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diff --git a/5324-h/5324-h.htm b/5324-h/5324-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c1652c5 --- /dev/null +++ b/5324-h/5324-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8112 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Book of Were-Wolfes, by Sabine Baring-Gould</title> +<link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> +<style type="text/css"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify; } + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight: +normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} + +h1 {font-size: 300%; + margin-top: 0.6em; + margin-bottom: 0.6em; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; + text-indent: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h3 {font-size: 130%; margin-top: 1em;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 110%;} + +.no-break {page-break-before: avoid;} /* for epubs */ + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + +.p2 {margin-top: 2em;} + +p.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: 90%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.letter {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +p.center {text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.right {text-align: right; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.footnote {font-size: 90%; + text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +sup { vertical-align: top; font-size: 0.6em; } + +div.fig { display:block; + margin:0 auto; + text-align:center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em;} + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> + + +</head> +<body> + +<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold;'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Book of Were-Wolves, by Sabine Baring-Gould</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +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 <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. 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. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Book of Were-Wolves</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Sabine Baring-Gould</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Release Date: July 1, 2002 [eBook #5324]<br /> +[Most recently updated: February 24, 2021]</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Curtis Weyant</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em;margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF WERE-WOLVES ***</div> + +<div class="fig" style="width:60%;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" style="width:100%;" alt="[Illustration]" /> +</div> + +<p> +[Note: Greek text is in curly braces, i.e., {}.] +</p> + +<h1>THE BOOK OF WERE-WOLVES</h1> + +<h3>Being an Account of Terrible Superstition</h3> + +<h2 class="no-break">by SABINE BARING-GOULD</h2> + +<h4>Smith, Elder & Co., London</h4> + +<h4>1865</h4> + +<hr /> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<p> +<a href="#chap01">CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY</a> +</p> + +<p> +<a href="#chap02">CHAPTER II. LYCANTHROPY AMONG THE ANCIENTS</a> +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +Definition of Lycanthropy—Marcellus +Sidetes—Virgil—Herodotus—Ovid—Pliny—Agriopas—Story +from Petronius—Arcadian Legends—Explanation offered +</p> + +<p> +<a href="#chap03">CHAPTER III. THE WERE-WOLF IN THE NORTH</a> +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +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 +</p> + +<p> +<a href="#chap04">CHAPTER IV. THE ORIGIN OF THE SCANDINAVIAN WERE-WOLF</a> +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +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 +</p> + +<p> +<a href="#chap05">CHAPTER V. THE WERE-WOLF IN THE MIDDLE AGES</a> +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +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 +</p> + +<p> +<a href="#chap06">CHAPTER VI. A CHAPTER OF HORRORS</a> +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +Pierre Bourgot and Michel Verdung—’Me Hermit of S. Bonnot—The +Gandillon Family—Thievenne Paget—The Tailor of Châlons—Roulet +</p> + +<p> +<a href="#chap07">Chapter VII. JEAN GRENIER</a> +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +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 +</p> + +<p> +<a href="#chap08">CHAPTER VIII. FOLK-LORE RELATING TO WERE-WOLVES</a> +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +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 +</p> + +<p> +<a href="#chap09">CHAPTER IX. NATURAL CAUSES OF LYCANTHROPY</a> +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +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 +</p> + +<p> +<a href="#chap10">CHAPTER X. MYTHOLOGICAL ORIGIN OF THE WERE-WOLF MYTH</a> +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +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 +</p> + +<p> +<a href="#chap11">CHAPTER XI. THE MARÉCHAL DE REZT I: THE INVESTIGATION OF CHARGES</a> +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +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 +</p> + +<p> +<a href="#chap12">CHAPTER XII. THE MARÉCHAL DE REZT II: THE TRIAL</a> +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +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 +</p> + +<p> +<a href="#chap13">CHAPTER XIII. MARÉCHAL DE RETZ III: THE SENTENCE AND EXECUTION</a> +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +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 +</p> + +<p> +<a href="#chap14">CHAPTER XIV. A GALICIAN WERE-WOLF</a> +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +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 +</p> + +<p> +<a href="#chap15">Chapter XV. ANOMALOUS CASE—THE HUMAN HYENA</a> +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +Ghouls—Story from Fornari—Quotation from Apuleius—Incident +mentioned by Marcassus—Cemeteries of Paris violated—Discovery of +Violator—Confession of M. Bertrand +</p> + +<p> +<a href="#chap16">CHAPTER XVI. A SERMON ON WERE-WOLVES</a> +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +The Discourses of Dr. Johann—The Sermon—Remarks +</p> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>THE BOOK OF WERE-WOLVES.</h2> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap01"></a>CHAPTER I.<br /> +INTRODUCTORY.</h2> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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.” +</p> + +<p> +“He says that he must return!” replied the priest in patois. +“But who will go with him?” +</p> + +<p> +“Ah, ha,! M. le Curé. It is all very well for one of us to accompany him, +but think of the coming back alone!” +</p> + +<p> +“Then two must go with him,” said the priest, and you can take care +of each other as you return.” +</p> + +<p> +“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?” +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“That is true,” observed several, shaking their heads. +</p> + +<p> +“His tongue hanging out, and his eyes glaring like marsh-fires!” +said the confidant of Picou. +</p> + +<p> +“Mon Dieu! if I met the monster, I should run,” quoth another. +</p> + +<p> +“I quite believe you, Cortrez; I can answer for it that you would,” +said the mayor. +</p> + +<p> +“As big as a calf,” threw in Picou’s friend. +</p> + +<p> +“If the loup-garou were <i>only</i> 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.” +</p> + +<p> +“But what is the young monsieur to do?” asked the priest, looking +from one to another. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +A sigh of relief from the assembly, as they found themselves clear of the +difficulty. +</p> + +<p> +“Il est Anglais,” said the mayor, shaking his head, as though he +meant that an Englishman might face the devil with impunity. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap02"></a>CHAPTER II.<br /> +LYCANTHROPY AMONG THE ANCIENTS.</h2> + +<p class="letter"> +Definition of Lycanthropy—Marcellus +Sidetes—Virgil—Herodotus—Ovid—Pliny—Agriopas—Story +from Petronius—Arcadian Legends—Explanation offered. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +This is the popular definition. Truly it consists in a form of madness, such as +may be found in most asylums. +</p> + +<p> +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 +</p> + +<p> +Africa that of a hyæna, were often selected in preference. A mere matter of +taste! According to Marcellus Sidetes, of whose poem {Greek <i>perì +lukanðrw’pou</i>} 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. +</p> + +<p> +Virgil writes in his eighth Eclogue:— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Has herbas, atque hæc Ponto mihi lecta venena<br /> +Ipse dedit Mœris; nascuntur plurima Ponto.<br /> +His ego sæpe lupum fieri et se conducere sylvis<br /> +Mœrim, sæpe animas imis excire sepulchris,<br /> +Atque satas alio, vidi traducere messes. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +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.) +</p> + +<p> +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.” +</p> + +<p> +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:—<a href="#fn-2.1" name="fnref-2.1" id="fnref-2.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-2.1" id="fn-2.1"></a> <a href="#fnref-2.1">[1]</a> +OVID. Met. i. 237; PAUSANIAS, viii. 2, § 1; TZETZE <i>ad Lycoph.</i> +481; ERATOSTH. <i>Catas.</i> i. 8. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +In vain he attempted to speak; from that very instant<br /> +His jaws were bespluttered with foam, and only he thirsted<br /> +For blood, as he raged amongst flocks and panted for slaughter.<br /> +His vesture was changed into hair, his limbs became crooked;<br /> +A wolf,—he retains yet large trace of his ancient expression,<br /> +Hoary he is as afore, his countenance rabid,<br /> +His eyes glitter savagely still, the picture of fury. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +The following story is from Petronius:— +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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 (<i>versipellis</i>), 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!” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +S. Augustine declared, in his <i>De Civitate Dei</i>, that he knew an old woman +who was said to turn men into asses by her enchantments. +</p> + +<p> +Apuleius has left us his charming romance of the <i>Golden Ass</i>, in which +the hero, through injudicious use of a magical salve, is transformed into that +long-eared animal. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap03"></a>CHAPTER III.<br /> +THE WERE-WOLF IN THE NORTH.</h2> + +<p class="letter"> +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 +</p> + +<p> +In Norway and Iceland certain men were said to be <i>eigi einhamir</i>, 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, <i>hamr</i>, and the expression +made use of to designate the transition from one body to another, was at +<i>skipta hömum</i>, or <i>at hamaz</i>; 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 <i>hamrammr</i>. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Having assumed some bestial shape, the man who is <i>eigi einhammr</i> 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 <i>gandreið</i>, or wolf’s-ride, he is fall of the rage +and malignity of the creatures whose powers and passions he has assumed. +</p> + +<p> +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:— +</p> + +<table summary="" style=""> + +<tr> +<td>I.</td><td>I.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Meyjar flugu sunnan</td><td>From the south flew the maidens</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Myrkvið igögnum</td><td>Athwart the gloom,</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Alvitr unga</td><td>Alvit the young,</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Orlög drýgja;</td><td>To fix destinies;</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>þær á savarströnd</td><td>They on the sea-strand</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Settusk at hvilask,</td><td>Sat them to rest,</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Dró sir suðrœnar</td><td>These damsels of the south</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Dýrt lín spunnu.<br /><br /></td><td>Fair linen spun.<br /><br /></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>II.</td><td>II.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Ein nam þeirra</td><td>One of them took</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Egil at verja</td><td>Egil to press,</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Fögr mær fíra</td><td>Fair maid, in her</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Faðmi ljósum;</td><td>Dazzling arms.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Önnur var Svanhvít,</td><td>Another was Svanhwit,</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Svanfjaðrar dró</td><td>Who wore swan feathers;</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>En in þriðja</td><td>And the third,</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>þeirra systir</td><td>Their sister,</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Var i hvítan</td><td>Pressed the white</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Háls Völundar.</td><td>Neck of Vœlund.</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +In like manner were wolves’ dresses used. The following curious passage +is from the wild Saga of the Völsungs:— +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“‘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?’ +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +There is another curious story of a were-wolf in the same Saga, which I must +relate. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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.) +</p> + +<p> +There is another story bearing on the subject in the Hrolfs Saga Kraka, which +is pretty; it is as follows:— +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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.’ +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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.’ +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“‘Maybe you have had sufficient,’ said the queen, and she +laughed.”—(Hrolfs Saga Kraka, c. 24-27, condensed.) +</p> + +<p> +In the Faroëse song of Finnur hin friði, we have the following +verse:— +</p> + +<table summary="" style=""> + +<tr> +<td>Hegar íð Finnur hetta sær,</td><td>When this peril Finn saw,</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Mannspell var at meini,</td><td>That witchcraft did him harm,</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Skapti hann seg í varglíki:</td><td>Then he changed himself into a were-wolf:</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Hann feldi allvæl fleiri.</td><td>He slew many thus.</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p> +The following is from the second Kviða of Helga Hundingsbana (stroph. +31):— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +May the blade bite,<br /> +Which thou brandishest<br /> +Only on thyself,<br /> +when it Chimes on thy head.<br /> +Then avenged will be<br /> +The death of Helgi,<br /> +When thou, as a wolf,<br /> +Wanderest in the woods,<br /> +Knowing nor fortune<br /> +Nor any pleasure,<br /> +Haying no meat,<br /> +Save rivings of corpses. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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.) +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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.’ +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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.<a href="#fn-3.1" name="fnref-3.1" id="fnref-3.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> +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.” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-3.1" id="fn-3.1"></a> <a href="#fnref-3.1">[1]</a> +A precaution against the “evil eye.” Compare <i>Gisla Saga +Surssonnar</i>, p. 34. <i>Laxdæla Saga</i>, cc. 37, 38. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap04"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br /> +THE ORIGIN OF THE SCANDINAVIAN WERE-WOLF.</h2> + +<p class="letter"> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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>i geitheðni</i>, 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, <i>ulfheðnir</i>, 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 <i>Ulfheðin</i>, wolfskin coat, son of +<i>Ulfhamr</i>, wolf-shaped, son of <i>Ulf</i>, wolf, son of <i>Ulfhamr</i>, +wolf-shaped, who could change forms.” +</p> + +<p> +But the most conclusive passage is in the Vatnsdæla Saga, and is as +follows:—“Those berserkir who were called <i>ulfheðnir</i>, had +got wolf-skins over their mail coats” (c. xvi.) In like manner the word +<i>berserkr</i>, 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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—<i>all but his +eyes</i>—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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +But there was other ground for superstition to fasten on the berserkir, and +invest them with supernatural attributes. +</p> + +<p> +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.<a href="#fn-4.1" name="fnref-4.1" id="fnref-4.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-4.1" id="fn-4.1"></a> <a href="#fnref-4.1">[1]</a> +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.—<i>Saxo +Gramm</i>. VII. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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 <i>Vatnsdæla +Saga</i>, 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.” +</p> + +<p> +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:— +</p> + +<p> +“Thorgrim of Kornsá had a child by his concubine Vereydr, and, by +order of his wife, the child was carried out to perish. +</p> + +<p> +“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.’ +</p> + +<p> +“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.’ +</p> + +<p> +“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) +</p> + +<p> +But the most remarkable passages bearing on our subject will be found in the +<i>Aigla</i>. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“People said that he was much given to changing form (<i>hamrammr</i>), +so he was called the evening-wolf, <i>kveldúlfr</i>.”—(c. +1.) In this and the following passages, I do not consider <i>hamrammr</i> 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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +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.” +</p> + +<p> +In like manner Skallagrim had his fits of frenzy, taking after his amiable +father. +</p> + +<p> +“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.) +</p> + +<p> +Let it be observed that in these passages from the <i>Aigla</i>, 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 <i>hamr</i>, 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. +</p> + +<p> +The Sanskrit ### <i>carmma</i>; the Hindustanee ### <i>cam</i>, hide or skin; +and ### <i>camra</i>, leather; the Persian ### <i>game</i>, clothing, disguise; +the Gothic <i>ham</i> or <i>hams</i>, skin; and even the Italian +<i>camicia</i>, and the French <i>chemise</i>, are cognate +words.<a href="#fn-4.2" name="fnref-4.2" id="fnref-4.2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-4.2" id="fn-4.2"></a> <a href="#fnref-4.2">[2]</a> +I shall have more to say on this subject in the chapter on the Mythology of +Lycanthropy. +</p> + +<p> +It seems probable accordingly that the verb <i>að hamaz</i> 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. +</p> + +<p> +This was not the only word connected with were-wolves which helped on the +superstition. The word <i>vargr</i>, a wolf, had a double significance, which +would be the means of originating many a were-wolf story. <i>Vargr</i> is the +same as <i>u-argr</i>, restless; <i>argr</i> being the same as the Anglo-Saxon +<i>earg</i>. <i>Vargr</i> had its double signification in Norse. It signified a +wolf, and also a godless man. This <i>vargr</i> is the English <i>were</i>, in +the word were-wolf, and the <i>garou</i> or <i>varou</i> in French. The Danish +word for were-wolf is <i>var-ulf</i>, the Gothic <i>vaira-ulf</i>. In the +<i>Romans de Garin</i>, it is “Leu warou, sanglante beste.” In the +<i>Vie de S. Hildefons</i> by Gauthier de Coinsi,— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Cil lou desve, cil lou garol,<br /> +Ce sunt deable, que saul<br /> +Ne puent estre de nos mordre. +</p> + +<p> +Here the loup-garou is a devil. The Anglo-Saxons regarded him as an evil man: +<i>wearg</i>, a scoundrel; Gothic <i>varys</i>, a fiend. But very often the +word meant no more than an outlaw. Pluquet in his <i>Contes Populaires</i> +tells us that the ancient Norman laws said of the criminals condemned to +outlawry for certain offences, <i>Wargus esto</i>: be an outlaw! +</p> + +<p> +In like manner the Lex Ripuaria, tit. 87, “Wargus sit, hoe est +expulsus.” In the laws of Canute, he is called verevulf. (<i>Leges +Canuti</i>, Schmid, i. 148.) And the Salic Law (tit. 57) orders: “Si quis +corpus jam sepultum effoderit, aut expoliaverit, <i>wargus</i> sit.” +“If any one shall have dug up or despoiled an already buried corpse, let +him be a varg.” +</p> + +<p> +Sidonius Apollinaris. says, “Unam feminam quam forte <i>vargorum</i>, hoc +enim nomine indigenas latrunculos nuncupant,”<a href="#fn-4.3" name="fnref-4.3" id="fnref-4.3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> +as though the common name by which those who lived a freebooter life were +designated, was varg. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-4.3" id="fn-4.3"></a> <a href="#fnref-4.3">[3]</a> +SIDONIUS APOLLINARIS: Opera, lib. vi. ep. 4. +</p> + +<p> +In like manner Palgrave assures us in his <i>Rise and Progress of the English +Commonwealth</i>, that among the Anglo, Saxons an <i>utlagh</i>, or out-law, +was said to have the head of a wolf. If then the term <i>vargr</i> 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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 <i>verða at gjalti</i>, or at <i>gjöltum</i>, to become +a boar, is frequently met with in the Sagas. +</p> + +<p> +“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 <i>verða at gjalti</i> 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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 <i>vargr</i>, 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap05"></a>CHAPTER V.<br /> +THE WERE-WOLF IN THE MIDDLE-AGES.</h2> + +<p class="letter"> +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 +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“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.”<a href="#fn-5.1" name="fnref-5.1" id="fnref-5.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> +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. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-5.1" id="fn-5.1"></a> <a href="#fnref-5.1">[1]</a> +OLAUS MAGNUS: <i>Historia de Vent. Septent</i>. Basil. 15, lib. xviii. cap. 45. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Bp. Majolus<a href="#fn-5.2" name="fnref-5.2" id="fnref-5.2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> +and Caspar Peucer<a href="#fn-5.3" name="fnref-5.3" id="fnref-5.3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> +relate the following circumstances of the Livonians:— +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-5.2" id="fn-5.2"></a> <a href="#fnref-5.2">[2]</a> +MAJOLI <i>Episc. Vulturoniensis Dier. Canicul.</i> Helenopolis, 1612, tom. +ii. colloq. 3. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-5.3" id="fn-5.3"></a> <a href="#fnref-5.3">[3]</a> +CASPAR PEUCER: <i>Comment. de Præcipuis Divin. Generibus</i>, 1591, p. 169. +</p> + +<p> +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, <i>werwolf</i> 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.” (<i>Serm</i>. +apud Mart. et Durand. ix. 217.) +</p> + +<p> +In a dissertation by Müller<a href="#fn-5.4" name="fnref-5.4" id="fnref-5.4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> +we learn, on the authority of Cluverius and Dannhaverus (<i>Acad. Homilet.</i> +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.” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-5.4" id="fn-5.4"></a> <a href="#fnref-5.4">[4]</a> +De {Greek <i>Lukanðrwpía</i>}. Lipsiæ, 1736. +</p> + +<p> +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 (<i>ac forsan hodie que +pascitur</i>). His wife, then near her confinement, died of fear. Of these +circumstances there were not only ear but also eye witnesses. (<i>Non ab +auritis tantum, sed et ocidatis accepi, quod narro</i>). 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. +</p> + +<p> +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.<a href="#fn-5.5" name="fnref-5.5" id="fnref-5.5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> +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. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-5.5" id="fn-5.5"></a> <a href="#fnref-5.5">[5]</a> +PHIL. HARTUNG: <i>Conciones Tergeminæ</i>, pars ii. p. 367. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +John of Nüremberg relates the following curious story.<a href="#fn-5.6" name="fnref-5.6" id="fnref-5.6"><sup>[6]</sup></a> +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. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-5.6" id="fn-5.6"></a> <a href="#fnref-5.6">[6]</a> +JOHN EUS. NIERENBERG <i>de Miracul. in Europa</i>, lib. ii. cap. 42. +</p> + +<p> +Marie de France says in the <i>Lais du +Bisclaveret:</i>—<a href="#fn-5.7" name="fnref-5.7" id="fnref-5.7"><sup>[7]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Bisclaveret ad nun en Bretan<br /> +Garwall Papelent li Norman.<br /> +* * * *<br /> +Jadis le poet-hum oir<br /> +Et souvent suleit avenir,<br /> +Humes pluseirs Garwall deviendrent<br /> +E es boscages meisun tindrent +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-5.7" id="fn-5.7"></a> <a href="#fnref-5.7">[7]</a> +An epitome of this curious were-wolf tale will be found in Ellis’s +<i>Early English Metrical Romances</i>. +</p> + +<p> +There is an interesting paper by Rhanæus, on the Courland were-wolves, in the +<i>Breslauer Sammlung</i>.<a href="#fn-5.8" name="fnref-5.8" id="fnref-5.8"><sup>[8]</sup></a> +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:— +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-5.8" id="fn-5.8"></a> <a href="#fnref-5.8">[8]</a> +Supplement III. <i>Curieuser</i> und nutzbarer Anmerkungen von Natur und +Kunstgeschichten, gesammelt von Kanold. 1728. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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.” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +He commemorates his lupine madness in the poem <i>A tal +Donna</i>:—<a href="#fn-5.9" name="fnref-5.9" id="fnref-5.9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-5.9" id="fn-5.9"></a> <a href="#fnref-5.9">[9]</a> +BRUCE WHYTE: <i>Histoire des Langues Romaines</i>, tom. ii. p. 248. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Crowned with immortal joys I mount<br /> +The proudest emperors above,<br /> +For I am honoured with the love<br /> +Of the fair daughter of a count.<br /> +A lace from Na Raymbauda’s hand<br /> +I value more than all the land<br /> +Of Richard, with his Poïctou,<br /> +His rich Touraine and famed Anjou.<br /> + When <i>loup-garou</i> the rabble call me,<br /> +When vagrant shepherds hoot,<br /> +Pursue, and buffet me to boot,<br /> +It doth not for a moment gall me;<br /> +I seek not palaces or halls,<br /> +Or refuge when the winter falls;<br /> +Exposed to winds and frosts at night,<br /> +My soul is ravished with delight.<br /> + Me claims my she-wolf (<i>Loba</i>) so divine:<br /> +And justly she that claim prefers,<br /> +For, by my troth, my life is hers<br /> +More than another’s, more than mine. +</p> + +<p> +Job Fincelius<a href="#fn-5.10" name="fnref-5.10" id="fnref-5.10"><sup>[10]</sup></a> +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: +<i>versipellis</i> occurs as a name of reproach in Petronius, Lucilius, and +Plautus, and resembles the Norse <i>hamrammr</i>. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-5.10" id="fn-5.10"></a> <a href="#fnref-5.10">[10]</a> +FINCELIUS <i>de Mirabilibus</i>, lib. xi. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Bodin quotes Pierre Marner, the author of a treatise on sorcerers, as having +witnessed in Savoy the transformation of men into wolves. +Nynauld<a href="#fn-5.11" name="fnref-5.11" id="fnref-5.11"><sup>[11]</sup></a> +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. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-5.11" id="fn-5.11"></a> <a href="#fnref-5.11">[11]</a> +NYNAULD, <i>De la Lycanthropie</i>. Paris, 1615, p. 52. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Donatus of Altomare<a href="#fn-5.12" name="fnref-5.12" id="fnref-5.12"><sup>[12]</sup></a> +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. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-5.12" id="fn-5.12"></a> <a href="#fnref-5.12">[12]</a> +<i>De Medend. Human. Corp</i>. lib. i. cap. 9. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap06"></a>CHAPTER VI.<br /> +A CHAMBER OF HORRORS.</h2> + +<p class="letter"> +Pierre Bourgot and Michel Verdung—’Me Hermit of S. Bonnot—The +Gandillon Family—Thievenne Paget—The Tailor of +Châlons—Roulet. +</p> + +<p> +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:— +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“Then there rode up three black horsemen, and the last said to me: +‘Whither away? you seem to be in trouble?’ +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“All anxiety about my flock was removed, for the devil had undertaken to +protect it and to keep off the wolves. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +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 <i>ham rammir</i> in the North were utterly prostrated after +their fit had left them. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +He was unable to account for the manner in which the hair vanished when he +recovered his natural condition. +</p> + +<p> +The statements of Pierre Bourgot were fully corroborated by Michel Verdung. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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 +<i>Discours de Sorciers</i>, 1603-1610. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +All three, Pierre, Georges, and Antoinnette, were hung and burned. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Again in 1598, a year memorable in the annals of lycanthropy, a trial took +place in Angers, the details of which are very terrible. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +This is one of the most puzzling and peculiar cases which come under our +notice. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“What is your name, and what your estate?” asked the judge, Pierre +Hérault. +</p> + +<p> +“My name is Jacques Roulet, my age thirty-five; I am poor, and a +mendicant.” +</p> + +<p> +“What are you accused of having done?” +</p> + +<p> +“Of being a thief—of having offended God. My parents gave me an +ointment; I do not know its composition.” +</p> + +<p> +“When rubbed with this ointment do you become a wolf?” +</p> + +<p> +“No; but for all that, I killed and ate the child Cornier: I was a +wolf.” +</p> + +<p> +“Were you dressed as a wolf?” +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do your hands and feet become paws of a wolf?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, they do.” +</p> + +<p> +“Does your head become like that of a wolf-your mouth become +larger?” +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +The <i>lieutenant criminel</i> 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.<a href="#fn-6.1" name="fnref-6.1" id="fnref-6.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-6.1" id="fn-6.1"></a> <a href="#fnref-6.1">[1]</a> +“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.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap07"></a>CHAPTER VII.<br /> +JEAN GRENIER</h2> + +<p class="letter"> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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 <i>Landes</i> in the south of +France, and the sea. +</p> + +<p> +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 <i>Gremille couchée</i>, 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. +</p> + +<p> +Now a gorgeous butterfly attracted their attention, then a flight of quails +skimming the surface. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“Now, if they would fly ready cooked into one’s mouth, as they do +in foreign parts!” said another girl. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“You will turn the head of Etienne altogether, Annette!” said +Jeanne Gaboriant. “But what is the matter with the sheep?” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“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?” +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“Because I shall marry the prettiest,” was the answer. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“I am the son of a priest,” replied the boy curtly. +</p> + +<p> +“Is that why you look so dingy and black?” +</p> + +<p> +“No, I am dark-coloured, because I wear a wolf-skin sometimes.” +</p> + +<p> +“A wolf-skin!” echoed the girl; “and pray who gave it +you?” +</p> + +<p> +“One called Pierre Labourant.” +</p> + +<p> +“There is no man of that name hereabouts. Where does he live?” +</p> + +<p> +A scream of laughter mingled with howls, and breaking into strange gulping +bursts of fiendlike merriment from the strange boy. +</p> + +<p> +The little girls recoiled, and the youngest took refuge behind Jeanne. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +The girls trembled and looked at each other with scared faces, and then again +at the hideous being which crouched before them. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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:— +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +The investigation which followed was as complete as could be desired. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +The story he related of himself before the court was as follows:— +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Duthillaire was apprehended, and the father of Jean Grenier himself claimed to +be heard by examination. +</p> + +<p> +The account given by the father and stepmother of Jean coincided in many +particulars with the statements made by their son. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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.” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +The only witness who corroborated the assertion of Jean that he changed his +shape into that of a wolf was Marguerite Poirier. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +He died at the age of twenty, after an imprisonment of seven years, shortly +after Delancre’s visit.<a href="#fn-7.1" name="fnref-7.1" id="fnref-7.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-7.1" id="fn-7.1"></a> <a href="#fnref-7.1">[1]</a> +DELANCRE: <i>Tableau de l’Inconstance</i>, p 305. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap08"></a>CHAPTER VIII.<br /> +FOLK-LORE RELATING TO WERE-WOLVES.</h2> + +<p class="letter"> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +O was it <i>war-wolf</i> in the wood?<br /> + Or was it mermaid in the sea?<br /> +Or was it man, or vile woman,<br /> + My ain true love, that mis-shaped thee? +</p> + +<p> +There is also the romance of <i>William and the Were-wolf</i> in +Hartshorn;<a href="#fn-8.1" name="fnref-8.1" id="fnref-8.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> +but this professes to be a translation from the French:— +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-8.1" id="fn-8.1"></a> <a href="#fnref-8.1">[1]</a> +HARTSHORN: <i>Ancient Metrical Tales</i>, p. 256. See also “The Witch +Cake,” in CRUMEK’S <i>Remains of Nithsdale Song</i>. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +For he of Frenche this fayre tale ferst dede translate,<br /> +In ese of Englysch men in Englysch speche. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Gervaise of Tilbury says in his <i>Otia Imperalia</i>— +</p> + +<p> +“Vidimus frequenter in Anglia, per lunationes, homines in lupos mutari, +quod hominum genus <i>gerulfos</i> Galli vocant, Angli vero <i>wer-wlf,</i> +dicunt: <i>wer</i> enim Anglice virum sonat, <i>wlf</i>, 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 <i>wér</i> signifies +man; it is so in Anglo-Saxon, <i>vair</i> in Gothic, <i>vir</i> in Latin, +<i>verr</i>, in Icelandic, <i>vîra</i>, Zend, <i>wirs</i>, old Prussian, +<i>wirs</i>, Lettish, <i>vîra</i>, Sanskrit, <i>bîr</i>, Bengalee. +</p> + +<p> +There have been cases of cannibalism in Scotland, but no bestial transformation +is hinted at in connection with them. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“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.”<a href="#fn-8.2" name="fnref-8.2" id="fnref-8.2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-8.2" id="fn-8.2"></a> <a href="#fnref-8.2">[2]</a> +LINDSAY’S <i>Chronicles of Scotland</i>, 1814, p. 163. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +About Perth thare was the countrie<br /> +Sae waste, that wonder wes to see; +For intill well-great space thereby,<br /> +Wes nother house left nor herb’ry.<br /> +Of deer thare wes then sic foison (profusion),<br /> +That they wold near come to the town,<br /> +Sae great default was near that stead,<br /> +That mony were in hunger dead.<br /> +A carle they said was near thereby,<br /> +That wold act settis (traps) commonly,<br /> +Children and women for to slay,<br /> +And swains that he might over-ta;<br /> +And ate them all that he get might;<br /> +Chwsten Cleek till name behight.<br /> +That sa’ry life continued he,<br /> +While waste but folk was the countrie.<a href="#fn-8.3" name="fnref-8.3" id="fnref-8.3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-8.3" id="fn-8.3"></a> <a href="#fnref-8.3">[3]</a> +WYNTOUN’S <i>Chronicle</i>, ii. 236. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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.” +</p> + +<p> +If traditions of were-wolves are scanty in England, it is quite the reverse if +we cross the water. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +In Normandy, those who are doomed to be loups-garoux, clothe themselves every +evening with a skin called their <i>hère</i> or <i>hure</i>, 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +In Denmark the following stories are told:— +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +According to a Danish popular song, a hero transformed by his step-mother into +a bear, fights with a knight:— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +For ’tis she who hath bewitched me,<br /> +A woman false and fell,<br /> +Bound an iron girdle round me,<br /> +If thou can’st not break this belt,<br /> +Knight, I’ll thee destroy!<br /> +* * * *<br /> +The noble made the Christian sign,<br /> +The girdle snapped, the bear was changed,<br /> +And see! he was a lusty knight,<br /> +His father’s realm regained. +</p> + +<p class="right"> +<i>Kjæmpeviser</i>, p. 147. +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +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. +</p> + +<p> +In Schleswig and Holstein they say that if the were-wolf be thrice addressed by +his baptismal name, he resumes his human form. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +The girdle is supposed to be made of human skin, and to be three +finger-breadths wide. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +According to a curious Lithuanian story related by Schleicher in his +<i>Litauische Märchen</i>, 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Among the Bulgarians and Sloyakians the were-wolf is called <i>vrkolak</i>, a +name resembling that given it by the modern Greeks {Greek +<i>brúkolakas</i>}. 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 <i>brúkolakas</i>}, and suppose him +to be invested with power of running in wolf-form. +</p> + +<p> +The Serbs connect the vampire and the were-wolf together, and call them by one +name <i>vlkoslak</i>. 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Among the White Russians the <i>wawkalak</i> 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +The Poles have their were-wolves, which rage twice in the year—at +Christmas and at midsummer. +</p> + +<p> +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>i.e. tail—jbh</i>}. +</p> + +<p> +The Russians call the were-wolf <i>oborot</i>, which signifies “one +transformed.” The following receipt is given by them for becoming one. +</p> + +<p> +“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:— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +On the sea, on the ocean, on the island, on Bujan,<br /> +On the empty pasture gleams the moon, on an ashstock lying<br /> +In a green wood, in a gloomy vale.<br /> +Toward the stock wandereth a shaggy wolf.<br /> +Horned cattle seeking for his sharp white fangs;<br /> +But the wolf enters not the forest,<br /> +But the wolf dives not into the shadowy vale,<br /> +Moon, moon, gold-horned moon,<br /> +Cheek the flight of bullets, blunt the hunters’ knives,<br /> +Break the shepherds’ cudgels,<br /> +Cast wild fear upon all cattle,<br /> +On men, on all creeping things,<br /> +That they may not catch the grey wolf,<br /> +That they may not rend his warm skin<br /> +My word is binding, more binding than sleep,<br /> +More binding than the promise of a hero! +</p> + +<p> +“Then he springs thrice over the tree and runs into the forest, +transformed into a wolf.”<a href="#fn-8.4" name="fnref-8.4" id="fnref-8.4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-8.4" id="fn-8.4"></a> <a href="#fnref-8.4">[4]</a> +SACHAROW: <i>Inland</i>, 1838, No. 17. +</p> + +<p> +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,- +</p> + +<p> +“Incubi sepe improbi existunt mulieribus, et earum peragunt concubitum, +quos demones Galli <i>dusios</i> 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.” +</p> + +<p> +That the same belief in lycanthropy exists in Armenia is evident from the +following story told by Haxthausen, in his <i>Trans-Caucasia</i> (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.” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +In the Pantschatantra is a story of an enchanted Brahmin’s son, who by +day was a serpent, by night a man. +</p> + +<p> +Vikramâditya’s father, the son of Indra, was condemned to be an ass by +day and a man by night. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Nathaniel Pierce<a href="#fn-8.5" name="fnref-8.5" id="fnref-8.5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> +gives an account of an Abyssinian superstition very similar to that prevalent +in Europe. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-8.5" id="fn-8.5"></a> <a href="#fnref-8.5">[5]</a> +<i>Life and Adventures of Nathaniel Pierce</i>, written by himself during a +residence in Abyssinia from 1810-19. London, 1831. +</p> + +<p> +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 +<i>Buda</i>, the Tigré, <i>Tebbib</i>. 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. +</p> + +<p> +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 <i>quanter</i>, 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:— +</p> + +<p> +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 <i>Herodotus</i> +(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.” +</p> + +<p> +A precisely similar superstition seems to have existed in America, for Joseph +Acosta (<i>Hist. Nat. des Indes</i>) 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.—(<i>Recueil de Voyages</i>, tom. ii. 187.) +</p> + +<p> +Among the North American Indians, the belief in transformation is very +prevalent. The following story closely resembles one very prevalent all over +the world. +</p> + +<p> +“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.”—(<i>Traditions of the North American Indians</i>, by T. A. +Jones, 1830, Vol. ii. p. 18.) +</p> + +<p> +In the same work is a curious story entitled <i>The Mother of the World</i>, +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. +</p> + +<p> +I shall close this chapter with a Slovakian household tale given by T. T. +Hanush in the third volume of <i>Zeitschrift für Deutsche Mythologie</i>. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>The Daughter of the Vlkolak.</i> +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“‘Why, how come you so early with the food?’ asked the +woodcutter. +</p> + +<p> +“‘Truly, father, I wished to strengthen you, lest you should fall +upon us, if famished!’ +</p> + +<p> +“‘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.’ +</p> + +<p> +“‘And what is the pit for?’ +</p> + +<p> +“‘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.’ +</p> + +<p> +“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.’ +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“See,’ said she, ‘father, I have brought you food.’ +</p> + +<p> +“That is a good lass,’ said he. ‘Now stack the wood for me +whilst I eat.’ +</p> + +<p> +“‘But where are my sisters?’ she asked. +</p> + +<p> +“‘Down in yon valley drawing wood,’ he replied ‘follow +me, and I will bring you to them.’ +</p> + +<p> +“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.’ +</p> + +<p> +“‘Turn aside, father,’ she asked, ‘whilst I strip of my +clothes, and then slay me if you will.’ +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“She fled for her life, for the were-wolf was not injured, and he soon +would scramble out of the pit. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +This story bears some resemblance to one told by Von Hahn in his <i>Griechische +und Albanesische Märchen</i>; 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. +</p> + +<p> +It is worthy of notice in the tale of <i>The Daughter of the Ulkolak</i>, that +the were-wolf fit is followed by great exhaustion,<a href="#fn-8.6" name="fnref-8.6" id="fnref-8.6"><sup>[6]</sup></a> +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. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-8.6" id="fn-8.6"></a> <a href="#fnref-8.6">[6]</a> +Compare this with the exhaustion following a Berserkir fit, and that which +succeeded the attacks to which M. Bertrand was subject. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap09"></a>CHAPTER IX.<br /> +NATURAL CAUSES OF LYCANTHROPY.</h2> + +<p class="letter"> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +In this chapter I purpose briefly examining the conditions under which men have +been regarded as werewolves. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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 <i>life</i> in it, and he has an instinct +within him impelling him to destroy life wherever he finds it. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +As I have already observed, this passion exists in different persons in +different degrees. +</p> + +<p> +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.<a href="#fn-9.1" name="fnref-9.1" id="fnref-9.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-9.1" id="fn-9.1"></a> <a href="#fnref-9.1">[1]</a> +A full account of this man’s trial is given by one who was present, in +<i>All the Year Round</i>, No. 162. +</p> + +<p> +In others, the passion for blood is developed alongside with indifference to +suffering. +</p> + +<p> +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.” +</p> + +<p> +Andreas Bichel was executed in 1809.<a href="#fn-9.2" name="fnref-9.2" id="fnref-9.2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-9.2" id="fn-9.2"></a> <a href="#fnref-9.2">[2]</a> +The case of Andreas Bichel is given in Lady Duff Gordon’s <i>Remarkable +Criminal Trials</i>. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Gall gives several authentic instances of bloodthirstiness.<a href="#fn-9.3" name="fnref-9.3" id="fnref-9.3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> +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. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-9.3" id="fn-9.3"></a> <a href="#fnref-9.3">[3]</a> +GALL: <i>Sur les Fonctions du Cerveau</i>, tom. iv. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Spurzheim<a href="#fn-9.4" name="fnref-9.4" id="fnref-9.4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> +tells of a priest at Strasbourg, who, though rich, and uninfluenced by envy or +revenge, from exactly the same motive, killed three persons. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-9.4" id="fn-9.4"></a> <a href="#fnref-9.4">[4]</a> +<i>Doctrine of the Mind</i>, p. 158. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Michael Wagener<a href="#fn-9.5" name="fnref-9.5" id="fnref-9.5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> +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. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-9.5" id="fn-9.5"></a> <a href="#fnref-9.5">[5]</a> +<i>Beitrage zur philosophischen Anthropologie</i>, Wien, 1796. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“Occasionally she had the girls burned, and then cut up, but the great +majority were beaten to death. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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<a href="#fn-9.6" name="fnref-9.6" id="fnref-9.6"><sup>[6]</sup></a> +gives instances. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-9.6" id="fn-9.6"></a> <a href="#fnref-9.6">[6]</a> +<i>Observationes Medic</i>. lib. iv. De Gravidis. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +That the passion to destroy is prevalent in certain maniacs is well known; this +is sometimes accompanied by cannibalism. +</p> + +<p> +Gruner<a href="#fn-9.7" name="fnref-9.7" id="fnref-9.7"><sup>[7]</sup></a> +gives an account of a shepherd who was evidently deranged, who killed and ate +two men. Marc<a href="#fn-9.8" name="fnref-9.8" id="fnref-9.8"><sup>[8]</sup></a> +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. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-9.7" id="fn-9.7"></a> <a href="#fnref-9.7">[7]</a> +<i>De Anthropophago Bucano</i>. Jen. 1792. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-9.8" id="fn-9.8"></a> <a href="#fnref-9.8">[8]</a> +<i>Die Geistes Krankheiten</i>. Berlin, 1844. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +In the present state of medical knowledge, we know that very different +conditions may give rise to hallucinations. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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 <i>Golden Ass of Apuleius</i>; it proves that salves were extensively +used by witches for the purpose of transformation, even in his day:— +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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.”<a href="#fn-9.9" name="fnref-9.9" id="fnref-9.9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-9.9" id="fn-9.9"></a> <a href="#fnref-9.9">[9]</a> +APULEIUS, Sir George Head’s translation, bk. iii. +</p> + +<p> +Of what these magical salves were composed we know. They were composed of +narcotics, to wit, <i>Solanum somniferum</i>, aconite, hyoscyamus, belladonna, +opium, <i>acorus vulgaris</i>, <i>sium</i>. 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 <i>nil</i>. To these may have +been added other foreign narcotics, the names of which have not transpired. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +In the war of the French Revolution, the <i>Hermione</i> 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, <i>more than six sailors</i> 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.”—(<i>London Judicial Gazette</i>, January, 1803.) +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap10"></a>CHAPTER X.<br /> +MYTHOLOGICAL ORIGIN OF THE WERE-WOLF MYTH.</h2> + +<p class="letter"> +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 +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Modern philosophy has resumed the same thread of conjecture, and thinks to see +in man the perfected development of lower organisms. +</p> + +<p> +After death the translation of the soul was supposed to continue. It became +either absorbed into the <i>nous</i>, 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“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.’ +</p> + +<p> +“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!’ +</p> + +<p> +“The bear sat up, shook his head, and then cast himself down again. +“Finnbog exclaimed, ‘I see, you want us both to be <i>boune</i> +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.’ +</p> + +<p> +“Then Bruin stood up and prepared to fight.” +</p> + +<p> +The following story taken from the mouth of an Osage Indian by J. A. Jones, and +published in his <i>Traditions of the North American Indians</i>, 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. +</p> + +<p> +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>i. e.</i> 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.’ +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +If the body be but the cage, as a poet<a href="#fn-10.1" name="fnref-10.1" id="fnref-10.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> +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. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.1" id="fn-10.1"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.1">[1]</a> +VAUGHN, <i>Sitex Scintillans</i>. +</p> + +<p> +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 +<i>leichnam</i>, <i>lîkhama</i>, used to express the soulless body. +</p> + +<p> +I have already spoken of the Norse word <i>hamr</i>, I wish now to make some +further remarks upon it. <i>Hamr</i> is represented in Anglo-Saxon by +<i>hama</i>, <i>homa</i>, in Saxon by <i>hamo</i>, in old High German by +<i>hamo</i>, in old French by <i>homa</i>, <i>hama</i>, to which are related +the Gothic <i>gahamon</i>, <i>ufar-hamon</i>, <i>ana-hamon</i>, {Greek +<i>e?ndúesðai</i>}, {Greek <i>e?pendúesðai</i>}; +<i>and-hamon</i>, <i>af-hamon</i>, {Greek <i>a?pekdúein</i>} {Greek +<i>e?kdúesðai?</i>} thence also the old High German <i>hemidi</i>, +and the modern <i>Hemde</i>, garment. In composition we find this word, as +<i>lîk-hagnr</i>, in old Norse; in old High German <i>lîk-hamo</i>, Anglo-Saxon +<i>lîk-hama</i>, and <i>flæsc-hama</i>, Old Saxon, <i>lîk-hamo</i>, modern +German <i>Leich-nam</i>, a body, <i>i. e.</i> a garment of flesh, precisely as +the bodies of birds are called in old Norse <i>fjaðr-hamr</i>, in +Anglo-Saxon <i>feðerhoma</i>, in Old Saxon <i>fetherhamo</i>, or +feather-dresses and the bodies of wolves are called in old Norse +<i>ûlfshamr</i>, and seals’ bodies in Faroëse <i>kôpahamr</i>. The +significance of the old verb <i>að hamaz</i> is now evident; it is to +migrate from one body to another, and <i>hama-skipti</i> 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. +</p> + +<p> +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 (<i>fjaðrhamr dunði</i>). +</p> + +<p> +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). +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +One of the tales of the Sanskrit book of fables, the <i>Pantschatantra</i>, +affords such a remarkable testimony to the Indian belief in metempsychosis, +that I am tempted to give it in abstract. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +{Greek <i>é!likes d? e?klámpousi steroph~s ksápuroi</i>}. +</p> + +<p class="right"> +<i>Æsch. Prom.</i> 1064. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +{Greek <i>drákonta pursónwton, ó!s á?platon +a?mfeliktòs<br /> +é!lik? e?froúrei, ktanw’n</i>}. +</p> + +<p class="right"> +<i>Eurip. Herc. F.</i> 395. +</p> + +<p> +And according to Aristotle, {Greek <i>e!likíai</i>} are the lightnings, {Greek +<i>grammoeidw~s ferómenoi</i>}. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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.” +</p> + +<p> +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 <i>John of +Brompton’s Chronicle</i> 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.”<a href="#fn-10.2" name="fnref-10.2" id="fnref-10.2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> +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! +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-10.2" id="fn-10.2"></a> <a href="#fnref-10.2">[2]</a> +Apud TWYSDEN, Hist. Anglicæ Script. x. 1652. p. 1216. +</p> + +<p> +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 <i>laílaps</i>}, bringing injury to the agriculturist and peril to the +voyager. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +{Greek<i>?Ek dè Tufwéos é?st? a?némwn ménos u!gròn á?eptwn,<br /> +nósfi Nótou Boréw te, kaì a?rgéstew Zefúrou +te<sup>.</sup><br /> +oí! ge mèn e?n ðeófin geneh`, ðnhtoïs még? +ó?neiar.<br /> +ai! d? á?llai mapsau~rai e?pipneíousi ðalassan.<br /> +ai! d? h?’toi píptousai e?s heroeideá pónton,<br /> +ph~ma méga ðnhtoi~si, kakh~j ðúousin a?éllhj.<br /> +á?llote d? á?llai a?eísi, diaskidna~si te nh~as,<br /> +naútas te fðeírousi<sup>.</sup> kakou~ d? ou? gígnetai a?lkh`<br /> +a?ndrásin, oí! keínhjsi sinántwntai katà +pónton<sup>.</sup><br /> +ai! d? aû? kaì katà gai~an a?peíriton, +a?nðemóessan<br /> +é?rg? e?ratà fðeírousi xamaigenéwn a?nðrw’pwn,<br /> +pimpleu~sai kóniós te kaì a?rgaléou kolosurtou~</i>} +</p> + +<p class="right"> +<i>Hesiod. Theog.</i> 870, <i>seq.</i> +</p> + +<p> +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 <i>Griechische und Albanesische Märchen</i>, 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +(<i>Pantschatantra</i>, v. 13.) There is a similar story in the Mahâbhârata, +xiii., and in the Kathâ Sarit Sâgara, v. 49-53. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap11"></a>CHAPTER XI.<br /> +THE MARÉCHAL DE RETZ.—I. THE INVESTIGATION OF CHARGES.</h2> + +<p class="letter"> +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 +</p> + +<p> +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 +</p> + +<p> +Martin, “this iron age, which seemed unable to feel surprise at any +amount of evil, was struck with dismay.” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +During the year 1440, a terrible rumour spread through Brittany, and especially +through the ancient <i>pays de Retz</i>, 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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 +<i>serjent d’armes</i>, 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Gilles de Sillé, Roger de Briqueville, and other of the accomplices of the +marshal, took to flight, but Henriet and Pontou remained with him. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“Tell me the tenor of this parchment?” said Gilles de Retz with +dignity. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“Grand-merci, monseigneur! I pray God that he may give you good and long +life.” +</p> + +<p> +“Pray God only to have mercy upon me, and to pardon my sins.” +</p> + +<p> +The marshal had his horses saddled, and left Machecoul with Pontou and Henriet, +who had thrown in their lot with him. +</p> + +<p> +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:— +</p> + +<p> +“My child! restore my child!” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +The first to present herself was Perrine Loessard, living at la Roche-Bernard. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, then,” said the squire, “I will equip you.” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“But, bless me!” he had said, “am I to believe that a fairy +spirits off and eats our little ones?” +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +One of the last children to disappear was that of Noël Aise, living in the +parish of S. Croix. +</p> + +<p> +A man from Tiffauges had said to her (Jeanne Hedelin) that for one child stolen +at Machecoul, there were seven carried away at Tiffauges. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Guillemette, wife of Michaut Bonnel, said that her son had been carried off +whilst guarding cows. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +On the 2nd October the commissioners sat again, and the charges became graver, +and the servants of the marshal became more and more implicated. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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? +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +“M<small>ONSIEUR MY</small> C<small>OUSIN AND</small> +H<small>ONOURED</small> S<small>IRE</small>,—<br /> + +“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.<br /> + +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.<br /> + +“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.<br /> + +He who addresses you is in all earthly humility,” +</p> + +<p class="right"> +“F<small>RIAR</small> G<small>ILLES</small>,<br /> +Carmelite in intention.” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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.” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap12"></a>CHAPTER XII.<br /> +THE MARÉCHAL DE RETZ.—II. THE TRIAL.</h2> + +<p class="letter"> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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 <i>chapel</i> 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +The officer rose, and read the following paper of charges, which I shall +condense:— +</p> + +<p> +“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: +</p> + +<p> +“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: +</p> + +<p> +“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: +</p> + +<p> +“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: +</p> + +<p> +“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: +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“Quite so,” replied the judge. “Because the accused may be +put on the rack and constrained to speak the truth, an’ please +you.” +</p> + +<p> +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:— +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“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!” +</p> + +<p> +“Undoubtedly, if they accuse me of having anything to do with their loss. +What am I to know about them, am I their keeper?” +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“Henriet, Pontou!” cried the marshal, trembling; “they accuse +me of nothing, surely!” +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you think then, messire, that your servants will accuse you?” +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“Messire, I see we must put you on the rack, or nothing will be got from +you.” +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I shall adjourn the case till the 25th of this month, that you may +be well prepared to meet the accusations.” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Silence was imposed upon him. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“Henriet.” moaned Pontou, squeezing his hand, “you will +destroy yourself as well as your master.” +</p> + +<p> +Pierre de l’Hospital rose, and the figure of our Redeemer was solemnly +veiled. +</p> + +<p> +Henriet, who had great difficulty in overcoming his agitation, than began his +revelations. +</p> + +<p> +The following is the substance of them:— +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +An insupportable odour filled the room, but the Maréchal do Retz inhaled it +with delight. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“How many children do you estimate that the Sire de Retz and his servants +have killed?” +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“Have you nothing more to declare? +</p> + +<p> +“Nothing. I ask Pontou, my friend, to corroborate what I have +said.” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“Etienne Cornillant, alias Pontou, I command you in the name of God and +of justice, to declare what you know.” +</p> + +<p> +This injunction of Pierre do l’Hospital remained unresponded to, and +Pontou seemed to strengthen himself in his resolution not to accuse his master. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“You forget,” replied de l’Hospital, “that the rack is +for those who do <i>not</i> 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?” +</p> + +<p> +“Monseigneur, he will speak!” exclaimed Henriet. Oh, Pontou, dear +friend, resist not God any more.” +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +He then fully substantiated all the statements of the other, adding other facts +of the same character, known only to himself. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap13"></a>CHAPTER XIII.<br /> +MARÉCHAL DE RETZ.—III. THE SENTENCE AND EXECUTION.</h2> + +<p class="letter"> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“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—” +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“That is as may be; will you confess, or must I send you to the +rack?” +</p> + +<p> +“Torture me not!” exclaimed Gilles de Retz “I will confess +all. Tell me first, what have Henriet and Pontou said?” +</p> + +<p> +“They have confessed. M. le Lieutenant du Procureur shall read you their +allegations.” +</p> + +<p> +“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!” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“What have you to say?” asked the president, when the confessions +of Henriet and Pontou had been read. +</p> + +<p> +“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?” +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“My lord! relieve yourself of the burden of your crimes by acknowledging +them at once,” said M. do l’Hospital earnestly. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“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—<i>Suetonius</i>, 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. +</p> + +<p> +“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! “ +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +This new trial lasted only a few hours. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +His request was peremptorily refused, and sentence of death was pronounced +against him. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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:— +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Three gibbets had been erected, one higher than the others, and beneath each +was a pile of faggots, tar, and brushwood. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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 <i>De profundis</i>. 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. +</p> + +<p> +After the close of the psalm, which was terminated by the <i>Requiem +æternam</i> instead of the <i>Gloria</i>, 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:— +</p> + +<p> +“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.”<a href="#fn-13.1" name="fnref-13.1" id="fnref-13.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> +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. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-13.1" id="fn-13.1"></a> <a href="#fnref-13.1">[1]</a> +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! +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Pontou and Henriet, who were still on their knees, raised their eyes to their +master and cried to him, extending their arms,— +</p> + +<p> +“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! +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly, mingling with the deep booming of the cathedral bell, swelled up the +wild unearthly wail of the <i>Dies iræ</i>. +</p> + +<p> +No sound among the crowd, only the growl of the fire, and the solemn strain of +the hymn +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Lo, the Book, exactly worded,<br /> +Wherein all hath been recorded;<br /> +Thence shall judgment be awarded.<br /> +<br /> +When the Judge his seat attaineth,<br /> +And each hidden deed arraigneth,<br /> +Nothing unavenged remaineth.<br /> +<br /> +What shall I, frail man, be pleading?<br /> +Who for me be interceding?<br /> +When the just are mercy needing.<br /> +<br /> +King of Majesty tremendous,<br /> +Who dost free salvation send us,<br /> +Fount of pity! then befriend us.<br /> +<br /> +* * * *<br /> +<br /> +Low I kneel, with heart-submission;<br /> +See, like ashes, my contrition—<br /> +Help me in my last condition!<br /> +<br /> +Ah I that day of tears and mourning!<br /> +From the dust of earth returning,<br /> +Man for judgment must prepare him!<br /> +Spare, O, God, in mercy spare him!<br /> +Lord, who didst our souls redeem,<br /> +Grant a blessed requiem!<br /> +<br /> +A<small>MEN</small>. +</p> + +<p> +Six women, veiled, and robed in white, and six Carmelites advanced. bearing a +coffin. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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! +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap14"></a>CHAPTER XIV.<br /> +A GALICIAN WERE-WOLF.</h2> + +<p class="letter"> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Occasionally Swiatek—that was the beggar’s name, went his rounds +selling small pinchbeck ornaments and beads; generally, however, only appealing +to charity. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“Is that little maid your daughter?” asked the beggar. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“Ay, ay! to be sure He will; the orphans and fatherless are under His own +peculiar care.” +</p> + +<p> +“She’s a good little thing, and gives no trouble,” observed +the woman. “You go back to Polomyja tonight, I reckon.” +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“Come along!” screamed the child to its comrades; “we will go +and look for rings.” +</p> + +<p> +“You must seek separately,” said Swiatek. +</p> + +<p> +The children scampered off into the wood. +</p> + +<p> +“I have done one good thing for you,” laughed the beggar, “in +ridding you, for a time, of the noise of those children.” +</p> + +<p> +“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?” +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +Swiatek left the cottage. +</p> + +<p> +<i>That little orphan was never seen again.</i> +</p> + +<p> +The Austrian Government has, of late years, been vigorously advancing education +among the lower orders, and establishing schools throughout the province. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“Where’s Peter?” asked one little boy of another who was +beside him. “We three go home the same way, let us go together.” +</p> + +<p> +“Peter!” shouted the lad. +</p> + +<p> +“Here I am!” was the answer from among the trees; “I’ll +be with you directly.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, I see him!” said the elder boy. “There is some one +talking to him.” +</p> + +<p> +“Where?” +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +The boys waited till they were tired, and then they sauntered home, determined +to thrash Peter for having kept them waiting. <i>But Peter was never seen +again.</i> +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +<i>The servant-girl also was never seen again.</i> +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +A little boy had been sent to a fountain to fetch water; the pitcher was found +standing by the well, but <i>the boy had vanished</i>. The villagers turned +out, and those wolves which could be found were despatched. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +As the publican approached the cottage a fragrant whiff of roast greeted his +nostrils. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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 +<i>fourteen</i> different caps and suits of clothes, male as well as female, +were found in his house. +</p> + +<p> +The origin of this horrible and depraved taste was as follows, according to +Swiatek’s own confession:— +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap15"></a>CHAPTER XV.<br /> +ANOMALOUS CASE.—THE HUMAN HYÆNA.</h2> + +<p class="letter"> +Ghouls—Story from Fornari—Quotation from Apuleius—Incident +mentioned by Marcassus—Cemeteries of Paris violated—Discovery of +Violator—Confession of M. Bertrand. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Fornari gives the following story of a ghoul in his <i>History of +Sorcerers</i>:— +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +As soon as he could safely escape, Abul-Hassan stole back to his bed. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +That the ancients held the same belief that the witches violate corpses, is +evident from the third episode in the <i>Golden Ass</i> of Apuleius. I will +only quote the words of the crier:— +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +Here we have the rending of corpses connected with change of form. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +The details are given with fulness in the <i>Annales Medico-psychologiques</i> +for that month and year. They are too revolting for reproduction. I will, +however, give an outline of this remarkable case. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +He was taken to the hospital to be cured of his wound, and on his recovery, he +was tried by court-martial. +</p> + +<p> +His history was this. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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.” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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.” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap16"></a>CHAPTER XVI.<br /> +A SERMON ON WERE -WOLVES.</h2> + +<p class="letter"> +The discourses of Dr. Johann Geiler—The Sermon—Remarks. +</p> + +<p> +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: “<i>Die Emeis</i>. 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.” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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:—<a href="#fn-16.1" name="fnref-16.1" id="fnref-16.1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-16.1" id="fn-16.1"></a> <a href="#fnref-16.1">[1]</a> +Headed thus:—“Am drittë sontag à fastê, occuli, predigt dé +doctor vô dê Werwölffenn.” +</p> + +<p> +“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:— +</p> + +<table summary="" style=""> + +<tr> +<td>1. Esuriem</td><td>Hunger.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>2. Rabiem</td><td>Savageness.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>3. Senectutem</td><td>Old age.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>4. Experientiam</td><td>Experience.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>5. Insaniem</td><td>Madness.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>6. Diabolum</td><td>The Devil.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>7. Deum</td><td>God.</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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 +<i>Speculum Historiale</i>. 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. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +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. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +THE END. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div style='display:block;margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF WERE-WOLVES ***</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0;'>This file should be named 5324-h.htm or 5324-h.zip</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0;'>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in https://www.gutenberg.org/5/3/2/5324/</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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