believed, had not heard, or, at all events comprehended,
+the lesson. They came upon the corpse of a Brahmin lying in the depth
+of the jungle, where he had died of thirst. The king, leaving his
+horse, performed the requisite ceremony, and instantly his soul had
+migrated into the body of the, Brahmin, and his own lay as dead upon
+the ground. At the same moment, however, the hunchback deserted his
+body, and possessed himself of that which had been the king’s, and
+shouting farewell to the dismayed monarch, he rode back to the palace,
+where he was received with royal honours. But it was not long before
+the queen and one of the ministers discovered that a screw was
+somewhere loose, and when the quondam king, but now Brahmin, arrived
+and told his tale, a plot was laid for the recovery of his body. The
+queen asked her false husband whether it were possible to make her
+parrot talk, and he in a moment of uxorious weakness promised to make
+it speak. He laid his body aside, and sent his soul into the parrot.
+Immediately the true king jumped out of his Brahmin body and resumed
+that which was legitimately his own, and then proceeded, with the
+queen, to wring the neck of the parrot.
+
+But besides the doctrine of metempsychosis, which proved such a fertile
+mother of fable, there was another article of popular mythology which
+gave rise to stories of transformation. Among the abundant
+superstitions existing relative to transformation, three shapes seem to
+have been pre-eminently affected—that of the swan, that of the wolf,
+and that of the serpent. In many of the stories of those transformed,
+it is evident that the individual who changes shape is regarded with
+superstitious reverence, as a being of a higher order—of a divine
+nature. In Christian countries, everything relating to heathen
+mythology was regarded with a suspicious eye by the clergy, and any
+miraculous powers not sanctioned by the church were attributed to the
+evil one. The heathen gods became devils, and the marvels related of
+them were supposed to be effected by diabolic agency. A case of
+transformation which had shown the power of an ancient god, was in
+Christian times considered as an instance of witchcraft. Thus stories
+of transformation fell into bad odour, and those who changed shapes
+were no longer regarded as heavenly beings, commanding reverence, but
+as miserable witches deserving the stake.
+
+In the infancy of the world, when natural phenomena were
+ill-understood, expressions which to us are poetical were of a real
+significance. When we speak of thunder rolling, we use an expression
+which conveys no further idea than a certain likeness observed between
+the detonations and the roll of a vehicle; but to the uninstructed mind
+it was more. The primæval savage knew not what caused thunder, and
+tracing the resemblance between it and the sound of wheels, he at once
+concluded that the chariot of the gods was going abroad, or that the
+celestial spirits were enjoying a game of bowls.
+
+We speak of fleecy clouds, because they appear to us soft and light as
+wool, but the first men tracing the same resemblance, believed the
+light vapours to be flocks of heavenly sheep. Or we say that the clouds
+are flying: the savage used the same expression, as he looked up at the
+mackerel sky, and saw in it flights of swans coursing over the heavenly
+lake. Once more, we creep nearer to the winter fire, shivering at the
+wind, which we remark is howling around the house, and yet we do not
+suppose that the wind has a voice. The wild primæval men thought that
+it had, and because dogs and wolves howl, and the wind howled, and
+because they had seen dogs and wolves, they concluded that the
+storm-wind was a night-hound, or a monstrous wolf, racing over the
+country in the darkness of the winter night, ravening for prey.
+
+Along with the rise of this system of explaining the operations of
+nature by analogies in the bestial world, another conclusion forced
+itself on the untaught mind. The flocks which strayed in heaven were no
+earthly sheep, but were the property of spiritual beings, and were
+themselves perhaps spiritual; the swans which flew aloft, far above the
+topmost peak of the Himalaya, were no ordinary swans, but were divine
+and heavenly. The wolf which howled so wildly in the long winter night,
+the hounds, whose bay sounded so. dismally through the shaking black
+forest, were no mundane wolves and hounds, but issued from the home of
+a divine hunter, and were themselves wondrous, supernatural beings of
+godlike race.
+
+And so, the clouds having become swans, the swan-clouds were next
+believed to be divine beings, valkyries, apsaras, and the like, seen by
+mortals in their feather-dresses, but appearing among the gods as
+damsels. The storm-wind having been supposed to be a wolf, next was
+taken to be a tempestuous god, who delighted to hunt on earth in lupine
+form.
+
+I have mentioned also the serpent shape, as being one very favourite in
+mythology. The ancient people saw the forked and writhing lightning,
+and supposed it to be a heavenly fiery serpent, a serpent which had
+godlike powers, which was in fact a divine being, manifesting himself
+to mortals under that form. Among the North American Indians, the
+lightning is still regarded as the great serpent, and the thunder is
+supposed to be his hissing.
+
+“Ah!” exclaimed a Magdeburg peasant to a German professor, during a
+thunder-storm, as a vivid forked gleam shot to earth, “what a glorious
+snake was that!” And this resemblance did not escape the Greeks.
+
+{Greek _é!likes d? e?klámpousi steroph~s ksápuroi_}.
+
+
+_Æsch. Prom._ 1064.
+
+
+{Greek _drákonta pursónwton, ó!s á?platon a?mfeliktòs
+é!lik? e?froúrei, ktanw’n_}.
+
+
+_Eurip. Herc. F._ 395.
+
+
+And according to Aristotle, {Greek _e!likíai_} are the lightnings,
+{Greek _grammoeidw~s ferómenoi_}.
+
+It is so difficult for us to unlearn all we know of the nature of
+meteorological phenomena, so hard for us to look upon atmospheric
+changes as though we knew nothing of the laws that govern them, that we
+are disposed to treat such explanations of popular myths as I have
+given above, as fantastic and improbable.
+
+But among the ancients all solutions of natural problems were
+tentative, and it is only after the failure of every attempt made to
+explain these phenomena on supernatural grounds that we have been
+driven to the discovery of the true interpretation. Yet among the
+vulgar a vast amount of mythology remains, and is used still to explain
+atmospheric mysteries. The other day a Yorkshire girl, when asked why
+she was not afraid of thunder, replied because it was only her Father’s
+voice; what knew she of the rushing together of air to fill the vacuum
+caused by the transit of the electric fluid? to her the thunder-clap
+was the utterance of the Almighty. Still in North Germany does the
+peasant say of thunder, that the angels are playing skittles aloft, and
+of the snow, that they are shaking up the feather-beds in heaven.
+
+The myth of the dragon is one which admits, perhaps more than any
+other, of identification with a meteorological phenomenon, and presents
+to us as well the phase of transition from theriomorphosis to
+anthropomorphosis.
+
+The dragon of popular mythology is nothing else than the thunderstorm,
+rising at the horizon, rushing with expanded, winnowing, black pennons
+across the sky, darting out its forked fiery tongue, and belching fire.
+In a Slovakian legend, the dragon sleeps in a mountain cave through the
+winter months, but, at the equinox, bursts forth—“In a moment the
+heaven was darkened and became black as pitch, only illumined by the
+fire which flashed from dragon’s jaws and eyes. The earth shuddered,
+the stones rattled down the mountain sides into the glens. Right and
+left, left and right, did the dragon lash his tail, overthrowing pines
+and beeches, snapping them as rods. He evacuated such floods of water
+that the mountain torrents were full. But after a while his power was
+exhausted, he lashed no more with his tail, ejected no more water, and
+spat no more fire.”
+
+I think it is impossible not to see in this description, a spring-tide
+thunderstorm. But to make it more evident that the untaught mind did
+regard such a storm as a dragon, I think the following quotation from
+_John of Brompton’s Chronicle_ will convince the most sceptical:
+“Another remarkable thing is this, that took place during a certain
+month in the Gulf of Satalia (on the coast of Pamphylia). There
+appeared a great and black dragon which came in clouds, and let down
+his head into the water, whilst his tail seemed turned to the sky; and
+the dragon drew the water to him by drinking, with such avidity, that,
+if any ship, even though laden with men or any other heavy articles,
+had been near him when drinking, it would nevertheless have been sucked
+up and carried on high. In order however to avoid this danger, it is
+necessary, when people see it, at once to make a great uproar, and to
+shout and hammer tables, so that the dragon, hearing the noise, and the
+voices of those shouting, may withdraw himself far off. Some people,
+however, assert that this is not a dragon, but the sun drawing up the
+waters of the sea; which seems more probable.”[2] Such is John of
+Brompton’s account of a waterspout. In Greek mythology the dragon of
+the storm has begun to undergo anthropomorphosis. Typhœus is the son of
+Tartarus and Terra; the storm rising from the horizon may well be
+supposed to issue from the earth’s womb, and its characteristics are
+sufficient to decide its paternity. Typhœus, the whirlwind or typhoon,
+has a hundred dragon or serpent heads, the long writhing strive of
+vapour which run before the hurricane cloud. He belches fire, that is,
+lightnings issue from the clouds, and his roaring is like the howling
+of wild dogs. Typhœus ascends to heaven to make war on the gods, who
+fly from him in various fantastic shapes; who cannot see in this ascent
+the hurricane climbing up the vault of sky, and in the flying gods, the
+many fleeting fragments of white cloud which are seen drifting across
+the heavens before the gale!
+
+ [2] Apud TWYSDEN, Hist. Anglicæ Script. x. 1652. p. 1216.
+
+
+Typhœus, according to Hesiod, is the father of all bad winds, which
+destroy with rain and tempest, all in fact which went among the Greeks
+by the name of {Greek _laílaps_}, bringing injury to the agriculturist
+and peril to the voyager.
+
+{Greek_?Ek dè Tufwéos é?st? a?némwn ménos u!gròn á?eptwn,
+nósfi Nótou Boréw te, kaì a?rgéstew Zefúrou te.
+oí! ge mèn e?n ðeófin geneh`, ðnhtoïs még? ó?neiar.
+ai! d? á?llai mapsau~rai e?pipneíousi ðalassan.
+ai! d? h?’toi píptousai e?s heroeideá pónton,
+ph~ma méga ðnhtoi~si, kakh~j ðúousin a?éllhj.
+á?llote d? á?llai a?eísi, diaskidna~si te nh~as,
+naútas te fðeírousi. kakou~ d? ou? gígnetai a?lkh`
+a?ndrásin, oí! keínhjsi sinántwntai katà pónton.
+ai! d? aû? kaì katà gai~an a?peíriton, a?nðemóessan
+é?rg? e?ratà fðeírousi xamaigenéwn a?nðrw’pwn,
+pimpleu~sai kóniós te kaì a?rgaléou kolosurtou~_}
+
+
+_Hesiod. Theog._ 870, _seq._
+
+
+In both modern Greek and Lithuanian household mythology the dragon or
+drake has become an ogre, a gigantic man with few of the dracontine
+attributes remaining. Von Hahn, in his _Griechische und Albanesische
+Märchen_, tells many tales of drakes, and in all, the old
+characteristics have been lost, and the drake is simply a gigantic man
+with magical and superhuman powers.
+
+It is the same among the Lithuanian peasantry. A dragon walks on two
+legs, talks, flirts with a lady, and marries her. He retains his evil
+disposition, but has sloughed off his scales and wings.
+
+Such is the change which has taken place in the popular conception of
+the dragon, which is an impersonification of the thunderstorm. A
+similar change has taken place in the swan-maiden and were-wolf myths.
+
+In ancient Indian Vedaic mythology the apsaras were heavenly damsels
+who dwelt in the tether, between earth and sun. Their name, which
+signifies “the shapeless,” or “those who go in the water “—it is
+uncertain which. is the correct derivation—is expressive of the white
+cirrus, constantly changing form, and apparently floating swan-like on
+the blue heaven-sea. These apsaras, according to the Vedaic creed, were
+fond of changing their shapes, appearing generally as ducks or swans,
+occasionally as human beings. The souls of heroes were given to them
+for lovers and husbands. One of the most graceful of the early Indian
+myths is the story of the apsaras, Urvaçî. Urvaçî loved Puravaras and
+became his ’wife, on the condition that she was n-ever to behold him in
+a state of nudity. They remained together for years, till the heavenly
+companions of Urvaçî determined to secure her return to them. They
+accordingly beguiled Puravaras into leaving his bed in the darkness of
+night, and then with a lightning flash they disclosed him, in his
+nudity, to his wife, who was thereupon constrained to leave him. He
+pursued her, full of sorrow at his loss, and found her at length
+swimming in a large lotus pond, in swan’s shape.
+
+That this story is not a mere invention, but rests on some mythological
+explanation of natural phenomena, I think more than probable, as it is
+found all over the world with few variations. As every Aryan branch
+retains the story, or traces of it, there can be no doubt that the
+belief in swan-maidens, who swam in the heavenly sea, and who sometimes
+became the wives of those fortunate men who managed to steal from them
+their feather dresses, formed an integral portion of the old
+mythological system of the Aryan family, before it was broken up into
+Indian, Persian, Greek, Latin, Russian, Scandinavian, Teutonic, and
+other races. But more, as the same myth is found. in tribes not Aryan,
+and far removed from contact with European or Indian superstition,—as,
+for instance, among Samoyeds and American Indians,—it is even possible
+that this story may be a tradition of the first primæval stock of men.
+
+But it is time for me to leave the summer cirrus and turn to the
+tempest-born rain-cloud. It is represented in ancient Indian mythology
+by the Vritra or Râkshasas. At first the form of these dæmons was
+uncertain and obscure. Vritra is often used as an appellative for a
+cloud, and kabhanda, an old name for a rain-cloud, in later times
+became the name of a devil. Of Vritra, who envelopes the mountains with
+vapour, it is said, “The darkness stood retaining the water, the
+mountains lay in the belly of Vritra.” By degrees Vritra stood out more
+prominently as a dæmon, and he is described as a “devourer” of gigantic
+proportions. In the same way Râkshasas obtained corporeal form and
+individuality. He is a misshapen giant “like to a cloud,” with a red
+beard and red hair, with pointed protruding teeth, ready to lacerate
+and devour human flesh. His body is covered with coarse bristling hair,
+his huge mouth is open, he looks from side to side as he walks, lusting
+after the flesh and blood of men, to satisfy his raging hunger, and
+quench his consuming thirst. Towards nightfall his strength increases
+manifold. He can change his shape at will. He haunts the woods, and
+roams howling through the jungle; in short, he is to the Hindoo what
+the were-wolf is to the European.
+
+A certain wood was haunted by a Râkschasa; he one day came across a
+Brahmin, and with a bound reached his shoulders, and clung to them,
+exclaiming, “Heh! go on with you!” And the Brahmin, quaking with fear,
+advanced with him. But when he observed that the feet of the Râkschasa
+were as delicate as the stamens of the lotus, he asked him, How is it
+that you have such weak and slender feet? The Râkschasa replied, “I
+never walk nor touch the earth with my feet. I have made a vow not to
+do so.” Presently they came to a large pond. Then the Râkschasa bade
+the Brahmin wait at the edge whilst he bathed and prayed to the gods.
+But the Brahmin thought: “As soon as these prayers and ablutions are
+over, he will tear me to pieces with his fangs and eat me. He has vowed
+not to walk; I will be off post haste!” so he ran away, and the
+Râkschasa dared not follow him for fear of breaking his VOW.
+(_Pantschatantra_, v. 13.) There is a similar story in the Mahâbhârata,
+xiii., and in the Kathâ Sarit Sâgara, v. 49-53.
+
+I have said sufficient to show that natural phenomena gave rise to
+mythological stories, and that these stories have gradually
+deteriorated, and have been degraded into vulgar superstitions. And I
+have shown that both the doctrine of metempsychosis and the
+mythological explanations of meteorological changes have given rise to
+abundant fable, and among others to the popular and wide-spread
+superstition of lycanthropy. I shall now pass from myth to history, and
+shall give instances of bloodthirstiness, cruelty, and cannibalism.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+THE MARÉCHAL DE RETZ.—I. THE INVESTIGATION OF CHARGES.
+
+
+Introduction—History of Gilles de Laval—The Castle of
+Machecoul—Surrender of the Marshal—Examination of Witnesses—Letter of
+De Retz—The Duke of Brittany reluctant to move—The Bishop of Nantes
+
+
+The history of the man whose name heads this chapter I purpose giving
+in detail, as the circumstances I shall narrate have, I believe, never
+before been given with accuracy to the English public. The name of
+Gilles de Laval may be well known, as sketches of his bloody career
+have appeared in many biographies, but these sketches have been very
+incomplete, as the material from which they were composed was meagre.
+M. Michelet alone ventured to give the public an idea of the crimes
+which brought a marshal of France to the gallows, and his revelations
+were such that, in the words of M. Henri
+
+Martin, “this iron age, which seemed unable to feel surprise at any
+amount of evil, was struck with dismay.”
+
+M. Michelet derived his information from the abstract of the papers
+relating, to the case, made by order of Ann of Brittany, in the
+Imperial Library. The original documents were in the library at Nantes,
+and a great portion of them were destroyed in the Revolution of 1789.
+But a careful analysis had been made of them, and this valuable
+abridgment, which was inaccessible to M. Michelet, came into the hands
+of M. Lacroix, the eminent French antiquarian, who published a memoir
+of the marshal from the information he had thus obtained, and it is his
+work, by far the most complete and circumstantial which has appeared,
+that I condense into the following chapters.
+
+“The most monstrously depraved imagination,” says M. Henri Martin,
+“never could have conceived what the trial reveals.” M. Lacroix has
+been obliged to draw a veil over much that transpired, and I must draw
+it closer still. I have, however, said enough to show that this
+memorable trial presents horrors probably unsurpassed in the whole
+volume of the world’s history.
+
+During the year 1440, a terrible rumour spread through Brittany, and
+especially through the ancient _pays de Retz_, which extends along the
+south of the Loire from Nantes to Paimbœuf, to the effect that one of
+the most famous and powerful noblemen in Brittany, Gilles de Laval,
+Maréchal de Retz, was guilty of crimes of the most diabolical nature.
+
+Gilles de Laval, eldest son of Gay de Laval, second of his name, Sire
+de Retz, had raised the junior branch of the illustrious house of Laval
+above the elder branch, which was related to the reigning family of
+Brittany. He lost his father when he was aged twenty, and remained
+master of a vast territorial inheritance, which was increased by his
+marriage with Catharine de Thouars in 1420. He employed a portion of
+their fortune in the cause of Charles VII., and in strengthening the
+French crown. During seven consecutive years, from 1426 to 1433, he was
+engaged in military enterprises against the English; his name is always
+cited along with those of Dunois, Xaintrailles, Florent d’Illiers,
+Gaucourt, Richemont, and the most faithful servants of the king. His
+services were speedily acknowledged by the king creating him Marshal of
+France. In 1427, he assaulted the Castle of Lude, and carried it by
+storm; he killed with his own hand the commander of the place; next
+year he captured from the English the fortress of Rennefort, and the
+Castle of Malicorne; in 1429, he took an active part in the expedition
+of Joan of Arc for the deliverance of Orleans, and the occupation of
+Jargeau, and he was with her in the moat, when she was wounded by an
+arrow under the walls of Paris.
+
+The marshal, councillor, and chamberlain of the king participated in
+the direction of public affairs, and soon obtained the entire
+confidence of his master. He accompanied Charles to Rheims on the
+occasion of his coronation, and had the honour of bearing the
+oriflamme, brought for the occasion from the abbey of S. Remi. His
+intrepidity on the field of battle was as remarkable as his sagacity in
+council, and he proved himself to be both an excellent warrior and a
+shrewd politician.
+
+Suddenly, to the surprise of every one, he quitted the service of
+Charles VII., and sheathed for ever his sword, in the retirement of the
+country. The death of his maternal grandfather, Jean de Craon, in 1432,
+made him so enormously wealthy, that his revenues were estimated at
+800,000 livres; nevertheless, in two years, by his excessive
+prodigality, he managed to lose a considerable portion of his
+inheritance. Mauléon, S. Etienne de Malemort, Loroux-Botereau, Pornic,
+and Chantolé, he sold to John V., Duke of Brittany, his kinsman, and
+other lands and seigneurial rights he ceded to the Bishop of Nantes,
+and to the chapter of the cathedral in that city.
+
+The rumour soon spread that these extensive cessions of territory were
+sops thrown to the duke and to the bishop, to restrain the one from
+confiscating his goods, and the other from pronouncing excommunication,
+for the crimes of which the people whisperingly accused him; but these
+rumours were probably without foundation, for eventually it was found
+hard to persuade the duke of the guilt of his kinsman, and the bishop
+was the most determined instigator of the trial.
+
+The marshal seldom visited the ducal court, but he often appeared in
+the city of Nantes, where he inhabited the Hôtel de la Suze, with a
+princely retinue. He had, always accompanying him, a guard of two
+hundred men at arms, and a numerous suit of pages, esquires, chaplains,
+singers, astrologers, &c., all of whom he paid handsomely.
+
+Whenever he left the town, or moved to one of his other seats, the
+cries of the poor, which had been restrained during the time of his
+presence, broke forth. Tears flowed, curses were uttered, a
+long-continued wail rose to heaven, the moment that the last of the
+marshal’s party had left the neighbourhood. Mothers had lost their
+children, babes had been snatched from the cradle, infants had been
+spirited away almost from the maternal arms, and it was known by sad
+experience that the vanished little ones would never be seen again.
+
+But on no part of the country did the shadow of this great fear fall so
+deeply as on the villages in the neighbourhood of the Castle of
+Machecoul, a gloomy château, composed of huge towers, and surrounded by
+deep moats, a residence much frequented by Do Retz, notwithstanding its
+sombre and repulsive appearance. This fortress was always in a
+condition to resist a siege: the drawbridge was raised, the portcullis
+down, the gates closed, the men under arms, the culverins on the
+bastion always loaded. No one, except the servants, had penetrated into
+this mysterious asylum and had come forth alive. In the surrounding
+country strange tales of horror and devilry circulated in whispers, and
+yet it was observed that the chapel of the castle was gorgeously decked
+with tapestries of silk and cloth of gold, that the sacred vessels were
+encrusted with gems, and that the vestments of the priests were of the
+most sumptuous character. The excessive devotion of the marshal was
+also noticed; he was said to hear mass thrice daily, and to be
+passionately fond of ecclesiastical music. He was said to have asked
+permission of the pope, that a crucifer should precede him in
+processions. But when dusk settled down over the forest, and one by one
+the windows of the castle became illumined, peasants would point to one
+casement high up in an isolated tower, from which a clear light
+streamed through the gloom of night; they spoke of a fierce red glare
+which irradiated the chamber at times, and of sharp cries ringing out
+of it, through the hushed woods, to be answered only by the howl of the
+wolf as it rose from its lair to begin its nocturnal rambles.
+
+On certain days, at fixed hours, the drawbridge sank, and the servants
+of De Retz stood in the gateway distributing clothes, money, and food
+to the mendicants who crowded round them soliciting alms. It often
+happened that children were among the beggars: as often one of the
+servants would promise them some dainty if they would go to the kitchen
+for it. Those children who accepted the offer were never seen again.
+
+In 1440 the long-pent-up exasperation of the people broke all bounds,
+and with one voice they charged the marshal with the murder of their
+children, whom they said he had sacrificed to the devil.
+
+This charge came to the ears of the Duke of Brittany, but he
+pooh-poohed it, and would have taken no steps to investigate the truth,
+had not one of his nobles insisted on his doing so. At the same time
+Jean do Châteaugiron, bishop of Nantes, and the noble and sage Pierre
+de l’Hospital, grand-seneschal of Brittany, wrote to the duke,
+expressing very decidedly their views, that the charge demanded
+thorough investigation.
+
+John V., reluctant to move against a relation, a man who had served his
+country so well, and was in such a high position, at last yielded to
+their request, and authorized them to seize the persons of the Sire de
+Retz and his accomplices. A _serjent d’armes_, Jean Labbé, was charged
+with this difficult commission. He picked a band of resolute fellows,
+twenty in all, and in the middle of September they presented themselves
+at the gate of the castle, and summoned the Sire do Retz to surrender.
+As soon as Gilles heard that a troop in the livery of Brittany was at
+the gate, he inquired who was their leader? On receiving the answer
+“Labbé,” he started, turned pale, crossed himself, and prepared to
+surrender, observing that it was impossible to resist fate.
+
+Years before, one of his astrologers had assured him that he would one
+day pass into the hands of an Abbé, and, till this moment, De Retz had
+supposed that the prophecy signified that he should eventually become a
+monk.
+
+Gilles de Sillé, Roger de Briqueville, and other of the accomplices of
+the marshal, took to flight, but Henriet and Pontou remained with him.
+
+The drawbridge was lowered and the marshal offered his sword to Jean
+Labbé. The gallant serjeant approached, knelt to the marshal, and
+unrolled before him a parchment sealed with the seal of Brittany.
+
+“Tell me the tenor of this parchment?” said Gilles de Retz with
+dignity.
+
+“Our good Sire of Brittany enjoins you, my lord, by these presents, to
+follow me to the good town of Nantes, there to clear yourself of
+certain criminal charges brought against you.”
+
+“I will follow immediately, my friend, glad to obey the will of my lord
+of Brittany: but, that it may not be said that the Seigneur de Retz has
+received a message without largess, I order my treasurer, Henriet, to
+hand over to you and your followers twenty gold crowns.”
+
+“Grand-merci, monseigneur! I pray God that he may give you good and
+long life.”
+
+“Pray God only to have mercy upon me, and to pardon my sins.”
+
+The marshal had his horses saddled, and left Machecoul with Pontou and
+Henriet, who had thrown in their lot with him.
+
+It was with lively emotion that the people in the villages traversed by
+the little troop, saw the redoubted Gilles de Laval ride through their
+streets, surrounded by soldiers in the livery of the Duke of Brittany,
+and unaccompanied by a single soldier of his own. The roads and streets
+were thronged, peasants left the fields, women their kitchens,
+labourers deserted their cattle at the plough, to throng the road to
+Nantes. The cavalcade proceeded in silence. The very crowd which had
+gathered to see it, was hushed. Presently a shrill woman’s voice was
+raised:—
+
+“My child! restore my child!”
+
+Then a wild, wrathful howl broke from the lips of the throng, rang
+along the Nantes road, and only died away, as the great gates of the
+Chateau de Bouffay closed on the prisoner.
+
+The whole population of Nantes was in commotion, and it was said that
+the investigation would be fictitious, that the duke would screen his
+kinsman, and that the object of general execration would escape with
+the surrender of some of his lands.
+
+And such would probably have been the event of the trial, had not the
+Bishop of Nantes and the grand-seneschal taken a very decided course in
+the matter. They gave the duke no peace till he had yielded to their
+demand for a thorough investigation and a public trial.
+
+John V. nominated Jean de Toucheronde to collect information, and to
+take down the charges brought against the marshal. At the same time he
+was given to understand that the matter was not to be pressed, and that
+the charges upon which the marshal was to be tried were to be softened
+down as much as possible.
+
+The commissioner, Jean de Toucheronde, opened the investigation on the
+18th September, assisted only by his clerk, Jean Thomas. The witnesses
+were introduced either singly, or in groups, if they were relations. On
+entering, the witness knelt before the commissioner, kissed the
+crucifix, and swore with his hand on the Gospels that he would speak
+the truth, and nothing but the truth: after this he related all the
+facts referring to the charge, which came under his cognizance, without
+being interrupted or interrogated.
+
+The first to present herself was Perrine Loessard, living at la
+Roche-Bernard.
+
+She related, with tears in her eyes, that two years ago, in the month
+of September, the Sire de Retz had passed with all his retinue through
+la Roche-Bernard, on his way from Vannes, and had lodged with Jean
+Collin. She lived opposite the house in which the nobleman was staying.
+
+Her child, the finest in the village, a lad aged ten, had attracted the
+notice of Pontou, and perhaps of the marshal himself, who stood at a
+window, leaning on his squire’s shoulder.
+
+Pontou spoke to the child, and asked him whether he would like to be a
+chorister; the boy replied that his ambition was to be a soldier.
+
+“Well, then,” said the squire, “I will equip you.”
+
+The lad then laid hold of Pontou’s dagger, and expressed his desire to
+have such a weapon in his belt. Thereupon the mother had ran up and had
+made him leave hold of the dagger, saying that the boy was doing very
+well at school, and was getting on with his letters, for he was one day
+to be a monk. Pontou had dissuaded her from this project, and had
+proposed to take the child with him to Machecoul, and to educate him to
+be a soldier. Thereupon he had paid her clown a hundred sols to buy the
+lad a dress, and had obtained permission to carry him off.
+
+Next day her son had been mounted on a horse purchased for him from
+Jean Collin, and had left the village in the retinue of the Sire de
+Retz. The poor mother at parting had gone in tears to the marshal, and
+had entreated him to be kind to her child. From that time she had been
+able to obtain no information regarding her son. She had watched the
+Sire de Retz whenever he had passed through La Roche Bernard, but had
+never observed her child among his pages. She had questioned several of
+the marshal’s people, but they had laughed at her; the only answer she
+had obtained was: “Be not afraid. He is either at Machecoul, or else at
+Tiffauges, or else at Pornic, or somewhere.” Perrine’s story was
+corroborated by Jean Collin, his wife, and his mother-in-law.
+
+Jean Lemegren and his wife, Alain Dulix, Perrot Duponest, Guillaume
+Guillon, Guillaume Portayer, Etienne de Monclades, and Jean Lefebure,
+all inhabitants of S. Etienne de Montluc, deposed that a little child,
+son of Guillaume Brice of the said parish, having lost his father at
+the age of nine, lived on alms, and went round the country begging.
+
+This child, named Jamet, had vanished suddenly at midsummer, and
+nothing was known of what had become of him; but strong suspicions were
+entertained of his having been carried off by an aged hag who had
+appeared shortly before in the neighbourhood, and who had vanished
+along with the child.
+
+On the 27th September, Jean de Toucheronde, assisted by Nicolas
+Chateau, notary of the court at Nantes, received the depositions of
+several inhabitants of Pont-de-Launay, near Bouvron: to wit, Guillaume
+Fourage and wife; Jeanne, wife of Jean Leflou; and Richarde, wife of
+Jean Gandeau.
+
+These depositions, though very vague, afforded sufficient cause for
+suspicion to rest on the marshal. Two years before, a child of twelve,
+son of Jean Bernard, and another child of the same age, son of Ménégué,
+had gone to Machecoul. The son of Ménégué had returned alone in the
+evening, relating that his companion had asked him to wait for him on
+the road whilst he begged at the gates of the Sire de Retz. The son of
+Ménégué said that he had waited three hours, but his companion had not
+returned. The wife of Guillaume Fourage deposed that she had seen the
+lad at this time with an old hag, who was leading him by the hand
+towards Machecoul. That same evening this hag passed over the bridge of
+Launay, and the wife of Fourage asked her what had become of little
+Bernard. The old woman neither stopped nor answered further than by
+saying he was well provided for. The boy had not been seen since. On
+the 28th September, the Duke of Brittany joined another commissioner,
+Jean Couppegorge, and a second notary, Michel Estallure, to Toucheronde
+and Chateau.
+
+The inhabitants of Machecoul, a little town over which the Sire de Retz
+exercised supreme power, appeared now to depose against their lord.
+André Barbier, shoemaker, declared that last Easter, a child, son of
+his neighbour Georges Lebarbier, had disappeared. He was last seen
+gathering plums behind the hotel Rondeau. This disappearance surprised
+none in Machecoul, and no one ventured to comment on it. André and his
+wife were in daily terror of losing their own child. They had been a
+pilgrimage to S. Jean d’Angely, and had been asked there whether it was
+the custom at Machecoul to eat children. On their return they had heard
+of two children having vanished—the son of Jean Gendron, and that of
+Alexandre Châtellier. André Barbier had made some inquiries about the
+circumstances of their disappearance, and had been advised to hold his
+tongue, and to shut his ears and eyes, unless he were prepared to be
+thrown into a dungeon by the lord of Machecoul.
+
+“But, bless me!” he had said, “am I to believe that a fairy spirits off
+and eats our little ones?”
+
+“Believe what you like,” was the advice given to him; “but ask no
+questions.” As this conversation had taken place, one of the marshal’s
+men at arms had passed, when all those who had been speaking took to
+their heels. André, who had run with the rest, without knowing exactly
+why he fled, came upon a man near the church of the Holy Trinity, who
+was weeping bitterly, and crying out,—“O my God, wilt Thou not restore
+to me my little one?” This man had also been robbed of his child.
+
+Licette, wife of Guillaume Sergent, living at La Boneardière, in the
+parish of S. Croix de Machecoul, had lost her son two years before, and
+had not seen him since; she besought the commissioners, with tears in
+her eyes, to restore him to her.
+
+“I left him,” said she, “at home whilst I went into the field with my
+husband to sow flax. He was a bonny little lad, and he was as good as
+he was bonny. He had to look after his tiny sister, who was a year and
+a half old. On my return home, the little girl was found, but she could
+not tell me what had become of him. Afterwards we found in the marsh a
+small red woollen cap which had belonged to my poor darling; but it was
+in vain that we dragged the marsh, nothing was found more, except good
+evidence that he had not been drowned. A hawker who sold needles and
+thread passed through Machecoul at the time, and told me that an old
+woman in grey, with a black hood on her head, had bought of him some
+children’s toys, and had a few moments after passed him, leading a
+little boy by the hand.”
+
+Georges Lebarbier, living near the gate of the châtelet de Machecoul,
+gave an account of the manner in which his son had evanesced. The boy
+was apprenticed to Jean Pelletier, tailor to Mme. de Retz and to the
+household of the castle. He seemed to be getting on in his profession,
+when last year, about S. Barnabas’ day, he went to play at ball on the
+castle green. He never returned from the game.
+
+This youth and his master, Jean Pelletier, had been in the habit of
+eating and drinking at the castle, and bad always laughed at the
+ominous stories told by the people.
+
+Guillaume Hilaire and his wife confirmed the statements of Lebarbier.
+They also said that they knew of the loss of the sons of Jean Gendron,
+Jeanne Rouen, and Alexandre Châtellier. The son of Jean Gendron, aged
+twelve, lived with the said Hilaire and learned of him the trade of
+skinner. He had been working in the shop for seven or eight years, and
+was a steady, hardworking lad. One day Messieurs Gilles de Sillé and
+Roger de Briqueville entered the shop to purchase a pair of hunting
+gloves. They asked if little Gendron might take a message for them to
+the castle. Hilaire readily consented, and the boy received beforehand
+the payment for going—a gold angelus, and he started, promising to be
+back directly. But he had never returned. That evening Hiliare and his
+wife, observing Gilles de Sillé and Roger de Briqueville returning to
+the castle, ran to them and asked what had become of the apprentice.
+They replied that they had no notion of where he was, as they had been
+absent hunting, but that it was possible he might have been sent to
+Tiffauges, another castle of De Retz.
+
+Guillaume Hilaire, whose depositions were more grave and explicit than
+the others, positively asserted that Jean Dujardin, valet to Roger de
+Briqueville had told him he knew of a cask secreted in the castle, full
+of children’s corpses. He said that he had often heard people say that
+children were enticed to the château and then murdered, but had treated
+it as an idle tale. He said, moreover, that the marshal was not accused
+of having any hand in the murders, but that his servants were supposed
+to be guilty.
+
+Jean Gendron himself deposed to the loss of his son, and he added that
+his was not the only child which had vanished mysteriously at
+Machecoul. He knew of thirty that had disappeared.
+
+Jean Chipholon, elder and junior, Jean Aubin, and Clement Doré, all
+inhabitants of the parish of Thomage, deposed that they had known a
+poor man of the same parish, named Mathelin Thomas, who had lost his
+son, aged twelve, and that he had died of grief in consequence.
+
+Jeanne Rouen, of Machecoul, who for nine years had been in a state of
+uncertainty whether her son were alive or dead, deposed that the child
+had been carried off whilst keeping sheep. She had thought that he had
+been devoured of wolves, but two women of Machecoul, now deceased, had
+seen Gilles de Sillé approach the little shepherd, speak to him, and
+point to the castle. Shortly after the lad had walked off in that
+direction. The husband of Jeanne Rouen went to the château to inquire
+after his son, but could obtain no information. When next Gilles de
+Sillé appeared in the town, the disconsolate mother entreated him to
+restore her child to her. Gilles replied that he knew nothing about
+him, as he had been to the king at Amboise.
+
+Jeanne, widow of Aymery Hedelin, living at Machecoul, had also lost,
+eight years before, a little child as he had pursued some butterflies
+into the wood. At the same time four other children had been carried
+off, those of Gendron, Rouen, and Macé Sorin. She said that the story
+circulated through the country was, that Gilles de Sillé stole children
+to make them over to the English, in order to obtain the ransom of his
+brother who was a captive. But she added that this report was traced to
+the servants of Sillé, and that it was propagated by them.
+
+One of the last children to disappear was that of Noël Aise, living in
+the parish of S. Croix.
+
+A man from Tiffauges had said to her (Jeanne Hedelin) that for one
+child stolen at Machecoul, there were seven carried away at Tiffauges.
+
+Macé Sorin confirmed the deposition of the widow Hedelin., and repeated
+the circumstances connected with the loss of the children of
+Châtellier, Rouen, Gendron, and Lebarbier.
+
+Perrine Rondeau had entered the castle with the company of Jean Labbé.
+She had entered a stable, and had found a heap of ashes and powder,
+which had a sickly and peculiar smell. At the bottom of a trough she
+had found a child’s shirt covered with blood.
+
+Several inhabitants of the bourg of Fresnay, to wit, Perrot,
+Parqueteau, Jean Soreau, Catherine Degrépie, Gilles Garnier, Perrine
+Viellard, Marguerite Rediern, Marie Carfin, Jeanne Laudais, said that
+they had heard Guillaume Hamelin, last Easter, lamenting the loss of
+two children.
+
+Isabeau, wife of Guillaume Hamelin, confirmed these depositions, saving
+that she had lost them seven years before. She had at that time four
+children; the eldest aged fifteen, the youngest aged seven, went
+together to Machecoul to buy some bread, but they did not return. She
+sat up for them all night and next morning. She heard that another
+child had been lost, the son of Michaut Bonnel of S. Ciré de Retz.
+
+Guillemette, wife of Michaut Bonnel, said that her son had been carried
+off whilst guarding cows.
+
+Guillaume Rodigo and his wife, living at Bourg-neuf-en-Retz, deposed
+that on the eve of last S. Bartholomew’s day, the Sire do Retz lodged
+with Guillaume Plumet in his village.
+
+Pontou, who accompanied the marshal, saw a lad of fifteen, named
+Bernard Lecanino, servant to Rodigo, standing at the door of his house.
+The lad could not speak much French, but only bas-Breton. Pontou
+beckoned to him and spoke to him in a low tone. That evening, at ten
+o’clock, Bernard left his master’s house, Rodigo and his wife being
+absent. The servant maid, who saw him go out, called to him that the
+supper table was not yet cleared, but he paid no attention to what she
+said. Rodigo, annoyed at the loss of his servant, asked some of the
+marshal’s men what had become of him. They replied mockingly that they
+knew nothing of the little Breton, but that he had probably been sent
+to Tiffauges to be trained as page to their lord.
+
+Marguerite Sorain, the chambermaid alluded to above, confirmed the
+statement of Rodigo, adding that Pontou had entered the house and
+spoken with Bernard. Guillaume Plumet and wife confirmed what Rodigo
+and Sorain had said.
+
+Thomas Aysée and wife deposed to the loss of their son, aged ten, who
+had gone to beg at the gate of the castle of Machecoul; and a little
+girl had seen him drawn by an offer of meat into the château.
+
+Jamette, wife of Eustache Drouet of S. Léger, had sent two sons, one
+aged ten, the other seven, to the castle to obtain alms. They had not
+been seen since.
+
+On the 2nd October the commissioners sat again, and the charges became
+graver, and the servants of the marshal became more and more
+implicated.
+
+The disappearance of thirteen other children was substantiated under
+circumstances throwing strong suspicion on the inmates of the castle. I
+will not give the details, for they much resemble those of the former
+depositions. Suffice it to say that before the commissioners closed the
+inquiry, a herald of the Duke of Brittany in tabard blew three calls on
+the trumpet, from the steps of the tower of Bouffay, summoning all who
+had additional charges to bring against the Sire de Retz, to present
+themselves without delay. As no fresh witnesses arrived, the case was
+considered to be made out, and the commissioners visited the duke, with
+the information they had collected, in their hands.
+
+The duke hesitated long as to the steps he should take. Should he judge
+and sentence a kinsman, the most powerful of his vassals, the bravest
+of his captains, a councillor of the king, a marshal of France?
+
+Whilst still unsettled in his mind as to the course he should pursue,
+he received a letter from Gilles de Retz, which produced quite a
+different effect from that which it had been intended to produce.
+
+“MONSIEUR MY COUSIN AND HONOURED SIRE,—
+
+“It is quite true that I am perhaps the most detestable of all sinners,
+having sinned horribly again and again, yet have I never failed in my
+religious duties. I have heard many masses, vespers, &c., have fasted
+in Lent and on vigils, have confessed my sins, deploring them heartily,
+and have received the blood of our Lord at least once in the year.
+
+Since I have been languishing in prison, awaiting your honoured
+justice, I have been overwhelmed with incomparable repentance for my
+crimes, which I am ready to acknowledge and to expiate as is suitable.
+
+“Wherefore I supplicate you, M. my cousin, to give me licence to retire
+into a monastery, and there to lead a good and exemplary life. I care
+not into what monastery I am sent, but I intend that all my goods, &c.,
+should be distributed among the poor, who are the members of Jesus
+Christ on earth . . . . Awaiting your glorious clemency, on which I
+rely, I pray God our Lord to protect you and your kingdom.
+
+He who addresses you is in all earthly humility,”
+
+
+“FRIAR GILLES,
+Carmelite in intention.”
+
+
+The duke read this letter to Pierre de l’Hospital, president of
+Brittany, and to the Bishop of Nantes, who were those most resolute in
+pressing on the trial. They were horrified at the tone of this dreadful
+communication, and assured the duke that the case was so clear, and the
+steps taken had been so decided, that it was impossible for him to
+allow De Retz to escape trial by such an impious device as he
+suggested. In the meantime, the bishop and the grand-seneschal had set
+on foot an investigation at the castle of Machecoul, and had found
+numerous traces of human remains. But a complete examination could not
+be made, as the duke was anxious to screen his kinsman as much as
+possible, and refused to authorize one.
+
+The duke now summoned his principal officers and held a council with
+them. They unanimously sided with the bishop and de l’Hospital, and
+when John still hesitated, the Bishop of Nantes rose and said:
+“Monseigneur, this case is one for the church as much as for your court
+to take up. Consequently, if your President of Brittany does not bring
+the case into secular court, by the Judge of heaven and earth! I will
+cite the author of these execrable crimes to appear before our
+ecclesiastical tribunal.”
+
+The resolution of the bishop compelled the duke to yield, and it was
+decided that the trial should take its course without let or hindrance.
+
+In the meantime, the unhappy wife of Gilles de Retz, who had been
+separated from him for some while, and who loathed his crimes, though
+she still felt for him as her husband, hurried to the duke with her
+daughter to entreat pardon for the wretched man. But the duke refused
+to hear her. Thereupon she went to Amboise to intercede with the king
+for him who bad once been his close friend and adviser.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+THE MARÉCHAL DE RETZ.—II. THE TRIAL.
+
+
+The Appearance of the Marshal—Pierre de l’Hospital—The Requisition—The
+Trial adjourned—Meeting of the Marshal and his Servants—The Confession
+of Henriet—Pontou persuaded to confess all—The adjourned Trial not
+hurried on—The hesitation of the Duke of Brittany.
+
+
+On the 10th October, Nicolas Chateau, notary of the duke, went to the
+Château of Bouffay, to read to the prisoner the summons to appear in
+person on the morrow before Messire de l’Hospital, President of
+Brittany, Seneschal of Rennes, and Chief Justice of the Duchy of
+Brittany.
+
+The Sire de Retz, who believed himself already a novice in the
+Carmelite order, had dressed in white, and was engaged in singing
+litanies. When the summons had been read, he ordered a page to give the
+notary wine and cake, and then he returned to his prayers with every
+appearance of compunction and piety.
+
+On the morrow Jean Labbé and four soldiers conducted him to the hall of
+justice. He asked for Pontou and Henriet to accompany him, but this was
+not permitted.
+
+He was adorned with all his military insignia, as though to impose on
+his judges; he had around his neck massive chains of gold, and several
+collars of knightly orders. His costume, with the exception of his
+purpoint, was white, in token of his repentance. His purpoint was of
+pearl-grey silk, studded with gold stars, and girded around his waist
+by a scarlet belt, from which dangled a poignard in scarlet velvet
+sheath. His collar, cufs, and the edging of his purpoint were of white
+ermine, his little round cap or _chapel_ was white, surrounded with a
+belt of ermine—a fur which only the great feudal lords of Brittany had
+a right to wear. All the rest of his dress, to the shoes which were
+long and pointed, was white.
+
+No one at a first glance would have thought the Sire do Retz to be by
+nature so cruel and vicious as he was supposed to be. On the contrary,
+his physiognomy was calm and phlegmatic, somewhat pale, and expressive
+of melancholy. His hair and moustache were light brown, and his beard
+was clipped to a point. This beard, which resembled no other beard, was
+black, but under certain lights it assumed a blue hue, and it was this
+peculiarity which obtained for the Sire do Retz the surname of
+Blue-beard, a name which has attached to him in popular romance, at the
+same time that his story has undergone strange metamorphoses.
+
+But on closer examination of the countenance of Gilles de Retz,
+contraction in the muscles of the face, nervous quivering of the mouth,
+spasmodic twitchings of the brows, and above all, the sinister
+expression of the eyes, showed that there was something strange and
+frightful in the man. At intervals he ground his teeth like a wild
+beast preparing to dash upon his prey, and then his lips became so
+contracted, as they were drawn in and glued, as it were, to his teeth,
+that their very colour was indiscernible.
+
+At times also his eyes became fixed, and the pupils dilated to such an
+extent, with a sombre fire quivering in them, that the iris seemed to
+fill the whole orbit, which became circular, and sank back into the
+head. At these moments his complexion became livid and cadaverous; his
+brow, especially just over the nose, was covered with deep wrinkles,
+and his beard appeared to bristle, and to assume its bluish hues. But,
+after a few moments, his features became again serene, with a sweet
+smile reposing upon them, and his expression relaxed into a vague and
+tender melancholy.
+
+“Messires,” said he, saluting his judges, “I pray you to expedite my
+matter, and despatch as speedily as possible my unfortunate case; for I
+am peculiarly anxious to consecrate myself to the service of God, who
+has pardoned my great sins. I shall not fail, I assure you, to endow
+several of the churches in Nantes, and I shall distribute the greater
+portion of my goods among the poor, to secure the salvation of my
+soul.”
+
+“Monseigneur,” replied gravely Pierre de l’Hospital: “It is always well
+to think of the salvation of one’s soul; but, if you please, think now
+that we are concerned with the salvation of your body.”
+
+“I have confessed to the father superior of the Carmelites,” replied
+the marshal, with tranquillity; “and through his absolution I have been
+able to communicate: I am, therefore, guiltless and purified.”
+
+“Men’s justice is not in common with that of God, monseigneur, and I
+cannot tell you what will be your sentence. Be ready to make your
+defence, and listen to the charges brought against you, which M. le
+lieutenant du Procureur de Nantes will read.”
+
+The officer rose, and read the following paper of charges, which I
+shall condense:—
+
+“Having heard the bitter complaints of several of the inhabitants of
+the diocese of Nantes, whose names follow hereinafter (here follow the
+names of the parents of the lost children), we, Philippe do Livron,
+lieutenant assesseur of Messire le Procureur de Nantes, have invited,
+and do invite, the very noble and very wise Messire Pierre de
+l’Hospital, President of Brittany, &c., to bring to trial the very high
+and very powerful lord, Gilles de Laval, Sire de Retz, Machecoul,
+Ingrande and other places, Councillor of his Majesty the King, and
+Marshal of France:
+
+“Forasmuch as the said Sire de Retz has seized and caused to be seized
+several little children, not only ten or twenty, but thirty, forty,
+fifty, sixty, one hundred, two hundred, and more, and has murdered and
+slain them inhumanly, and then burned their bodies to convert them to
+ashes:
+
+“Forasmuch as persevering in evil, the said Sire, notwithstanding that
+the powers that be are ordained of God, and that every one should be an
+obedient subject to his prince, . . . has assaulted Jean Leferon,
+subject of the Duke of Brittany, the said Jean Leferon being guardian
+of the fortress of Malemort, in the name of Geoffrey Leferon, his
+brother, to whom the said lord had made over the possession of the said
+place:
+
+“Forasmuch as the said Sire forced Jean Leferon to give up to him the
+said place, and moreover retook the lordship of Malemort in despite of
+the order of the duke and of justice:
+
+“Forasmuch as the said Sire arrested Master Jean Rousseau, sergeant of
+the duke, who was sent to him with injunctions from the said duke, and
+beat his men with their own staves, although their persons were under
+the protection of his grace:
+
+“We conclude that the said Sire de Retz, homicide in fact and in intent
+according to the first count, rebel and felon according to the second,
+should be condemned to suffer corporal punishment, and to pay a fine of
+his possessions in lands and goods held in fief to the said nobleman,
+and that these should be confiscated and remitted to the crown of
+Brittany.”
+
+This requisition was evidently drawn up with the view of saving the
+life of the Sire de Retz; for the crime of homicide was presented
+without aggravating circumstances, in such a manner that it could be
+denied or shelved, whilst the crimes of felony and rebellion against
+the Duke of Brittany were brought into exaggerated prominence.
+
+Gilles de Retz had undoubtedly been forewarned of the course which was
+to be pursued, and he was prepared to deny totally the charges made in
+the first count.
+
+“Monseigneur,” said Pierre de l’Hospital, whom the form of the
+requisition had visibly astonished: “What justification have you to
+make? Take an oath on the Gospels to declare the truth.”
+
+“No, messire!” answered the marshal. “The witnesses are bound to
+declare what they know upon oath, but the accused is never put on his
+oath.”
+
+“Quite so,” replied the judge. “Because the accused may be put on the
+rack and constrained to speak the truth, an’ please you.”
+
+Gilles de Retz turned pale, bit his lips, and cast a glance of
+malignant hate at Pierre de l’Hospital; then, composing his
+countenance, he spoke with an appearance of calm:—
+
+“Messires, I shall not deny that I behaved wrongfully in the case of
+Jean Rousseau; but, in excuse, let me say that the said Rousseau was
+full of wine, and he behaved with such indecorum towards me in the
+presence of my servants, that it was quite intolerable. Nor will I deny
+my revenge on the brothers Leferon: Jean had declared that the said
+Grace of Brittany had confiscated my fortress of Malemort, which I had
+sold to him, and for which I have not yet received payment; and
+Geoffrey Leferon had announced far and wide that I was about to be
+expelled Brittany as a traitor and a rebel. To punish them I re-entered
+my fortress of Malemort.—As for the other charges, I shall say nothing
+about them, they are simply false and calumnious.”
+
+“Indeed exclaimed Pierre de l’Hospital, whose blood boiled with
+indignation against the wretch who stood before him with such
+effrontery. “All these witnesses who complain of having lost their
+children, lied under oath!”
+
+“Undoubtedly, if they accuse me of having anything to do with their
+loss. What am I to know about them, am I their keeper?”
+
+“The answer of Cain!” exclaimed Pierre de l’Hospital, rising from his
+seat in the vehemence of his emotion. “However, as you solemnly deny
+these charges, we must question Henriet and Pontou.”
+
+“Henriet, Pontou!” cried the marshal, trembling; “they accuse me of
+nothing, surely!”
+
+“Not as yet, they have not been questioned, but they are about to be
+brought into court, and I do not expect that they will lie in the face
+of justice.”
+
+“I demand that my servants be not brought forward as witnesses against
+their master,” said the marshal, his eyes dilating, his brow wrinkling,
+and his beard bristling blue upon his chin: “a master is above the
+gossiping tales and charges of his servants.”
+
+“Do you think then, messire, that your servants will accuse you?”
+
+“I demand that I, a marshal of France, a baron of the duchy, should be
+sheltered from the slanders of small folk, whom I disown as my servants
+if they are untrue to their master.”
+
+“Messire, I see we must put you on the rack, or nothing will be got
+from you.”
+
+“Hola! I appeal to his grace the Duke of Brittany, and ask an
+adjournment, that I may take advice on the charges brought against me,
+which I have denied, and which I deny still.”
+
+“Well, I shall adjourn the case till the 25th of this month, that you
+may be well prepared to meet the accusations.”
+
+On his way back to prison, the marshal passed Henriet and Pontou as
+they were being conducted to the court. Henriet pretended not to see
+his master, but Pontou burst into tears on meeting him. The marshal
+held out his hand, and Pontou kissed it affectionately.
+
+“Remember what I have done for you, and be faithful servants,” said
+Gilles de Retz. Henriet recoiled from him with a shudder, and the
+marshal passed on.
+
+“I shall speak,” whispered Henriet; “for we have another master beside
+our poor master of Retz, and we shall soon be with the heavenly one.”
+
+The president ordered the clerk to read again the requisition of the
+lieutenant, that the two presumed accomplices of Gilles de Retz might
+be informed of the charges brought against their master. Henriet burst
+into tears, trembled violently, and cried out that he would tell all.
+Pontou, alarmed, tried to hinder his companion, and said that Henriet
+was touched in his head, and that what he was about to say would be the
+ravings of insanity.
+
+Silence was imposed upon him.
+
+“I will speak out,” continued Henriet and yet I dare not speak of the
+horrors which I know have taken place, before that image of my Lord
+Christ; “and he pointed tremblingly to a large crucifix above the seat
+of the judge.
+
+“Henriet.” moaned Pontou, squeezing his hand, “you will destroy
+yourself as well as your master.”
+
+Pierre de l’Hospital rose, and the figure of our Redeemer was solemnly
+veiled.
+
+Henriet, who had great difficulty in overcoming his agitation, than
+began his revelations.
+
+The following is the substance of them:—
+
+On leaving the university of Angers, he had taken the situation of
+reader in the house of Gilles de Retz. The marshal took a liking to
+him, and made him his chamberlain and confidant.
+
+On the occasion of the Sire de la Suze, brother of the Sire de Retz,
+taking possession of the castle of Chantoncé, Charles de Soenne, who
+had arrived at Chantoncé, assured Henriet that he had found in the
+oubliettes of a tower a number of dead children, some headless, others
+frightfully mutilated. Henriet then thought that this was but a calumny
+invented by the Sire de la Suze.
+
+But when, some while after, the Sire de Retz retook the castle of
+Chantoncé and had ceded it to the Duke of Brittany, he one evening
+summoned Henriet, Pontou, and a certain Petit Robin to his room; the
+two latter were already deep in the secrets of their master. But before
+confiding anything to Henriet, De Retz made him take a solemn oath
+never to reveal what he was about to tell him. The oath taken, the Sire
+de Retz, addressing the three, said that on the morrow an officer of
+the duke would take possession of the castle in the name of the duke,
+and that it was necessary, before this took place, that a certain well
+should be emptied of children’s corpses, and that their bodies should
+be put into boxes and transported to Machecoul.
+
+Henriet, Pontou, and Petit Robin went together, furnished with ropes
+and hooks, to the tower where were the corpses. They toiled all night
+in removing the half-decayed bodies, and with them they filled three
+large cases, which they sent by a boat down the Loire to Machecoul,
+where they were reduced to ashes.
+
+Henriet counted thirty-six children’s heads, but there were more bodies
+than heads. This night’s work, he said, bad produced a profound
+impression on his imagination, and he was constantly haunted with a
+vision of these heads rolling as in a game of skittles, and clashing
+with a mournful wail. Henriet soon began to collect children for his
+master, and was present whilst he massacred them. They were murdered
+invariably in one room at Machecoul. The marshal used to bathe in their
+blood; he was fond of making Gilles do Sillé, Pontou, or Henriet
+torture them, and he experienced intense pleasure in seeing them in
+their agonies. But his great passion was to welter in their blood. His
+servants would stab a child in the jugular vein, and let the blood
+squirt over him. The room was often steeped in blood. When the horrible
+deed was done, and the child was dead, the marshal would be filled with
+grief for what he had done, and would toss weeping and praying on a
+bed, or recite fervent prayers and litanies on his knees, whilst his
+servants washed the floor, and burned in the huge fireplace the bodies
+of the murdered children. With the bodies were burned the clothes and
+everything that had belonged to the little victims.
+
+An insupportable odour filled the room, but the Maréchal do Retz
+inhaled it with delight.
+
+Henriet acknowledged that he had seen forty children put to death in
+this manner, and he was able to give an account of several, so that it
+was possible to identify them with the children reported to be lost.
+
+“It is quite impossible,” said the lieutenant, who had been given the
+cue to do all that was possible to save the marshal—“It is impossible
+that bodies could be burned in a chamber fireplace.”
+
+“It was done, for all that, messire,” replied Henriet. “The fireplace
+was very large, both at the hotel Suze, and also at Machecoul; we piled
+up great faggots and logs, and laid the dead children among them. In a
+few hours the operation was complete, and we flung the ashes out of the
+window into the moat.”
+
+Henriet remembered the case of the two sons of Hamelin; he said that,
+whilst the one child was being tortured, the other was on its knees
+sobbing and praying to God, till its own turn came.
+
+“What you have said concerning the excesses of Messire de Retz,”
+exclaimed the lieutenant du procureur, “seems to be pure invention, and
+destitute of all probability. The greatest monsters of iniquity never
+committed such crimes, except perhaps some Cæsars of old Rome.”
+
+“Messire, it was the acts of these Cæsars that my Lord of Retz desired
+to imitate. I used to read to him the chronicles of Suetonius, and
+Tacitus, in which their cruelties are recorded. He used to delight in
+hearing of them, and he said that it gave him greater pleasure to hack
+off a child’s head than to assist at a banquet. Sometimes he would seat
+himself on the breast of a little one, and with a knife sever the head
+from the body at a single blow; sometimes he cut the throat half
+through very gently, that the child might languish, and he would wash
+his hands and his beard in its blood. Sometimes he had all the limbs
+chopped off at once from the trunk; at other times he ordered us to
+hang the infants till they were nearly dead, and then take them down
+and cut their throats. I remember having brought to him three little
+girls who were asking charity at the castle gates. He bade me cut their
+throats whilst he looked on. André Bricket found another little girl
+crying on the steps of the house at Vannes because she had lost her
+mother. He brought the little thing—it was but a babe—in his arms to my
+lord, and it was killed before him. Pontou and I had to make away with
+the body. We threw it down a privy in one of the towers, but the corpse
+caught on a nail in the outer wall, so that it would be visible to all
+who passed. Pontou was let down by a rope, and he disengaged it with
+great difficulty.”
+
+“How many children do you estimate that the Sire de Retz and his
+servants have killed?”
+
+“The reckoning is long. I, for my part, confess to having killed twelve
+with my own hand, by my master’s orders, and I have brought him about
+sixty. I knew that things of the kind went on before I was admitted to
+the secret; for the castle of Machecoul had been occupied a short while
+by the Sire do la Sage. My lord recovered it speedily, for he knew that
+there were many children’s corpses hidden in a hayloft. There were
+forty there quite dry and black as coal, because they had been charred.
+One of the women of Madame de Retz came by chance into the loft and saw
+the corpses. Roger de Briqueville wanted to kill her, but the maréchal
+would not let him.”
+
+“Have you nothing more to declare?
+
+“Nothing. I ask Pontou, my friend, to corroborate what I have said.”
+
+This deposition, so circumstantial and detailed, produced on the judges
+a profound impression of horror. Human imagination at this time had not
+penetrated such mysteries of refined cruelty. Several times, as Henriet
+spake, the president had shown his astonishment and indignation by
+signing himself with the cross. Several times his face had become
+scarlet, and his eyes had fallen; he had pressed his hand to his brow,
+to assure himself that he was not labouring under a hideous dream, and
+a quiver of horror had run through his whole frame.
+
+Pontou had taken no part in the revelation of Henriet; but when the
+latter appealed to him he raised his head, looked sadly round the
+court, and sighed.
+
+“Etienne Cornillant, alias Pontou, I command you in the name of God and
+of justice, to declare what you know.”
+
+This injunction of Pierre do l’Hospital remained unresponded to, and
+Pontou seemed to strengthen himself in his resolution not to accuse his
+master.
+
+But Henriet, flinging himself into the arms of his accomplice, implored
+him, as he valued his soul, no longer to harden his heart to the calls
+of God; but to bring to light the crimes he had committed along with
+the Sire do Retz.
+
+The lieutenant du procureur, who hitherto had endeavoured to extenuate
+or discredit the charges brought against Gilles do Retz, tried a last
+expedient to counterbalance the damaging confessions of Henriet, and to
+withhold Pontou from giving way.
+
+“You have heard, monseigneur,” said he to the president, “the
+atrocities which have been acknowledged by Henriet, and you, as I do,
+consider them to be pure inventions of the aforesaid, made out of
+bitter hatred and envy with the purpose of ruining his master. I
+therefore demand that Henriet should be put on the rack, that he may be
+brought to give the lie to his former statements.”
+
+“You forget,” replied de l’Hospital, “that the rack is for those who do
+_not_ confess, and not for those who freely acknowledge their crimes.
+Therefore I order the second accused, Etienne Cornillant, alias Pontou,
+to be placed on the rack if he continues silent. Pontou! will you speak
+or will you not?”
+
+“Monseigneur, he will speak!” exclaimed Henriet. Oh, Pontou, dear
+friend, resist not God any more.”
+
+“Well then, messeigneurs,” said Pontou, with emotion; “I will satisfy
+you; I cannot defend my poor lord against the allegations of Henriet,
+who has confessed all through dread of eternal damnation.”
+
+He then fully substantiated all the statements of the other, adding
+other facts of the same character, known only to himself.
+
+Notwithstanding the avowal of Pontou and Henriet, the adjourned trial
+was not hurried on. It would have been easy to have captured some of
+the accomplices of the wretched man; but the duke, who was informed of
+the whole of the proceedings, did not wish to augment the scandal by
+increasing the number of the accused. He even forbade researches to be
+made in the castles and mansions of the Sire de Retz, fearing lest
+proofs of fresh crimes, more mysterious and more horrible than those
+already divulged, should come to light.
+
+The dismay spread through the country by the revelations already made,
+demanded that religion and morality, which had been so grossly
+outraged, should be speedily avenged. People wondered at the delay in
+pronouncing sentence, and it was loudly proclaimed in Nantes that the
+Sire de Retz was rich enough to purchase his life. It is true that
+Madame de Retz solicited the king and the duke again to give pardon to
+her husband; but the duke, counselled by the bishop, refused to extend
+his authority to interfere with the course of justice; and the king,
+after having sent one of his councillors to Nantes to investigate the
+case, determined not to stir in it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+MARÉCHAL DE RETZ.—III. THE SENTENCE AND EXECUTION.
+
+
+The adjourned Trial—The Marshal Confesses—The Case handed over to the
+Ecclesiastical Tribunal—Prompt steps taken by the Bishop—The
+Sentence—Ratified by the Secular Court—The Execution.
+
+
+On the 24th October the trial of the Maréchal de Retz was resumed. The
+prisoner entered in a Carmelite habit, knelt and prayed in silence
+before the examination began. Then he ran his eye over the court, and
+the sight of the rack, windlass, and cords made a slight shudder run
+through him.
+
+“Messire Gilles de Laval,” began the president; “you appear before me
+now for the second time to answer to a certain requisition read by M.
+le Lieutenant du Procureur de Nantes.”
+
+“I shall answer frankly, monseigneur,” said the prisoner calmly; “but I
+reserve the right of appeal to the benign intervention of the very
+venerated majesty of the King of France, of whom I am, or have been,
+chamberlain and marshal, as may be proved by my letters patent duly
+enregistered in the parliament at Paris—”
+
+“This is no affair of the King of France,” interrupted Pierre de
+l’Hospital; “if you were chamberlain and marshal of his Majesty, you
+are also vassal of his grace the Duke of Brittany.”
+
+“I do not deny it; but, on the contrary, I trust to his Grace of
+Brittany to allow me to retire to a convent of Carmelites, there to
+repent me of my sins.”
+
+“That is as may be; will you confess, or must I send you to the rack?”
+
+“Torture me not!” exclaimed Gilles de Retz “I will confess all. Tell me
+first, what have Henriet and Pontou said?”
+
+“They have confessed. M. le Lieutenant du Procureur shall read you
+their allegations.”
+
+“Not so,” said the lieutenant, who continued to show favour to the
+accused; “I pronounce them false, unless Messire de Retz confirms them
+by oath, which God forbid!”
+
+Pierre de l’Hospital made a motion of anger to check this scandalous
+pleading in favour of the accused, and then nodded to the clerk to read
+the evidence.
+
+The Sire do Retz, on hearing that his servants had made such explicit
+avowals of their acts, remained motionless, as though thunderstruck. He
+saw that it was in vain for him to equivocate, and that he would have
+to confess all.
+
+“What have you to say?” asked the president, when the confessions of
+Henriet and Pontou had been read.
+
+“Say what befits you, my lord,” interrupted the lieutenant du
+procureur, as though to indicate to the accused the line he was to
+take: “are not these abominable lies and calumnies trumped up to ruin
+you?”
+
+“Alas, no!” replied the Sire do Retz; and his face was pale as death:
+“Henriet and Pontou have spoken the truth. God has loosened their
+tongues.”
+
+“My lord! relieve yourself of the burden of your crimes by
+acknowledging them at once,” said M. do l’Hospital earnestly.
+
+“Messires!” said the prisoner, after a moment’s silence: “it is quite
+true that I have robbed mothers of their little ones; and that I have
+killed their children, or caused them to be killed, either by cutting
+their throats with daggers or knives, or by chopping off their heads
+with cleavers; or else I have had their skulls broken by hammers or
+sticks; sometimes I had their limbs hewn off one after another; at
+other times I have ripped them open, that I might examine their
+entrails and hearts; I have occasionally strangled them or put them to
+a slow death; and when the children were dead I had their bodies burned
+and reduced to ashes.”
+
+“When did you begin your execrable practices?” asked Pierre de
+l’Hospital, staggered by the frankness of these horrible avowals: “the
+evil one must have possessed you.”
+
+“It came to me from myself,—no doubt at the instigation of the devil:
+but still these acts of cruelty afforded me incomparable delight. The
+desire to commit these atrocities came upon me eight years ago. I left
+court to go to Chantoncé, that I might claim the property of my
+grandfather, deceased. In the library of the castle I found a Latin
+book—_Suetonius_, I believe—full of accounts of the cruelties of the
+Roman Emperors. I read the charming history of Tiberius, Caracalla, and
+other Cæsars, and the pleasure they took in watching the agonies of
+tortured children. Thereupon I resolved to imitate and surpass these
+same Cæsars, and that very night I began to do so. For some while I
+confided my secret to no one, but afterwards I communicated it to my
+cousin, Gilles de Sillé, then to Master Roger de Briqueville, next in
+succession to Henriet, Pontou, Rossignol, and Robin.” He then confirmed
+all the accounts given by his two servants. He confessed to about one
+hundred and twenty murders in a single year.
+
+“An average of eight hundred in less than seven years!” exclaimed
+Pierre de l’Hospital, with a cry of pain: “Ah! messire, you were
+possessed! “
+
+His confession was too explicit and circumstantial for the Lieutenant
+du Procureur to say another word in his defence; but he pleaded that
+the case should be made over to the ecclesiastical court, as there were
+confessions of invocations of the devil and of witchcraft mixed up with
+those of murder. Pierre de l’Hospital saw that the object of the
+lieutenant was to gain time for Mme. de Retz to make a fresh attempt to
+obtain a pardon; however he was unable to resist, so he consented that
+the case should be transferred to the bishop’s court.
+
+But the bishop was not a man to let the matter slip, and there and then
+a sergeant of the bishop summoned Gilles de Laval, Sire do Retz, to
+appear forthwith before the ecclesiastical tribunal. The marshal was
+staggered by this unexpected citation, and he did not think of
+appealing against it to the president; he merely signed his readiness
+to follow, and he was at once conducted into the ecclesiastical court
+assembled hurriedly to try him.
+
+This new trial lasted only a few hours.
+
+The marshal, now thoroughly cowed, made no attempt to defend himself,
+but he endeavoured to bribe the bishop into leniency, by promises of
+the surrender of all his lands and goods to the Church, and begged to
+be allowed to retire into the Carmelite monastery at Nantes.
+
+His request was peremptorily refused, and sentence of death was
+pronounced against him.
+
+On the 25th October, the ecclesiastical court having pronounced
+judgment, the sentence was transmitted to the secular court, which had
+now no pretext upon which to withhold ratification.
+
+There was some hesitation as to the kind of death the marshal was to
+suffer. The members of the secular tribunal were not unanimous on this
+point. The president put it to the vote, and collected the votes
+himself; then he reseated himself, covered his head, and said in a
+solemn voice:—
+
+“The court, notwithstanding the quality, dignity, and nobility of the
+accused, condemns him to be hung and burned. Wherefore I admonish you
+who are condemned, to ask pardon of God, and grace to die well, in
+great contrition for having committed the said crimes. And the said
+sentence shall be carried into execution to-morrow morning between
+eleven and twelve o’clock.” A similar sentence was pronounced upon
+Henriet and Pontou.
+
+On the morrow, October 26th, at nine o’clock in the morning, a general
+procession composed of half the people of Nantes, the clergy and the
+bishop bearing the blessed Sacrament, left the cathedral and went round
+the city visiting each of the principal churches, where masses were
+said for the three under sentence.
+
+At eleven the prisoners were conducted to the place of execution, which
+was in the meadow of Biesse, on the further side of the Loire.
+
+Three gibbets had been erected, one higher than the others, and beneath
+each was a pile of faggots, tar, and brushwood.
+
+It was a glorious, breezy day, not a cloud was to be seen in the blue
+heavens; the Loire rolled silently towards the sea its mighty volumes
+of turbid water, seeming bright and blue as it reflected the brilliancy
+and colour of the sky. The poplars shivered and whitened in the fresh
+air with a pleasant rustle, and the willows flickered and wavered above
+the stream.
+
+A vast crowd had assembled round the gallows; it was with difficulty
+that a way was made for the condemned, who came on chanting the _De
+profundis_. The spectators of all ages took up the psalm and chanted it
+with them, so that the surge of the old Gregorian tone might have been
+heard by the duke and the bishop, who had shut themselves up in the
+château of Nantes during the hour of execution.
+
+After the close of the psalm, which was terminated by the _Requiem
+æternam_ instead of the _Gloria_, the Sire de Retz thanked those who
+had conducted him, and then embraced Pontou and Henriet, before
+delivering himself of the following address, or rather sermon:—
+
+“My very dear friends and servants, be strong and courageous against
+the assaults of the devil, and feel great displeasure and contrition
+for your ill deeds, without despairing of God’s mercy. Believe with me,
+that there is no sin, however great, in the world, which God, in his
+grace and loving kindness, will not pardon, when one asks it of Him
+with contrition of heart. Remember that the Lord God is always more
+ready to receive the sinner than is the sinner to ask of Him pardon.
+Moreover, let us very humbly thank Him for his great love to us in
+letting us die in full possession of our faculties, and not cutting us
+off suddenly in the midst of our misdeeds. Let us conceive such a love
+of God, and such repentance, that we shall not fear death, which is
+only a little pang, without which we could not see God in his glory.
+Besides we must desire to be freed from this world, in which is only
+misery, that we may go to everlasting glory. Let us rejoice rather, for
+although we have sinned grievously here below, yet we shall be united
+in Paradise, our souls being parted from our bodies, and we shall be
+together for ever and ever, if only we endure in our pious and
+honourable contrition to our last sigh.”[1] Then the marshal, who was
+to be executed first, left his companions and placed himself in the
+hands of his executioners. He took off his cap, knelt, kissed a
+crucifix, and made a pious oration to the crowd much in the style of
+his address to his friends Pontou and Henriet.
+
+ [1] The case of the Sire de Retz is one to make us see the great
+ danger there is in trusting to feelings in matters of religion. “If
+ thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments,” said our Lord. How
+ many hope to go to heaven because they have pious emotions!
+
+
+Then he commenced reciting the prayers of the dying; the executioner
+passed the cord round his neck, and adjusted the knot. He mounted a
+tall stool, erected at the foot of the gallows as a last honour paid to
+the nobility of the criminal. The pile of firewood was lighted before
+the executioners had left him.
+
+Pontou and Henriet, who were still on their knees, raised their eyes to
+their master and cried to him, extending their arms,—
+
+“At this last hour, monseigneur, be a good and valiant soldier of God,
+and remember the passion of Jesus Christ which wrought our redemption.
+Farewell, we hope soon to meet in Paradise!
+
+The stool was cast down, and the Sire de Retz dropped. The fire roared
+up, the flames leaped about him, and enveloped him as be swung.
+
+Suddenly, mingling with the deep booming of the cathedral bell, swelled
+up the wild unearthly wail of the _Dies iræ_.
+
+No sound among the crowd, only the growl of the fire, and the solemn
+strain of the hymn
+
+Lo, the Book, exactly worded,
+Wherein all hath been recorded;
+Thence shall judgment be awarded.
+
+When the Judge his seat attaineth,
+And each hidden deed arraigneth,
+Nothing unavenged remaineth.
+
+What shall I, frail man, be pleading?
+Who for me be interceding?
+When the just are mercy needing.
+
+King of Majesty tremendous,
+Who dost free salvation send us,
+Fount of pity! then befriend us.
+
+*    *    *    *
+
+Low I kneel, with heart-submission;
+See, like ashes, my contrition—
+Help me in my last condition!
+
+Ah I that day of tears and mourning!
+From the dust of earth returning,
+Man for judgment must prepare him!
+Spare, O, God, in mercy spare him!
+Lord, who didst our souls redeem,
+Grant a blessed requiem!
+
+AMEN.
+
+
+Six women, veiled, and robed in white, and six Carmelites advanced.
+bearing a coffin.
+
+It was whispered that one of the veiled women was Madame de Retz, and
+that the others were members of the most illustrious houses of
+Brittany.
+
+The cord by which the marshal was hung was cut, and he fell into a
+cradle of iron prepared to receive the corpse. The body was removed
+before the fire had gained any mastery over it. It was placed in the
+coffin., and the monks and the women transported it to the Carmelite
+monastery of Nantes, according to the wishes of the deceased.
+
+In the meantime, the sentence had been executed upon Pontou and
+Henriet; they were hung and burned to dust. Their ashes were cast to
+the winds; whilst in the Carmelite church of Our Lady were celebrated
+with pomp the obsequies of the very high, very powerful, very
+illustrious Seigneur Gilles de Laval, Sire de Retz, late Chamberlain of
+King Charles VII., and Marshal of France!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+A GALICIAN WERE-WOLF.
+
+
+The Inhabitants of Austrian Galicia—The Hamlet of Polomyja—Summer
+Evening in the Forest—The Beggar Swiatek—A Girl disappears—A School-boy
+vanishes—A Servant-girl lost—Another Boy carried of—The Discovery made
+by the Publican of Polomyja—Swiatek locked up—Brought to Dabkow—Commits
+suicide.
+
+
+The inhabitants of Austrian Galicia are quiet, inoffensive people, take
+them as a whole. The Jews, who number a twelfth of the population, are
+the most intelligent, energetic, and certainly the most money-making
+individuals in the province, though the Poles proper, or Mazurs, are
+not devoid of natural parts.
+
+Perhaps as remarkable a phenomenon as any other in that kingdom—for
+kingdom of Waldimir it was—is the enormous numerical preponderance of
+the nobility over the untitled. In 1837 the proportions stood thus:
+32,190 nobles to 2,076 tradesmen.
+
+The average of execution for crime is nine a year, out of a population
+of four and a half millions,—by no means a high figure, considering the
+peremptory way in which justice is dealt forth in that province. Yet,
+in the most quiet and well-disposed neighbourhoods, occasionally the
+most startling atrocities are committed, occurring when least expected,
+and sometimes perpetrated by the very person who is least suspected.
+
+Just sixteen years ago there happened in the circle of Tornow, in
+Western Galicia-the province is divided into nine circles-a
+circumstance which will probably furnish the grandames with a story for
+their firesides, during their bitter Galician winters, for many a long
+year.
+
+In the circle of Tornow, in the lordship of Parkost, is a little hamlet
+called Polomyja, consisting of eight hovels and a Jewish tavern. The
+inhabitants are mostly woodcutters, hewing down the firs of the dense
+forest in which their village is situated, and conveying them to the
+nearest water, down which they are floated to the Vistula. Each tenant
+pays no rent for his cottage and pitch of field, but is bound to work a
+fixed number of days for his landlord: a practice universal in Galicia,
+and often productive of much discontent and injustice, as the
+proprietor exacts labour from his tenant on those days when the harvest
+has to be got in, or the land is m best condition for tillage, and just
+when the peasant would gladly be engaged upon his own small plot. Money
+is scarce in the province, and this is accordingly the only way in
+which the landlord can be sure of his dues.
+
+Most of the villagers of Polomyja are miserably poor; but by
+cultivating a little maize, and keeping a few fowls or a pig, they
+scrape together sufficient to sustain life. During the summer the men
+collect resin from the pines, from each of which, once in twelve Years,
+they strip a slip of bark, leaving the resin to exude and trickle into
+a small earthenware jar at its roots; and, during the winter, as
+already stated, they fell the trees and roll them down to the river.
+
+Polomyja is not a cheerful spot—nested among dense masses of pine,
+which shed a gloom over the little hamlet; yet, on a fine day, it is
+pleasant enough for the old women to sit at their cottage doors,
+scenting that matchless pine fragrance, sweeter than the balm of the
+Spice Islands, for there is nothing cloying in that exquisite and
+exhilarating odour; listening to the harp-like thrill of the breeze in
+the old grey tree-tops, and knitting quietly at long stockings, whilst
+their little grandchildren romp in the heather and tufted fern.
+
+Towards evening, too, there is something indescribably beautiful in the
+firwood. The sun dives among the trees, and paints their boles with
+patches of luminous saffron, or falling over a level clearing,
+glorifies it with its orange dye, so visibly contrasting with the
+blue-purple shadow on the western rim of unreclaimed forest, deep and
+luscious as the bloom on a plum. The birds then are hastening to their
+nests, a ger-falcon, high overhead, is kindled with sunlight; capering
+and gambolling among the branches, the merry squirrel skips home for
+the night.
+
+The sun goes down, but the sky is still shining with twilight. The wild
+cat begins to hiss and squall in the forest, the heron to flap hastily
+by, the stork on the top of the tavern chimney to poise itself on one
+leg for sleep. To-whoo! an owl begins to wake up. Hark! the woodcutters
+are coming home with a song.
+
+Such is Polomyja in summer time, and much resembling it are the hamlets
+scattered about the forest, at intervals of a few miles; in each, the
+public-house being the most commodious and best-built edifice, the
+church, whenever there is one, not remarkable for anything but its
+bulbous steeple.
+
+You would hardly believe that amidst all this poverty a beggar could
+have picked up any subsistence, and yet, a few years ago, Sunday after
+Sunday, there sat a white-bearded venerable man at the church door,
+asking alms.
+
+Poor people are proverbially compassionate and liberal, so that the old
+man generally got a few coppers, and often some good woman bade him
+come into her cottage, and let him have some food.
+
+Occasionally Swiatek—that was the beggar’s name, went his rounds
+selling small pinchbeck ornaments and beads; generally, however, only
+appealing to charity.
+
+One Sunday, after church, a Mazur and his wife invited the old man into
+their hut and gave him a crust of pie and some meat. There were several
+children about, but a little girl, of nine or ten, attracted the old
+man’s attention by her artless tricks.
+
+Swiatek felt in his pocket and produced a ring, enclosing a piece of
+coloured glass set over foil. This he presented to the child, who ran
+off delighted to show her acquisition to her companions.
+
+“Is that little maid your daughter?” asked the beggar.
+
+“No,” answered the house-wife, “she is an orphan; there was a widow in
+this place who died, leaving the child, and I have taken charge of her;
+one mouth more will not matter much, and the good God will bless us.”
+
+“Ay, ay! to be sure He will; the orphans and fatherless are under His
+own peculiar care.”
+
+“She’s a good little thing, and gives no trouble,” observed the woman.
+“You go back to Polomyja tonight, I reckon.”
+
+“I do—ah!” exclaimed Swiatek, as the little girl ran up to him. You
+like the ring, is it not beautiful? I found it under a big fir to the
+left of the churchyard,there may be dozens there. You must turn round
+three times, bow to the moon, and say, ‘Zaboï!’ then look among the
+tree-roots till you find one.”
+
+“Come along!” screamed the child to its comrades; “we will go and look
+for rings.”
+
+“You must seek separately,” said Swiatek.
+
+The children scampered off into the wood.
+
+“I have done one good thing for you,” laughed the beggar, “in ridding
+you, for a time, of the noise of those children.”
+
+“I am glad of a little quiet now and then,” said the woman; “the
+children will not let the baby sleep at times with their clatter. Are
+you going?”
+
+“Yes; I must reach Polomyja to-night. I am old and very feeble, and
+poor”—he began to fall into his customary whine— very poor, but I thank
+and pray to God for you.”
+
+Swiatek left the cottage.
+
+_That little orphan was never seen again._
+
+The Austrian Government has, of late years, been vigorously advancing
+education among the lower orders, and establishing schools throughout
+the province.
+
+The children were returning from class one day, and were scattered
+among the trees, some pursuing a field-mouse, others collecting
+juniper-berries, and some sauntering with their hands in their pockets,
+whistling.
+
+“Where’s Peter?” asked one little boy of another who was beside him.
+“We three go home the same way, let us go together.”
+
+“Peter!” shouted the lad.
+
+“Here I am!” was the answer from among the trees; “I’ll be with you
+directly.”
+
+“Oh, I see him!” said the elder boy. “There is some one talking to
+him.”
+
+“Where?”
+
+“Yonder, among the pines. Ah! they have gone further into the shadow,
+and I cannot see them any more. I wonder who was with him; a man, I
+think.”
+
+The boys waited till they were tired, and then they sauntered home,
+determined to thrash Peter for having kept them waiting. _But Peter was
+never seen again._
+
+Some time after this a servant-girl, belonging to a small store kept by
+a Russian, disappeared from a village five miles from Polomyja. She had
+been sent with a parcel of grocery to a cottage at no very great
+distance, but lying apart from the main cluster of hovels, and
+surrounded by trees.
+
+The day closed in, and her master waited her return anxiously, but as
+several hours elapsed without any sign of her, he—assisted by the
+neighbours—went in search of her.
+
+A slight powdering of snow covered the ground, and her footsteps could
+be traced at intervals where she had diverged from the beaten track. In
+that part of the road where the trees were thickest, there were marks
+of two pair of feet leaving the path; but owing to the density of the
+trees at that spot and to the slightness of the fall of snow, which did
+not reach the soil, where shaded by the pines, the footprints were
+immediately lost. By the following morning a heavy fall had obliterated
+any further traces which day-light might have discovered.
+
+_The servant-girl also was never seen again._
+
+During the winter of 1849 the wolves were supposed to have been
+particularly ravenous, for thus alone did people account for the
+mysterious disappearances of children.
+
+A little boy had been sent to a fountain to fetch water; the pitcher
+was found standing by the well, but _the boy had vanished_. The
+villagers turned out, and those wolves which could be found were
+despatched.
+
+We have already introduced our readers to Polomyja, although the
+occurrences above related did not take place among those eight hovels,
+but in neighbouring villages. The reason for our having given a more
+detailed account of this cluster of houses—rude cabins they were—will
+now become apparent.
+
+In May, 1849, the innkeeper of Polomyja missed a couple of ducks, and
+his suspicions fell upon the beggar who lived there, and whom he held
+in no esteem, as he himself was a hard-working industrious man, whilst
+Swiatek maintained himself, his wife, and children by mendicity,
+although possessed of sufficient arable land to yield an excellent crop
+of maize, and produce vegetables, if tilled with ordinary care.
+
+As the publican approached the cottage a fragrant whiff of roast
+greeted his nostrils.
+
+“I’ll catch the fellow in the act,” said the innkeeper to himself,
+stealing up to the door, and taking good care not to be observed.
+
+As he threw open the door, he saw the mendicant hurriedly shuffle
+something under his feet, and conceal it beneath his long clothes. The
+publican was on him in an instant, had him by the throat, charged him
+with theft, and dragged him from his seat. Judge of his sickening
+horror when from beneath the pauper’s clothes rolled forth the head of
+a girl about the age of fourteen or fifteen years, carefully separated
+from the trunk.
+
+In a short while the neighbours came up. The venerable Swiatek was
+locked up, along with his wife, his daughter—a girl of sixteen—and a
+son, aged five.
+
+The hut was thoroughly examined, and the mutilated remains of the poor
+girl discovered. In a vat were found the legs and thighs, partly raw,
+partly stewed or roasted. In a chest were the heart, liver, and
+entrails, all prepared and cleaned, as neatly as though done by a
+skilful butcher; and, finally, under the oven was a bowl full of fresh
+blood. On his way to the magistrate of the district. the wretched man
+flung himself repeatedly on the ground, struggled with his guards, and
+endeavoured to suffocate himself by gulping clown clods of earth and
+stones, but was prevented by his conductors.
+
+When taken before the Protokoll at Dabkow, he stated that he had
+already killed and—assisted by his family—eaten six persons: his
+children, however, asserted most positively that the number was much
+greater than he had represented, and their testimony is borne out by
+the fact, that the remains of _fourteen_ different caps and suits of
+clothes, male as well as female, were found in his house.
+
+The origin of this horrible and depraved taste was as follows,
+according to Swiatek’s own confession:—
+
+In 1846, three years previous, a Jewish tavern in the neighbourhood had
+been burned down, and the host had himself perished in the flames.
+Swiatek, whilst examining the ruins, had found the half-roasted corpse
+of the publican among the charred rafters of the house. At that time
+the old man was craving with hunger, having been destitute of food for
+some time. The scent and the sight of the roasted flesh inspired him
+with an uncontrollable desire to taste of it. He tore off a portion of
+the carcase and satiated his hunger upon it, and at the same time he
+conceived such a liking for it, that he could feel no rest till he had
+tasted again. His second victim was the orphan above alluded to; since
+then—that is, during the period of no less than three years—he had
+frequently subsisted in the same manner, and had actually grown sleek
+and fat upon his frightful meals.
+
+The excitement roused by the discovery of these atrocities was intense;
+several poor mothers who had bewailed the loss of their little ones,
+felt their wounds reopened agonisingly. Popular indignation rose to the
+highest pitch: there was some fear lest the criminal should be torn in
+pieces himself by the enraged people, as soon as he was brought to
+trial: but he saved the necessity of precautions being taken to ensure
+his safety, for, on the first night of his confinement, he hanged
+himself from the bars of the prison-window.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+ANOMALOUS CASE.—THE HUMAN HYÆNA.
+
+
+Ghouls—Story from Fornari—Quotation from Apuleius—Incident mentioned by
+Marcassus—Cemeteries of Paris violated—Discovery of Violator—Confession
+of M. Bertrand.
+
+
+It is well known that Oriental romance is full of stories of violators
+of graves. Eastern superstition attributes to certain individuals a
+passion for unearthing corpses and mangling them. Of a moonlight night
+weird forms are seen stealing among the tombs, and burrowing into them
+with their long nails, desiring to reach the bodies of the dead ere the
+first streak of dawn compels them to retire. These ghouls, as they are
+called, are supposed generally to require the flesh of the dead for
+incantations or magical compositions, but very often they are actuated
+by the sole desire of rending the sleeping corpse, and disturbing its
+repose. There is every probability that these ghouls were no mere
+creations of the imagination, but were actual resurrectionists. Human
+fat and the hair of a corpse which has grown in the grave, form
+ingredients in many a necromantic receipt, and the witches who
+compounded these diabolical mixtures, would unearth corpses in order to
+obtain the requisite ingredients. It was the same in the middle ages,
+and to such an extent did the fear of ghouls extend, that it was common
+in Brittany for churchyards to be provided with lamps, kept burning
+during the night, that witches might be deterred from venturing under
+cover of darkness to open the graves.
+
+Fornari gives the following story of a ghoul in his _History of
+Sorcerers_:—
+
+In the beginning of the 15th century, there lived at Bagdad an aged
+merchant who had grown wealthy in his business, and who had an only son
+to whom he was tenderly attached. He resolved to marry him to the
+daughter of another merchant, a girl of considerable fortune, but
+without any personal attractions. Abul-Hassan, the merchant’s son, on
+being shown the portrait of the lady, requested his father to delay the
+marriage till he could reconcile his mind to it. Instead, however, of
+doing this, he fell in love with another girl, the daughter of a sage,
+and he gave his father no peace till he consented to the marriage with
+the object of his affections. The old man stood out as long as he
+could, but finding that his son was bent on acquiring the hand of the
+fair Nadilla, and was equally resolute not to accept the rich and ugly
+lady, he did what most fathers, under such circumstances, are
+constrained to do, he acquiesced.
+
+The wedding took place with great pomp and ceremony, and a happy
+honeymoon ensued, which might have been happier but for one little
+circumstance which led to very serious consequences.
+
+Abul-Hassan noticed that his bride quitted the nuptial couch as soon as
+she thought her husband was asleep, and did not return to it, till an
+boar before dawn.
+
+Filled with curiosity, Hassan one night feigned sleep, and saw his wife
+rise and leave the room as usual. He followed cautiously, and saw her
+enter a cemetery. By the straggling moonbeams he beheld her go into a
+tomb; he stepped in after her.
+
+The scene within was horrible. A party of ghouls were assembled with
+the spoils of the graves they had violated., and were feasting on the
+flesh of the long-buried corpses. His own wife, who, by the way, never
+touched supper at home, played no inconsiderable part in the hideous
+banquet.
+
+As soon as he could safely escape, Abul-Hassan stole back to his bed.
+
+He said nothing to his bride till next evening when supper was laid,
+and she declined to eat; then he insisted on her partaking, and when
+she positively refused, he exclaimed wrathfully,—“Yes, you keep your
+appetite for your feast with the ghouls!” Nadilla was silent; she
+turned pale and trembled, and without a word sought her bed. At
+midnight she rose, fell on her husband with her nails and teeth, tore
+his throat, and having opened a vein, attempted to suck his blood; but
+Abul-Hassan springing to his feet threw her down, and with a blow
+killed her. She was buried next day.
+
+Three days after, at midnight, she re-appeared, attacked her husband
+again, and again attempted to suck his blood. He fled from her, and on
+the morrow opened her tomb, burned her to ashes, and cast them into the
+Tigris.
+
+This story connects the ghoul with the vampire. As will be seen by a
+former chapter, the were-wolf and the vampire are closely related.
+
+That the ancients held the same belief that the witches violate
+corpses, is evident from the third episode in the _Golden Ass_ of
+Apuleius. I will only quote the words of the crier:—
+
+“I pray thee, tell me,” replied I, “of what kind are the duties
+attached to this funeral guardianship?” “Duties!” quoth the crier;
+“why, keep wide awake all night, with thine eyes fixed steadily upon
+the corpse, neither winking nor blinking, nor looking to the right nor
+looking to the left, either to one side or the other, be it even
+little; for the witches, infamous wretches that they are! can slip out
+of their skins in an instant and change themselves into the form of any
+animal they have a mind; and then they crawl along so slyly, that the
+eyes of justice, nay, the eyes of the sun himself, are not keen enough
+to perceive them. At all events, their wicked devices are infinite in
+number and variety; and whether it be in the shape of a bird, or a dog,
+or a mouse, or even of a common house-fly, that they exercise their
+dire incantations, if thou art not vigilant in the extreme, they will
+deceive thee one way or other, and overwhelm thee with sleep;
+nevertheless, as regards the reward, ’twill be from four to six aurei;
+nor, although ’tis a perilous service, wilt thou receive more. Nay,
+hold! I had almost forgotten to give thee a necessary caution. Clearly
+understand, that it the corpse be not restored to the relatives entire,
+the deficient pieces of flesh torn off by the teeth of the witches must
+be replaced from the face of the sleepy guardian.”
+
+Here we have the rending of corpses connected with change of form.
+
+Marcassus relates that after a long war in Syria, during the night,
+troops of lamias, female evil spirits, appeared upon the field of
+battle, unearthing the hastily buried bodies of the soldiers, and
+devouring the flesh off their bones. They were pursued and fired upon,
+and some young men succeeded in killing a considerable number; but
+during the day they had all of them the forms of wolves or hyænas. That
+there is a foundation of truth in these horrible stories, and that it
+is quite possible for a human being to be possessed of a depraved
+appetite for rending corpses, is proved by an extraordinary case
+brought before a court-martial in Paris, so late as July 10th, 1849.
+
+The details are given with fulness in the _Annales
+Medico-psychologiques_ for that month and year. They are too revolting
+for reproduction. I will, however, give an outline of this remarkable
+case.
+
+In the autumn of 1848, several of the cemeteries in the neighbourhood
+of Paris were found to have been entered during the night, and graves
+to have been rifled. The deeds were not those of medical students, for
+the bodies had not been carried of, but were found lying about the
+tombs in fragments. It was at first supposed that the perpetration of
+these outrages must have been a wild beast, but footprints in the soft
+earth left no doubt that it was a man. Close watch was kept at Père la
+Chaise; but after a few corpses had been mangled there, the outrages
+ceased.
+
+In the winter, another cemetery was ravaged, and it was not till March
+in 1849, that a spring gun which had been set in the cemetery of S.
+Parnasse, went off during the night, and warned the guardians of the
+place that the mysterious visitor had fallen into their trap. They
+rushed to the spot, only to see a dark figure in a military mantle leap
+the wall, and disappear in the gloom. Marks of blood, however, gave
+evidence that he had been hit by the gun when it had discharged. At the
+same time, a fragment of blue cloth, torn from the mantle, was
+obtained, and afforded a clue towards the identification of the
+ravisher of the tombs.
+
+On the following day, the police went from barrack to barrack,
+inquiring whether officer or man were suffering from a gun-shot wound.
+By this means they discovered the person. He was a junior officer in
+the 1st Infantry regiment, of the name of Bertrand.
+
+He was taken to the hospital to be cured of his wound, and on his
+recovery, he was tried by court-martial.
+
+His history was this.
+
+He had been educated in the theological seminary of Langres, till, at
+the age of twenty, he entered the army. He was a young man of retiring
+habits, frank and cheerful to his comrades, so as to be greatly beloved
+by them, of feminine delicacy and refinement, and subject to fits of
+depression and melancholy. In February, 1847, as he was walking with a
+friend in the country, he came to a churchyard, the gate of which stood
+open. The day before a woman had been buried, but the sexton had not
+completed filling in the grave, and he had been engaged upon it on the
+present occasion, when a storm of rain had driven him to shelter.
+Bertrand noticed the spade and pick lying beside the grave, and—to use
+his own words:—“A cette vue des idées noires me vinrent, j’eus comme un
+violent mal de tête, mon cœur battait avec force, je no me possédais
+plus.” He managed by some excuse to get rid of his companion, and then
+returning to the churchyard, he caught up a spade and began to dig into
+the grave. “Soon I dragged the corpse out of the earth, and I began to
+hash it with the spade, without well knowing what I was about. A
+labourer saw me, and I laid myself flat on the ground till he was out
+of sight, and then I cast the body back into the grave. I then went
+away, bathed in a cold sweat, to a little grove, where I reposed for
+several hours, notwithstanding the cold rain which fell, in a condition
+of complete exhaustion. When I rose, my limbs were as if broken, and my
+head weak. The same prostration and sensation followed each attack.
+
+Two days after, I returned to the cemetery, and opened the grave with
+my hands. My hands bled, but I did not feel the pain; I tore the corpse
+to shreds, and flung it back into the pit.”
+
+He had no further attack for four months, till his regiment came to
+Paris. As he was one day walking in the gloomy, shadowy, alleys of Père
+la Chaise, the same feeling came over him like a flood. In the night he
+climbed the wall, and dug up a little girl of seven years old. He tore
+her in half. A few days later, he opened the grave of a woman who had
+died in childbirth, and had lain in the grave for thirteen days. On the
+16th November, he dug up an old woman of fifty, and, ripping her to
+pieces, rolled among the fragments. He did the same to another corpse
+on the 12th December. These are only a few of the numerous cases of
+violation of tombs to which he owned. It was on the night of the 15th
+March that the spring-gun shot him.
+
+Bertrand declared at his trial, that whilst he was in the hospital he
+had not felt any desire to renew his attempts, and that he considered
+himself cured of his horrible propensities, for he had seen men dying
+in the beds around him, and now: “Je suis guéri, car aujourd’hui j’ai
+peur d’un mort.”
+
+The fits of exhaustion which followed his accesses are very remarkable,
+as they precisely resemble those which followed the berserkir rages of
+the Northmen, and the expeditions of the Lycanthropists.
+
+The case of M. Bertrand is indubitably most singular and anomalous; it
+scarcely bears the character of insanity, but seems to point rather to
+a species of diabolical possession. At first the accesses chiefly
+followed upon his drinking wine, but after a while they came upon him
+without exciting cause. The manner in which he mutilated the dead was
+different. Some he chopped with the spade, others he tore and ripped
+with his teeth and nails. Sometimes he tore the mouth open and rent the
+face back to the ears, he opened the stomachs, and pulled off the
+limbs. Although he dug up the bodies of several men he felt no
+inclination to mutilate them, whereas he delighted in rending female
+corpses. He was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+A SERMON ON WERE -WOLVES.
+
+
+The discourses of Dr. Johann Geiler—The Sermon—Remarks.
+
+
+The following curious specimen of a late mediæval sermon is taken from
+the old German edition of the discourses of Dr. Johann Geiler von
+Keysersperg, a famous preacher in Strasbourg. The volume is entitled:
+“_Die Emeis_. Dis ist das Büch von der Omeissen, und durch Herr der
+Künnig ich diente gern. Und sagt von Eigenschafft der Omeissen, und
+gibt underweisung von der Unholden oder Hexen, und von Gespenst, der
+Geist, und von dem Wütenden Heer Wunderbarlich.”
+
+This strange series of sermons was preached at Strasbourg in the year
+1508, and was taken down and written out by a barefooted friar, Johann
+Pauli, and by him published in 1517. The doctor died on Mid-Lent
+Sunday, 1510. There is a Latin edition of his sermons, but whether of
+the same series or not I cannot tell, as I have been unable to obtain a
+sight of the volume. The German edition is illustrated with bold and
+clever woodcuts. Among other, there are representations of the Witches’
+Sabbath, the Wild Huntsman, and a Werewolf attacking a Man.
+
+The sermon was preached on the third Sunday in Lent. No text is given,
+but there is a general reference to the gospel for the day. This is the
+discourse:—[1]
+
+ [1] Headed thus:—“Am drittë sontag à fastê, occuli, predigt dé doctor
+ vô dê Werwölffenn.”
+
+
+“What shall we say about were-wolves? for there are were-wolves which
+run about the villages devouring men and children. As men say about
+them, they run about full gallop, injuring men, and are called
+ber-wölff, or wer-wölff. Do you ask me if I know aught about them? I
+answer, Yes. They are apparently wolves which cat men and children, and
+that happens on seven accounts:—
+
+    1. Esuriem        Hunger.
+    2. Rabiem         Savageness.
+    3. Senectutem     Old age.
+    4. Experientiam   Experience.
+    5. Insaniem       Madness.
+    6. Diabolum       The Devil.
+    7. Deum           God.
+
+The first happens through hunger; when the wolves find nothing to eat
+in the woods, they must come to people and eat men when hunger drives
+them to it. You see well, when it is very cold, that the stags come in
+search of food up to the villages, and the birds actually into the
+dining-room in search of victuals.
+
+“Under the second head, wolves eat children through their innate
+savageness, because they are savage, and that is (propter locum coitum
+ferum). Their savageness arises first from their condition. Wolves
+which live in cold places are smaller on that account, and more savage
+than other wolves. Secondly, their savageness depends on the season;
+they are more savage about Candlemas than at any other time of the
+year, and men must be more on their guard against them then than at
+other times. It is a proverb, ‘He who seeks a wolf at Candlemas, a
+peasant on Shrove Tuesday, and a parson in Lent, is a man of pluck.’ .
+. . Thirdly, their savageness depends on their having young. When the
+wolves have young, they are more savage than when they have not. You
+see it so in all beasts. A wild duck, when it has young poults, you see
+what an uproar it makes. A cat fights for its young kittens; the wolves
+do ditto.
+
+“Under the third head, the wolves do injury on account of their age.
+When a wolf is old, it is weak and feeble in its leas, so it can’t ran
+fast enough to catch stags, and therefore it rends a man, whom it can
+catch easier than a wild animal. It also tears children and men easier
+than wild animals, because of its teeth, for its teeth break off when
+it is very old; you see it well in old women: how the last teeth
+wobble, and they have scarcely a tooth left in their heads, and they
+open their mouths for men to feed them with mash and stewed substances.
+
+“Under the fourth head, the injury the were-wolves do arises from
+experience. It is said that human flesh is far sweeter than other
+flesh; so when a wolf has once tasted human flesh, he desires to taste
+it again. So he acts like old topers, who, when they know the best
+wine, will not be put off with inferior quality.
+
+“Under the fifth head, the injury arises from ignorance. A dog when it
+is mad is also inconsiderate, and it bites any man; it does not
+recognize its own lord: and what is a wolf but a wild dog which is mad
+and inconsiderate, so that it regards no man.
+
+“Under the sixth head, the injury comes of the Devil, who transforms
+himself, and takes on him the form of a wolf So writes Vincentius in
+his _Speculum Historiale_. And he has taken it from Valerius Maximus in
+the Punic war. When the Romans fought against the men of Africa, when
+the captain lay asleep, there came a wolf and drew his sword, and
+carried it off. That was the Devil in a, wolf’s form. The like writes
+William of Paris,—that a wolf will kill and devour children, and do the
+greatest mischief. There was a man who had the phantasy that he himself
+was a wolf. And afterwards he was found lying in the wood, and he was
+dead out of sheer hunger.
+
+“Under the seventh head, the injury comes of God’s ordinance. For God
+will sometimes punish certain lands and villages with wolves. So we
+read of Elisha,—that when Elisha wanted to go up a mountain out of
+Jericho, some naughty boys made a mock of him and said, ‘O bald head,
+step up! O glossy pate, step up!’ What happened? He cursed them. Then
+came two bears out of the desert and tore about forty-two of the
+children. That was God’s ordinance. The like we read of a prophet who
+would set at naught the commands he had received of God, for he was
+persuaded to eat bread at the house of another. As he went home he rode
+upon his ass. Then came a lion which slew him and left the ass alone.
+That was God’s ordinance. Therefore must man turn to God when He brings
+wild beasts to do him a mischief: which same brutes may He not bring
+now or evermore. Amen.”
+
+It will be seen from this extraordinary sermon that Dr. Johann Geiler
+von Keysersperg did not regard werewolves in any other light than
+natural wolves filled with a lust for human flesh; and he puts aside
+altogether the view that they are men in a state of metamorphosis.
+However, he alludes to this superstition in his sermon on wild-men of
+the woods, but translates his lycanthropists to Spain.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
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