{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_44134/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_44134","id":"gutenberg_44134","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44134","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Archaeology & Anthropology","Category: History - Other","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Werewolves"],"text":"Note: Errors in German quotes and booktitles were mostly not corrected.\nA more detailed transcriber\u2019s note can be found at the end of this text.\n\n\n\n\nTHE ORIGIN OF THE WEREWOLF SUPERSTITION.[1]\n\n      [1] NOTE.\u2014After the author had written the following article,\n      she gathered most of the material contained in the notes. That\n      the origin and development of the use of masks as given in\n      the Annual Report of the United States Bureau of Ethnology,\n      1881-82, p. 73 fol. (see note 32) is similar to the origin and\n      development of the werewolf superstition itself, as given in\n      the following pages, was an unexpected coincidence. The author\n      has italicized some words in the quotations.\n\n\nThe belief that a human being is capable of assuming an animal\u2019s form,\nmost frequently that of a wolf, is an almost worldwide superstition.\nSuch a transformed person is the Germanic werewolf, or man-wolf; that\nis, a wolf which is really a human being.[2] So the werewolf was a\nman in wolf\u2019s form or wolf\u2019s dress,[2] seen mostly at night,[3] and\nbelieved generally to be harmful to man.[4]\n\n      [2] According to Mogk, in Paul\u2019s Grundriss der germanischen\n      Philologie III. 272 _wer_ means \u201cman,\u201d found in Old Saxon,\n      Anglo-Saxon, Old High German, and werewolf a man in wolf\u2019s\n      form. K\u00f6gel connects _wer_ with Gothic _wasjan_ \u201ckleiden.\u201d\n      \u201cDarum bedeutet _werwolf_ eigentlich Wolfsgewand \u00falfshamr;\n      \u00e4hnlich bedeutet vielleicht _berserkr_ B\u00e4rengewand,\u201d therefore\n      werewolf according to K\u00f6gel means a wolf\u2019s dress. See also\n      Schrader, Reallexikon der indogermanischen Altertumskunde.\n\n      [3] Post p. 24.\n\n      [4] Encyclopaedia Britannica, XV. 90 fol., 1883:\u2014Beastform in\n      mythology proper is far oftener assumed for malignant than for\n      benignant ends. See note 52.\n\nThe origin of this werewolf superstition has not been satisfactorily\nexplained. Adolf Erman[5] explains the allusion of Herodotus[6] to the\ntransformation of the Neurians (the people of the present Volhynia, in\nWest Russia) into wolves as due merely to their appearance in winter,\ndressed in their furs. This explanation, however, would not fit similar\nsuperstitions in warm climes. Others ascribe the origin of lycanthropy\nto primitive Totemism, in which the totem is an animal revered by the\nmembers of a tribe and supposed to be hostile to their enemies.[7]\nStill another explanation is that of a leader of departed souls as the\noriginal werewolf.[8]\n\n      [5] Reise um die erde durch Nordasien, Berlin, 1833, I. 232.\n\n      [6] Herodotus says of the Neurians, that among Scythians and\n      Greeks settled in Scythia they pass for magicians, because once\n      a year every Neurian becomes a wolf for a few days, and then\n      resumes the human form. See concerning this also Hirt, Die\n      Indogermanen, I. 120.\n\n      [7] Encyclopaedia Britannica, XXIII. 467 fol.\n\n      [8] Note 102, also see note 22.\n\nThe explanation of the origin of the belief in werewolves must be one\nwhich will apply the world over, as the werewolf superstition is found\npretty much all over the earth,[9] especially to-day[10] however in\nNorthwest Germany and Slavic lands; namely, in the lands where the\nwolf is most common.[11][12] According to Mogk[13] the superstition\nprevails to-day especially in the north and east of Germany.[14]\n\n      [9] See also Mogk in Paul\u2019s Grundriss, III. 272. Dr. Rud.\n      Leubuscher, \u00dcber die Wehrw\u00f6lfe und Thierverwandlungen im\n      Mittelalter, Berlin, 1850, mentions cases in ancient Arcadia,\n      in Arabia, Abyssinia (hyenas), and the almost epidemic disease\n      in the Middle Ages. Dr. W. Hertz, Der Werwolf, Stuttgart,\n      1862, ascribes the superstition to Armenia, Egypt, Abyssinia\n      (hyenas), Greece (pages 20-28), but not to India, contrary to\n      Encyc. Brit. below; on p. 133 he says: \u201cTierverwandlungen sind\n      allgemein menschlich, finden wir \u00fcberall. Die eigent\u00fcmliche\n      Entwicklung der Werwolfsagen aber finden wir vorzugsweise\n      bei einer bestimmten V\u00f6lkergruppe, den arischen St\u00e4mmen der\n      Griechen, R\u00f6mer, Kelten, Germanen und Slaven; bei den s\u00fcdw\u00e4rts\n      gezogenen St\u00e4mmen der Inder und Iranier sind uns gleiche\n      Sagen nicht begegnet [but see below]. Am massenhaftesten\n      treten die Werw\u00f6lfe bei den Slaven auf, und ihnen geh\u00f6rt die\n      \u00e4lteste historische Erw\u00e4hnung der Sage; viel \u00e4lter aber ist\n      der Lykaon Mythus und arkadische Werw\u00f6lfe\u201d. According to\n      Andree, Ethnographische Parallelen und Vergleiche, Stuttgart,\n      1878, ss. 62-80, the superstition is found in every European\n      country (amongst Anglo-Saxons, English, French, Bretons, Poles,\n      Tschechs, Lithuanians, White Russians of Poland, inhabitants\n      of island Oesel, Russians, Italians, Portuguese, Provencal\n      peoples, Greeks, Kelts, in Asia, Africa, America; but not in\n      India nor Persia, contrary to Encyc. Brit. below), especially\n      though in northwestern Germany and in Slavic lands.\n\n      As to the American Indians, see Ethnological Report for\n      1880-81, p. 83, \u201cFrom their close relations with wild animals\n      Indians\u2019 stories of transformations into beasts and beasts\n      into men are numerous and interesting.... In times of peace,\n      during the long winter evenings, some famous storyteller told\n      of those days in the past when men and animals could transform\n      themselves at will and hold converse with one another.\u201d\n\n      Jacob Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, Bell & Sons, 1883, II. 668\n      says no metamorphosis occurs more frequently in Germanic\n      antiquities than that of men into werewolves. Thus Fenris\u00fblfr,\n      a son of Loki, makes his appearance in wolf\u2019s shape among the\n      gods.\n\n      Encyc. Brit. XV. 89 fol., under the heading Lycanthropy,\n      states:\u2014A belief firmly rooted among all savages is that\n      men are in certain circumstances transformed temporarily or\n      permanently into wolves and other inferior animals. In Europe\n      the transformation into a wolf is by far more prominent and\n      frequent (amongst Greeks, Russians, English, Germans, French,\n      Scandinavians). Belief in metamorphosis into the animal most\n      prominent in any locality itself acquires a special prominence.\n      Thus the were-_wolf_ prevails in Europe, also in England,\n      Wales, Ireland; and in S. France, the Netherlands, Germany,\n      Lithuania, Bulgaria, Servia, Bohemia, Poland, Russia, he can\n      hardly be pronounced extinct now (see note 12). In Denmark,\n      Sweden, Norway and Iceland the _bear_ competes with the wolf\n      for pre-eminence. In Persia the _bear_ is supreme; in Japan the\n      _fox_; in India the _serpent_ vies with the _tiger_ (contrary\n      to Mogk in Paul\u2019s Grd., III. 272, who says:\u2014\u201cNur Griechen,\n      R\u00f6mer, Kelten, Germanen, Slaven unter den indogermanischen\n      V\u00f6lkern kennen den Werwolf, den Indern und Iraniern ist er\n      unbekannt.\u201d Compare notes 6 and 9, Hertz, p. 133); in Abyssinia\n      and Borneo the _hyena_ with the _lion_; in E. Africa the _lion_\n      with the _alligator_; in W. Africa the _leopard_ is perhaps\n      most frequently the form assumed by man; among the Abipones the\n      _tiger_, among the Arawaks the _jaguar_, etc.\n\n      In Brockhaus\u2019 Konversations-Lexikon, for the Middle Ages the\n      werewolf belief is ascribed to all Slavic, Keltic, Germanic and\n      Romanic peoples; found to-day especially in Volhynia and White\n      Russia.\n\n      Paul, Grundriss, III. 272:\u2014Bei den Angelsachsen l\u00e4sst sich der\n      Werwolf im 11. Jahrh. nachweisen: Knut befahl den Priestern,\n      ihre Herden vor dem werewulf zu schirmen.... Das \u00e4lteste\n      Zeugnis auf deutschem Gebiete vom Werwolf ist vom Burchard v.\n      Worms (11 century).\n\n      [10] See note 9.\n\n      [11] Encyc. Brit. XV. 89 fol.:\u2014There can nowhere be a living\n      belief in contemporary metamorphosis into any animal which\n      has ceased to exist in the particular locality. Belief in\n      metamorphosis into the animal most prominent in any locality\n      itself acquires a special prominence. (See note 12.) In none\n      of these cases however is the power of transformation limited\n      exclusively to the prominent and dominant animal.\n\n      [12] Encyc. Brit. XXIV. 628 fol. under _Wolf_:\u2014The wolf is\n      found in nearly the whole of Europe and Asia, North America\n      from Greenland to Mexico, the Indian peninsula, but not in\n      Ceylon, Burmah or Siam; and not in South America or Africa, in\n      the two latter jackals instead.\n\n      Meyer\u2019s Kleines konversations-lexikon:\u2014Der wolf \u201cist h\u00e4ufig\n      in Ost- und Nordeuropa, Mittel- und Nordasien, Nordamerika,\n      seltener in Frankreich und Belgien, den Herden gef\u00e4hrlich,\n      besonders in Russland.\u201d Encyc. Brit., XXIV under _Wolf_:\u2014In\n      northern countries the wolf is generally larger and more\n      powerful than in the southern portion of its range. Its habits\n      are similar everywhere. It has from time immemorial been known\n      to man in all the countries it inhabits as the devastator of\n      his flocks of sheep. It has speed and remarkable endurance.\n      They usually assemble in troops or packs, except in summer, and\n      by their combined and persevering efforts are able to overpower\n      and kill even such great animals as the American bison.\n      Children and even grown people are not infrequently attacked by\n      them when pressed for hunger. The ferocity of the wolf in the\n      wild state is proverbial. Even when tamed, they can rarely be\n      trusted by strangers.\n\n      [13] Paul, Grundriss, III. 272.\n\n      [14] Gustav Freytag, Bilder aus neuer zeit, Leipzig, 1904, p.\n      275 fol., speaking of the Polish borderlands, says: \u201cNoch lebte\n      das Landvolk in ohnm\u00e4chtigem Kampf mit den Heerden der W\u00f6lfe,\n      wenig D\u00f6rfer, welchen nicht in jedem Winter Menschen und Thiere\n      decimirt wurden,\u201d and in the same note 2, pp. 275-6:\u2014\u201cAls 1815\n      die gegenw\u00e4rtige Provinz Posen an Preussen zur\u00fcckfiel, waren\n      auch dort die W\u00f6lfe eine Landplage. Nach Angaben der Posener\n      Provinzialbl\u00e4tter wurden im Regierungsbezirk Posen vom 1. Sept.\n      1815 his Ende Februar 1816, 41 W\u00f6lfe erlegt, noch im Jahre 1819\n      im Kreise Wongrowitz 16 Kinder und 3 Erwachsene von W\u00f6lfen\n      gefressen.\u201d\n\nThe werewolf superstition is an old one, a primitive one.[15] The\npoint in common everywhere is the transformation of a living human\nbeing into an animal, into a wolf in regions where the wolf was\ncommon[16] into a lion, hyena or leopard in Africa, where these animals\nare common; into a tiger or serpent in India;[17] in other localities\ninto other animals characteristic of the region.[18] Among Lapps\nand Finns occur transformations into the bear, wolf, reindeer, fish\nor birds; amongst many North Asiatic peoples, as also some American\nIndians, into the bear; amongst the latter also into the fox, wolf,\nturkey or owl; in South America, besides into a tiger or jaguar,\nalso into a fish, or serpent. Most universal though it seems was the\ntransformation into wolves or dogs.[19]\n\n      [15] Thus in note 6 was mentioned Herodotus\u2019 (484-425 B.\u00a0C.)\n      statement about the Neurians. The oldest werewolf legend,\n      according to Hertz, is that of Lykaon, the son of Pelasgos,\n      the first king of ancient Arcadia. These Arcadians lived as\n      huntsmen and shepherds. According to J. Oppert (Andree, p. 65;\n      and notes 6 and 9) the werewolf superstition existed amongst\n      the Assyrians; and Andree states, the oldest Hellenic werewolf\n      myth is found in Pausanias (died 467 B.\u00a0C). In the Norse \u201cEdda\u201d\n      we find Odin\u2019s wolves, also Sk\u00f6ll, Hati and Fenrir. In the\n      V\u00f6lsunga Saga, Sigmund and Sinfj\u00f6tli become wolves. For other\n      reflections of the fear in which wolves were held, see the\n      10th century ms. of the \u201cWiener Hundesegen\u201d against male and\n      female wolves (Braune, Althochdeutsches Lesebuch, 6. aufl.\n      1907, p. 85). Jacob Grimm,\u2014Geschichte der deutschen sprache\n      s. 233:\u2014\u201cUnsere thierfabel stellt vortrefflich das gebannte\n      raubthier des waldes dar, und lehrt die n\u00e4he des wolfs und\n      fuchses.\u201d\n\n      C. Lemcke, Aesthetik, 6. aufl. II. 1890, s. 562:\u2014\u201cIn die\n      \u00e4ltesten Zeiten hinauf reicht auch bei J\u00e4gerv\u00f6lkern die\n      Tiersage, in ihrer Weise zum Teil die Eigent\u00fcmlichkeiten der\n      Tiere erkl\u00e4rend, ihr Gebahren erz\u00e4hlend. Die furchtbaren und\n      die listigen Tiere boten sich am besten dar.... Wo die Menschen\n      st\u00e4dtisch beisammen wohnen, bleibt Tier Tier; wo sie einsamer\n      mit Tieren leben, bekommen diese eine h\u00f6here Bedeutung. So wird\n      dem W\u00e4ldler B\u00e4r und Wolf zum ebenb\u00fcrtigen R\u00e4uber und K\u00e4mpfer,\n      menschlicher aufgefasst zum Gegner voll Mut, List, Rachsucht,\n      der Gedanken hat wie der Mensch selbst.\u201d\n\n      [16] Volhynia, Europe, Northern Asia. Formerly, according to\n      Andree, p. 65, the wolf was as common throughout Europe as it\n      is to-day in Russia. Hirt, Die Indogermanen, I. 187, says: \u201cDer\n      Wolf ist \u00fcberall in Europa verbreitet gewesen, der B\u00e4r ist aber\n      ganz sicher ein Waldtier.\u201d\n\n      [17] Note 9.\n\n      [18] Cf. note 9, Encyc. Brit.\n\n      [19] Leubuscher, p. 1:\u2014Weil die Verwandlung vorzugsweise in\n      Hunde und W\u00f6lfe geschehen sollte, so erhielt die Krankheit den\n      namen Lykanthropie.\n\nAs the superstition is so widespread\u2014Germany, Eastern Europe, Africa,\nAsia, America, it either arose at a very early time, when all these\npeoples were in communication with each other[20] or else, in accord\nwith another view of modern science, it arose independently in various\ncontinents in process of the natural psychical development of the human\nrace under similar conditions.\n\n      [20] Or as Mogk in Paul\u2019s Grd., III. 272 expresses it, for\n      example amongst the West Indogermanic peoples when they still\n      formed a whole, as shepherds, by whom the wolf as robber of\n      herds was especially feared. Leubuscher, p. 55 writes: \u201cDie\n      meisten Lykanthropen waren Hirten, die im Freien lebten,\n      mit Tieren viel verkehrten, und der Wolf schwebte ihrer\n      Einbildungskraft am \u00f6ftersten vor, weil sie am meisten damit\n      zu k\u00e4mpfen hatten. Wenn das Gespenst des Wehrwolfes sich in\n      Einzelnen als Krankheit erhob, war die Gegend wahrscheinlich\n      von W\u00f6lfen besonders beunruhigt worden, und wahrscheinlich\n      manche Mordthat nur von W\u00f6lfen begangen.\u201d Ethn. Rep. 1888-89,\n      p. 282:\u2014\u201cThe Dakotas have long believed in the appearance\n      from time to time of a monstrous animal that swallows human\n      beings. The superstition was perhaps suggested by the bones of\n      mastodons, often found in the territory of those Indians.\u201d\n\nThe origin of the superstition must have been an old custom of\nprimitive man\u2019s of putting on a wolf\u2019s or other animal\u2019s skin[21]\nor dress, or a robe.[22] Thus Leubuscher,[23] says: \u201cEs ist der\nMythenkreis eines jeden Volkes aus einfachen wahren Begebenheiten\nhervorgewachsen.\u201d[24][25] Likely also the notion of attributing speech\nto animals originated from such disguising or dressing of men as\nanimals. In the following we shall examine into primitive man\u2019s reasons\nfor putting on such a skin or robe.\n\n      [21] Ethn. Rep. 1893-94, p. 267:\u2014In celebrations it is\n      possible that the foxskin so universally worn by the animistic\n      personifications is a survival comparable with the skin of the\n      animal in which formerly the whole body was clothed.\n\n      [22] Hertz, p. 17, gives the origin as follows: \u201cIn der\n      \u00e4ltesten Naturreligion ist die Gottheit des Todes und der\n      winterlichen Erde als Wolf gedacht. Ihre Priester trugen wohl\n      in der Vorzeit Wolfsfelle und hatten nach dem Volksglauben\n      die Gabe, sich in das Tier der Gottheit zu verwandeln. Der\n      Wolf, als das schnelle, kampfgewandte Tier, war zum raschen\n      Zur\u00fccklegen weiter Wege und zur Erlegung von Feinden besonders\n      geeignet. Darum nahmen die G\u00f6tter und die zauberbegabten\n      Menschen zu solchen Zwecken Wolfsgestalt. Der Wolf ist von\n      Natur gef\u00e4hrlich und wurde darum als diabolisch gedacht, und\n      beim Werwolfe auch ist Drang nach Mord und Zerst\u00f6rung die\n      Hauptsache. Die Urspr\u00fcnge des Werwolfglaubens waren also 1.\n      religi\u00f6se Vorstellungen, 2. Rechtsvorstellung (der friedlose\n      M\u00f6rder ist ein Wolf bei Griechen und Germanen); 3. die\n      Geisteskrankheit der Lykanthropie.\u201d Page 51. \u201cDie Verwandlung\n      in W\u00f6lfe geschieht vorzugsweise durch Wolfshemden.\u201d Page 57:\n      \u201cDass die von allem menschlichen Verkehr abgeschnittenen\n      Waldfl\u00fcchtigen sich in Tierfelle kleideten, ist nahe liegend.\u201d\n\n      [23] Page 46. See also note 9.\n\n      [24] Similarly Dilthey, Erlebnis und Dichtung, 1906, p.\n      153 fol.;\u2014\u201cIst so die Einbildungskraft in Mythos und\n      G\u00f6tterglauben, zun\u00e4chst gebunden an das Bed\u00fcrfnis des Lebens,\n      so sondert sie sich doch allm\u00e4hlich im Verlauf der Kultur von\n      den religi\u00f6sen Zweckbeziehungen und erhebt jene zweite Welt\n      zu einer unabh\u00e4ngigen Bedeutsamkeit\u201d\u2014like Homer, Dante, etc.\n      See note 20, close, and Encyc. Brit., Lycanthropy:\u2014\u201cInsane\n      delusions must reflect the usages and beliefs of\n      contemporaneous society.\u201d\n\n      [25] Notes 20, 21 and 27.\n\nPrimitive man was face to face with animal foes, and had to conquer\nthem or be destroyed. The werewolf superstition in Europe arose\nprobably while the Greeks, Romans, Kelts and Germanic peoples were\nstill in contact with each other, if not in the original Indo-Germanic\nhome, for they all have the superstition (unless, as above, we prefer\nto regard the belief as arising in various localities in process of\npsychical development under similar conditions; namely, when people\nstill lived principally by the chase.[26]) Probably the primitive\nIndo-European man before and at the time of the origin of the werewolf\nsuperstition, was almost helpless in the presence of inexorable nature.\nThis was before he used metal for weapons. The great business of life\nwas to secure food. Food was furnished from three sources, roots,\nberries, animals, and the most important of these was animals.[27]\nWithout efficient weapons, it was difficult to kill an animal of any\nsize, in fact the assailant was likely himself to be killed. Yet\nprimitive man had to learn to master the brute foe. Soon he no longer\ncrouched in sheltered places and avoided the enemy, but began to watch\nand study it, to learn its habits, to learn what certain animals would\ndo under certain circumstances, to learn what would frighten them away\nor what would lure them on. So at least the large animals were to early\nman a constant cause of fear and source of danger; yet it was necessary\nto have their flesh for food and their skins for clothing.[28]\n\n      [26] See note 15.\n\n      [27] Grinnell, Story of the indian, p. 54, says:\u2014Traces of the\n      fear in which buffalo \u201cwere held may still be discovered in the\n      traditional stories of certain tribes, which set forth how, in\n      those days,\u201d [i.\u00a0e. in the stone age] \u201cbefore men were provided\n      with arms, the buffalo used to chase, kill, and eat the\n      people. Such tales show very clearly how greatly the buffalo\n      were dreaded in ancient times, and such fear could hardly\n      have arisen save as the result of actual experience of their\n      power to inflict injury and death.\u201d Pliny informs us how the\n      Romans kept the wolf out of their fields, see Grimm, Teutonic\n      Mythology, III. 1241. Whether the Indians lived on the steppes,\n      in the woods, on the coast, or in the mountains, the animals\n      were their whole study. They moved with the animals, followed\n      them for food.\n\n      [28] Note 27.\n\nVery soon various ingenious contrivances were devised for trapping\nthem. No doubt one primitive method was the use of decoys to lure\nanimals into a trap. Some could be lured by baits, others more easily\nby their kind. Occasionally masks were used,[29] and similarly, another\nform of the original decoy was no doubt simply the stuffed skin of a\nmember of the species, whether animal or bird, say for example a wild\nduck.[30] Of course the hunter would soon hit on the plan of himself\nputting on the animal skin, in the case of larger animals; that is, an\nindividual dressed for example in a wolf\u2019s skin could approach near\nenough to a solitary wolf to attack it with his club, stone or other\nweapon, without exciting the wolf\u2019s suspicion of the nearness of a\ndangerous foe.[31] So the animal disguise, entire or partial, was used\nby early man acting in the capacity of a decoy, firstly, to secure\nfood and clothing. Secondly, he would assume animal disguise, whole\nor partial, in dancing and singing; and both these accomplishments\nseem to have arisen from the imitation of the motions and cries of\nanimals,[32] at first to lure them, when acting as a decoy. With growth\nof culture came growth of supernaturalism, and an additional reason for\nacquiring dance and song was to secure charms against bodily ills,[33]\nand finally enlivenment.[34] In both dance and song, when used for a\nserious purpose, the performers imagined themselves to be the animals\nthey were imitating,[35] and in the dance they wore the skins of the\nanimals represented.[36]\n\n      [29] Ethn. Rep. 1881-82, p. 122, note:\u2014It seems that masks\n      were occasionally used as decoys.... Next to the otter the\n      most valuable animal in the estimation of the Kadiak men, is\n      the species of seal or sea-dog called by the Russians nerpa.\n      The easiest manner of taking it is to entice it toward the\n      shore. A fisherman, concealing the lower part of his body among\n      the rocks, puts on his head a wooden cap or rather casque\n      resembling the head of a seal and makes a noise like that\n      animal. The unsuspicious seal, imagining that he is about to\n      meet a partner of his own species, hastens to the spot and is\n      instantly killed. Compare note 57.\n\n      [30] Ethn. Rep. 1896-97, I. 132:\u2014Bering Strait Eskimo stuff\n      rudely the skin of the bird called ptarmigan, and mount it upon\n      a stick which holds the head outstretched, then imitate the\n      call of the bird, which is trapped in the net attached to the\n      decoy. Other decoys are made by molding soft snow into the form\n      of a bird; for the ptarmigan, brown moss is put around the neck\n      for plumage. The call then brought the real birds.\n\n      [31] Thus G.\u00a0B. Grinnell, Story of the Indian, p. 61, in his\n      description of the primitive Indians\u2019 method of trapping\n      buffalo, says: \u201cSome men went forth naked, others carried a\n      dress made of the entire skin of a buffalo, the head and horns\n      arranged like a buffalo head, while the rest of the skin hung\n      down over the wearer\u2019s back,\u201d etc. This \u201ccaller\u201d went near to a\n      herd of buffalo, got them in pursuit of him, then led them into\n      the trap, a chute, or to a precipice, the fall from which often\n      proved fatal to the entire herd. Again, in Ethn. Rep. 1884-85,\n      p. 484, about Central Eskimo seal hunting, is stated: If a\n      hunter is close to an animal he imitates its movements. Some\n      utter sounds similar to those of a blowing seal. \u201cThe sealskin\n      clothing makes man and seal look so extremely alike that it is\n      difficult to distinguish one from the other at some distance.\u201d\n      And on p. 508, about deer hunting: In a plain the Central\n      Eskimos carry guns on their shoulders, two men going together,\n      so as to resemble the antlers of a deer. The men imitate their\n      grunting. If they lie on the ground at some distance they\n      greatly resemble the animals themselves. According to Ross the\n      \u201cinhabitants of Boothia imitate the appearance of the deer,\n      the foremost of two men stalking a herd bearing a deer\u2019s head\n      upon his own.\u201d Ethn. Rep. 1888-89, p. 534:\u2014\u201cThe old manner of\n      hunting antelope and deer: the hunter would disguise himself by\n      covering his head with the head and skin of an antelope, and so\n      be enabled to approach the game near enough to use his bow and\n      arrow. In a similar manner the Hidatsa would mask themselves\n      with a wolfskin to enable them to approach buffalo.\u201d Ethn. Rep.\n      1901-02, p. 439;\u2014Two of the party of hunters (Zu\u00f1i) out after\n      deer \u201cwear cotton shirts with sleeves to the elbow, the front\n      and back of the shirt being painted to represent as nearly\n      as possible the body of the deer; the hands and the arms to\n      the elbow and also the sleeves are colored to represent the\n      deer\u2019s forelegs. Each wears the skin of a deer\u2019s head over his\n      head.... In this dress the two huntsmen imitate as closely as\n      possible, even to the browsing, the game they would catch.\u201d\n\n      [32] Ethn. Rep. 1897-98, I. 352:\u2014\u201cTradition says the Iroquois\n      derived the music and action of the Buffalo dance while on\n      an expedition against the Cherokee, from the bellowing and\n      the movements of a herd of buffalo which they heard for the\n      first time \u2018singing their favorite songs,\u2019 i.\u00a0e. bellowing and\n      snorting.\u201d Also note 33.\n\n      [33] Ethn. Rep. 1897-98, I. 266, gives a song to prevent\n      frostbite. The wolf\u2019s, deer\u2019s, fox\u2019s, opossum\u2019s feet it is held\n      never become frostbitten. After each verse of the song, the\n      singer imitates the cry and the action of the animal. The words\n      used are archaic in form and may be rendered \u201cI become a real\n      wolf, etc.\u201d The song runs:\n\n      1. Ts\u00fb\u00f1\u00b4 wa\u00b4 \u2018ya-ya\u00b4 (repeated four times), wa+a! (prolonged\n      howl). The singer imitates a wolf pawing the ground with his\n      feet.\n\n      2. Ts\u00fb\u00f1\u00b4-ka\u00b4 wi-ye\u00b4 (four times), sauh! sauh! sauh! sauh!\n      (imitating the call and jumping of a deer).\n\n      3. Ts\u00fb\u00f1\u00b4-tsu\u00b4 \u2018la-ya\u00b4 (four times), gaih! gaih! gaih! gaih!\n      (imitates barking and scratching of a fox).\n\n      4. Ts\u00fb\u00f1\u00b4-s\u012d\u00b4-kwa-ya\u00b4 (four times), k\u012d+(imitates cry of the\n      opossum when cornered, and throws his head back as that animal\n      does when feigning death).\n\n      [34] Ethn. Rep. 1881-82, p. 323, about the Omaha Coyote dance\n      performed by warriors whenever it was thought necessary to keep\n      up their spirits, in which each had his robe about him and\n      imitated the actions of the coyote, trotting, glancing around,\n      etc. Page 348 describes the Omaha Buffalo dance, in which each\n      of four men used to put the skin of a buffalo over his head,\n      the horns standing up, and the hair of the buffalo head hanging\n      down below the chest of the wearer. The various movements of\n      the buffalo were imitated by the dancers. Pages 348-349, the\n      Omaha wolf dance, by the society of those who have supernatural\n      communication with wolves. The dancers wear wolfskins, and\n      dance in imitation of the actions of wolves. Similarly they\n      performed the grizzly bear dance, horse dance, etc.\n\n      [35] Notes 22, 34 and 37.\n\n      [36] See notes 34 and 37.\n\nProbably as long as animal form, partial or entire, was assumed merely\nfor decoys and sport (early dancing),[37] for peaceful purposes\ntherefore, such people having whole or partial animal shape were not\nregarded as harmful to man,[38] just as wise women began to pass\nfor witches only when with their art they did evil.[39] A similar\ndevelopment can be traced in the case of masks.[40] It was some time\nbefore man could cope with food- and clothing-furnishing animals that\nwere dangerous to life, though these are the ones he first studied;[41]\nand we cannot presuppose that he disguised to represent them until he\ncould cope with them, since the original purpose of the disguise was\nto secure food and clothing. Thus far then we see whole or partial\ndisguise as animals used to secure _food_ and _clothing_ when acting as\ndecoys to lure animals; and in _dancing_.[42]\n\n      [37] Similarly in the use of masks (see note 57). See Wundt,\n      V\u00f6lkerpsychologie II. i. 412 fol., and in regard to this\n      Zeitschrift f\u00fcr deutsche Philologie, XXXVIII. 1906, ss.\n      558-568:\u2014\u201cDer maskierte mensch ist der ekstatische Mensch.\n      Mit dem anlegen der maske versetzt er sich in ekstase, f\u00fchlt\n      er sich in fremde lebensvorg\u00e4nge ein, eignet er sich das wesen\n      an, mit dem er sich durch die maske identificiert.\u201d F\u00fcr den\n      naiven menschen, wie f\u00fcr das kind, ist die maske durchaus\n      nicht blosser schein, sondern wirkender charakter. Der\n      augenblickstanz wurde zum zaubertanz. Die naturv\u00f6lker verwenden\n      ihre masken nur bei den feierlich-ernsten zaubert\u00e4nzen, nicht\n      zu ihrer burlesken mimik; die t\u00e4nzer sind in Tiermasken, etc.\n\n      [38] Amongst American Indians for example a man transformed\n      into a bear and vice versa is usually regarded as benevolent\n      (Ethn. Rep. 1880-81, p. 83). See, also, Grimm, Teutonic\n      Mythology, III. 1097:\u2014In Norse accounts also we find\n      transformation into a bear, for the bear was regarded as\n      rational and was esteemed.\n\n      [39] Note 84.\n\n      [40] See note 57a.\n\n      [41] Notes 27 and 42.\n\n      [42] The important consideration in the mind of primitive\n      man was whether certain things were harmful or useful. See\n      Behaghel, Die deutsche Sprache, p. 98:\u2014\u201cDie grossen Tiere\n      und die m\u00e4chtigen B\u00e4ume, die Tiere und Pflanzen, die f\u00fcr\n      die _Ern\u00e4hrung_ and _Bekleidung_ des Menschen von Bedeutung\n      sind, die Tiere, die sein Leben _bedrohen_, sie haben viel\n      fr\u00fcher sprachliche Bezeichnung gefunden, als der unscheinbare\n      K\u00e4fer im Sande, als die kleine Blume des Waldes. So kommt es,\n      dass die Namen der gr\u00f6sseren Tiere, der grossen Waldb\u00e4ume,\n      der wichtigsten Getreidearten allen germanischer St\u00e4mmen\n      gemeinsam sind, einzelne sogar, wie _Wolf_, _Kuh_, _Ochse_,\n      _Birke_, _Buche_, _Erle_, _Gerste_ mit den Benennungen anderer\n      indogermanischer V\u00f6lker \u00fcbereinstimmen.\u201d Doubtless animals\n      occupied their attention sooner than plants. See Wundt,\n      V\u00f6lkerpsychologie, II. 412 fol., about the _maskentanz_:\n      \u201c\u00dcberhaupt haben die Tiermotive weit fr\u00fcher Ber\u00fccksichtigung\n      erfahren als die Pflanzenmotive.\u201d See note 95.\n\nFourthly, primitive man would put on an animal\u2019s skin or dress when\nout as _forager_ (or robber) or _spy_, for the purpose of avoiding\ndetection by the enemy. The Pawnee Indians for example,[43] were called\nby neighboring tribes _wolves_, probably not out of contempt, since it\nmay be doubted that an Indian feels contempt for a wolf any more than\nhe does for a fox, a rabbit, or an elk, but because of their adroitness\nas scouts, warriors and stealers of horses; or, as the Pawnees think,\nbecause of their great endurance, their skill in imitating wolves so\nas to escape detection by the enemy by day or night; or, according to\nsome neighboring tribes, because they prowl like wolves[44], \u201chave the\nendurance of wolves, can travel all day and dance all night, can make\nlong journeys, living on the carcasses they find on their way, or on\nno food at all.\u201d ... And further, \u201cThe Pawnees, when they went on the\nwarpath, were always prepared to simulate wolves.... Wolves on the\nprairie were too common[45] to excite remark, and at night they would\napproach close to the Indian camps.\u201d ... The Pawnee starting off on the\nwarpath usually carried a robe made of wolf skins, or in later times a\nwhite blanket or a white sheet; and, at _night_, wrapping himself in\nthis, and getting down on his hands and knees, he walked or trotted\nhere and there like a wolf, having thus transformed himself into a\ncommon object of the landscape. This disguise was employed by _day_ as\nwell, for reconnoissance.... While the party remained hidden in some\nravine or hollow, one Indian would put his robe over him and gallop to\nthe top of the hill on all fours, and would sit there on his haunches\nlooking all over the country, and anyone at a distance who saw him,\nwould take him for a wolf. It was acknowledged on all hands that the\nPawnees could imitate wolves best. \u201cAn Indian going into an enemy\u2019s\ncountry is often called a wolf,[46] and the sign for a scout is made up\nof the signs _wolf_ and _look_.\u201d[47] Should any scout detect danger, as\nat _night_ when on duty near an encampment, he must give the cry of the\ncoyote.[48]\n\n      [43] G.\u00a0B. Grinnell, Pawnee hero stories and folk-tales, N.\u00a0Y.,\n      Scribners, 1893, p. 245, fol.\n\n      [44] Jacob Grimm, Geschichte der deutschen Sprache, s. 233: Ein\n      sabinischer stamm hiesz Hirpi (lat. _hirpus_ bedeutet _wolf_ in\n      sabinischer oskischer Mundart), weil den einwandernden ein wolf\n      f\u00fchrer geworden war, oder nach andrer sage sie w\u00f6lfe gejagt\n      hatten und gleich w\u00f6lfen raubten, d. h. im sinn des deutschen\n      ausdrucks friedlos waren.\n\n      [45] The werewolf story could arise only where the animal,\n      wolf, tiger or lion, etc., was common; and likewise the\n      werewolf tales gradually died out when the animals became rare\n      or extinct. See note 11.\n\n      [46] Grinnell, p. 245.\n\n      [47] The Watusi of East Africa distinctly describe all wild\n      beasts save their own totem-animals as _enemy-scouts_ (Encyc.\n      Brit. under Lycanthropy).\n\n      [48] Ethn. Rep. 1881-82, p. 323. See also Grinnell, Story of\n      the indian, p. 208: The wolf was believed, in the animals\u2019\n      council, to be able to give the Indian the power to creep right\n      into the midst of the enemy\u2019s camp without being seen.\n\nThe idea of the harmfulness to other men of a man in animal form or\ndress became deeply seated now, when men in animal disguise began to\nact not only as decoys for animals dangerous to life, but also as\nscouts (robbers[49]\u2014and later as possessors of supernatural power,\nwhen growth of culture brought with it growth of supernaturalism[50]);\nwhen people began to associate, for example, the wolf\u2019s form with a\nlurking enemy.[51]\n\n      [49] See note 53.\n\n      [50] See note 57-b.\n\n      [51] So originally the germanic god _Logi_ was not an evil\n      god. _Logi_ meant the natural force of fire; _Loki_ meant the\n      same, but the burly giant has been made a sly, seducing villain\n      (Grimm, Teut. Myth. I. 241). A son of Loki, Fenris\u00fblfr, appears\n      in wolf\u2019s shape among the gods. Perhaps association with the\n      wolf is in part responsible for the transformation of Logi\n      (Loki) from a good to an evil god.\n\nAll uncivilized tribes of the world are continually on the defensive,\nlike our American Indian; they all no doubt on occasion have sent out\nscouts who, like our American Indians, to avoid detection, assumed the\ndisguise of the animal most common to the special locality in question,\njust as to-day they are known to disguise in animal skins for purposes\nof plunder or revenge.[52][53]\n\n      [52] Encyc. Brit. under Lycanthropy:\u2014In modern savage life we\n      find beastform of chiefs or spirits, medicine men, some hunt in\n      beast form for the community; others are said to assume beast\n      form in order to avenge themselves justly on enemies; others\n      for love of bloodshed and cannibalism. See also note 58.\n\n      [53] No doubt some of these men disguised as wolves won\n      considerable fame through their skill and bravery, as we should\n      judge from such proper names as _Rudolf_, which means really\n      _Ruhmwolf_, _Ruhm_ related to Gothic _hropeigs_ \u201cvictorious,\u201d\n      Sanskrit _kir_ \u201cto praise\u201d; or _Adolf_ from _Adalolf_, which\n      means _Edelwolf_, originally, therefore, _Edelr\u00e4uber_, for\n      _wolf_ meant originally about the same as _robber_ (Kluge).\n      So _robber_ or _wolf_ was originally a highly respectable\n      appellation, at a time when men lived from robbery and the\n      chase, either as searobbers, or mountain robbers, etc. (about\n      this early profession see Hirt, Die Indogermanen, 1905, p. 268\n      fol.), and the profession was not looked on as a disgrace (see\n      appellation \u201cwolves\u201d applied to Pawnees, p. 12.). Later we find\n      such names as _Wulfila_ \u201clittle wolf.\u201d Many Indian names are\n      those of animals, such as Good Fox, Good Bear, Walking Bear,\n      Conquering Bear, Rushing Bear, Stumbling Bear, Brave Bear, Bear\n      Rib, Smoking Bear, Biting Bear, Bear-Looks-Back, Cloud Bear,\n      Mad Bear, Mad Wolf, Lone Wolf, Lean Wolf, Wolf-Ear, Wolf-Robe,\n      etc. See Ethn. Rep. 1882-83, p. 169: The names of Indians very\n      often refer to some animal, predicating some attribute or\n      position of that animal. For discussion of names, see note 111.\n\nThe kind of animal makes no difference, the underlying principle is\nthe same; namely, the transformation of a living human being into an\nanimal. The origin of the belief in such a transformation, as stated\nabove[54] was the simple putting on of an animal skin by early man. The\nobject of putting on animal skins was,\n\n      [54] Ante p. 6.\n\n(1) To gain food. For this purpose the motions and cries of animals\nwere imitated (origin of dancing and singing),[55] artificial decoys\n(like decoy ducks to-day)[56] and finally even masks were used.[57]\n\n      [55] See (3) below.\n\n      [56] See ante p. 8.\n\n      [57] See note 4 and also Ethn. Rep. 1881-82, p. 73 fol. (see\n      note 37):\u2014The use of masks is worldwide. The origin and\n      development of the use of masks is very much the same as\n      the origin and development of the werewolf as given in the\n      preceding pages. The wolfrobe and the mask, both originally\n      useful devices, degenerated in unscrupulous hands into\n      instruments for personal aggrandizement and gain. The use of\n      the mask is described in the above report as follows:\n\n      a). It was used as a shield or protection for the face, for\n      defense against physical violence, human or otherwise. It\n      was therefore first used merely as a mechanical resistance\n      to the opposing force; then secondly, still in the lowest\n      grade of culture, it was used to inspire terror, to gain a\n      moral influence over the opposing agent by hideousness or by\n      symbolizing superhuman agencies. Now individual variations\n      arose\u2014devices for example derived or conventionalized from\n      some predatory, shrewd or mysterious animal.\n\n      b). With growth of culture came growth of supernaturalism, and\n      the mask came to be used in religious performances, as a part\n      of the religious paraphernalia, like the shirts or girdles of\n      the shamans. Ethn. Rep. 1896-97, I. 395:\u2014\u201cWhen worn in any\n      ceremonial, ... the wearer is believed to become mysteriously\n      and unconsciously imbued with the spirit of the being which his\n      mask represents.\u201d\n\n      c). Finally the element of humor enters in, and the mask is\n      used for public amusements and games; by secret societies; as\n      protection against recognition on festive occasions, etc., like\n      the animal skins worn in dances.\n\n(2) To secure clothing in cold climes by trapping or decoying animals,\nas in (1) above.\n\n(3) The imitation when decoying, of the motions of animals led to\ndancing, and in the dances and various ceremonies the faces and bodies\nof the participants were painted in imitation of the colors of birds\nand animals, the motions of animals imitated and animal disguises\nused.[58]\n\n      [58] Notes 32, 34, 33, ante p. 11.\n\n(4) Scouts disguised themselves as animals when out foraging, as well\nas for warfare,[59][60] therefore for booty, and self-defense. Either\nthey wore the entire skin, or probably later just a part of it as a\nfetich, like the left hind foot of a rabbit, worn as a charm by many of\nour colored people to-day.[61]\n\n      [59] See p. 13.\n\n      [60] Ethn. Rep. 1888-89, p. 503:\u2014Account of \u201ca cloak or mantle\n      made from the skin of a deer, and covered with various mystic\n      paintings. It was made and used by the Apaches as a mantle\n      of invisibility, that is, a charmed covering for spies which\n      would enable them to pass with impunity through the country,\n      and even through the camp of their enemies. In this instance\n      the fetichistic power depends upon the devices drawn.\u201d The\n      Apache have a similar fetich or charm. The symbols drawn were\n      the raincloud, serpent lightning, raindrops and the cross of\n      the winds of the four cardinal points. Ethn. Rep. 1889-90, p.\n      515:\u2014Among the Hidatsa (Sioux) fetiches are especially the\n      skins of the wolf. \u201cWhen they go to war, they always wear the\n      stripe off the back of a wolf skin, with the tail hanging down\n      the shoulders. They make a slit in the skin through which the\n      warrior puts his head, so that the skin of the wolf\u2019s head\n      hangs down upon his breast.\u201d Finally the magic robes or shirts\n      and girdles came to be a part of the regular paraphernalia of\n      the shamans, or practisers of magic. In the folklore of all\n      countries we find numerous notices of holy girdles.\n\n      Ethn. Rep. 1897-98, I. (Cherokee) 393: \u201cSome warriors had\n      medicine to change their shape as they pleased, so that they\n      could escape from their enemies.\u201d Page 501: Such stories might\n      be paralleled in any tribe.\n\n      [61] See further development in note 64.\n\n(5) For purposes of revenge,[62],[63] personal or other. For some other\npersonal motive of advantage or gain, to inspire terror in the opposing\nagent by hideousness.\n\n      [62] Note 52.\n\n      [63] As an example of the motive of vengeance, or pure\n      brutality, we cite from Andree, p. 69:\u2014People in the interior\n      of Africa who understand magic, transform themselves into lions\n      and go about killing people. See also below, note 65, where the\n      wolf-man of Abyssinia kills his enemy and sucks his blood, and\n      also kills other wolf-men it meets, the question being one of\n      the survival of the fittest, that is the strongest. All this\n      takes place at _night_, which reminds us of our Pawnee Indian\n      starting out at night in his wolf\u2019s robe, and trotting up to\n      the hostile village to ascertain where his enemies\u2019 horses\n      are tied, so as to steal them when all are asleep (Grinnell\u2019s\n      Pawnee hero stories and folk-tales, p. 246, and pp. 70-73).\n      Ethn. Rep. 1887-88, p. 461:\u2014\u201cTo recover stolen or lost\n      property, especially ponies, is one of the principal tasks\n      imposed upon the so-called medicine-men\u201d (shamans).\n\n(6) To inspire terror in the opposing agent by symbolizing superhuman\nagencies.[64] So now would arise first a belief in superhuman power or\nattributes,[65] and then,\n\n      [64] As superstition waxed strong, no doubt the wolf robe was\n      put on not merely to make the wearer look just like a common\n      object of the landscape, but also because the wearer of the\n      disguise was supposed to take on the characteristics of the\n      animal he represented (swiftness, boldness, etc.), as in the\n      case of masks (see note 57), and finally the wearer of such\n      a robe was believed to actually become transformed, like the\n      wearers of the werewolf shirt, for example in Germany. Wolves\n      were regarded as good hunters who never fail, Ethn. Rep.\n      1897-98, I. 280, also p. 264:\u2014The wolf is revered by the\n      Cherokee as hunter and watchdog of Kan\u00e1ti; therefore we can\n      understand how the wolf disguise, as conferring the quality of\n      unerring huntsmanship, might be in especial favor amongst those\n      who gained their food from the chase. Similarly the singing of\n      songs imitating the cries of certain animals was supposed to\n      confer a characteristic of the animal in question (see note 33).\n\n      Ethn. Rep. 1901-02, p. 394:\u2014To gain animal characteristics a\n      wizard attached crow and owl plumes to his head that he might\n      have the eyes of the crow to see quickly the approach of man,\n      and the eyes of the owl to travel by night. He flapped his\n      arms, ... A Zu\u00f1i man hearing a cry like an owl, yet human,\n      looked about him and found a man whom he recognized as a Zu\u00f1i.\n      \u201cAha!\u201d said he, \u201cwhy have you those plumes upon your head? Aha,\n      you are a sorcerer,\u201d etc.\n\n      An example of the transforming power of the _robe_ we find in\n      Bulletin 26, of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington,\n      1901, Kathlamet texts, p. 156 fol.:\u2014A woman ate of some of the\n      fat of a bitch, gave birth to five male dogs and one female\n      dog. When they grew older, she discovered one day that they\n      could transform themselves into real children. While they were\n      down at the beach, she entered the house, and now she saw the\n      dog _blankets_. She took them and burnt them. Then the children\n      retained their human form (like Sigmund and Sinfj\u00f6tli in the\n      V\u00f6lsungasaga). Page 58 fol., is the Myth of the Elk, according\n      to which an old man transformed himself into an elk by putting\n      on an elkskin.\n\n      W. Golther, Handbuch der germanischen mythologie, 1895, p.\n      100, writes, \u201cDie F\u00e4higkeit von Leuten, die sich verwandeln\n      k\u00f6nnen, heisst \u2018sich zu h\u00e4uten, die H\u00fclle zu wechseln\u2019.\n      Das Umwerfen eines \u00e4usserlichen Gewandes kann den Wechsel\n      der Gestalt hervorbringen, wie Freyjas Federgewand, die\n      Schwan- und Kr\u00e4henhemden der Valkyrjen, Odins Adlergewand.\n      Die Wolfsgew\u00e4nder (\u00falfahamir) wenn angelegt, verwandeln\n      den Menschen zum Wolfe\u201d. See also Meissner, Ritter Tiodel,\n      Zeitschrift f\u00fcr deutsches altertum, XLVII. 261.\n\n      [65] Ethn. Rep. 1901-02, p. 392:\u2014The owner of fine beads fears\n      that some witch, prompted by jealousy, will strike him with\n      disease.\n\n      As another example of the pretended assumption of superhuman\n      powers to gain influence over others, we may cite the instances\n      given by Andree, p. 68 fol., according to which Livingston met\n      in Africa a native said to have power to transform himself\n      into a lion. As lion he would stay for days and months in the\n      _forest_, in a sacred hut, to which however his wife carried\n      beer and food for him, so we may judge that at least this lion\n      did not cause much devastation amongst the wild beasts. He was\n      able to reassume human form by means of a certain medicine\n      brought him by his wife. Again Andree, p. 69:\u2014In Banana,\n      Africa, the members of a certain family transform themselves in\n      the _dark_ of the _forest_ into leopards. They throw down those\n      they meet in the forest, but dare not injure them nor drink\n      their blood, lest they remain leopards. (See note 83.)\n\n      The motive of personal gain is exemplified by our American\n      Indians, who put on a wolf\u2019s mantle to steal, or to recover\n      stolen animals (Grinnell, Pawnee hero stories, p. 247, also the\n      story of robbery entitled Wolves in the night, p. 70 fol.).\n      Similarly in Abyssinia, Andree, p. 69, where the lowest caste\n      of laborers are believed to have power to transform themselves\n      into hyenas or other animals, as such, plundering graves. They\n      employ naturally various artifices to help along their cause,\n      since it yields such returns. They are reported to act like\n      other folk by day, at _night_ though to assume the ways of\n      wolves, kill their enemies and suck their blood, roaming about\n      with other wolves till morning. They are supposed to gain their\n      supernatural powers by a secret beverage made from herbs. They\n      are not likely to be discovered to be only sham animals, since\n      their roaming and plundering is done in the _night_; in the\n      daytime they of course conceal the animal skins (see Andree, p.\n      72).\n\n      Ethn. Rep. 1880-81, p. 68:\u2014Among the Chaldeans, Egyptians and\n      Greeks, the success of magic depended upon the ignorance of the\n      masses and the comparative learning of the few who practised\n      it. Among the American Indians the medicine-man and the more\n      expert sorceress have little learning above that of the body of\n      the tribe, and their success depends entirely upon their own\n      belief in being supernaturally gifted, and upon the faith and\n      fear of their followers.\n\n      The Iroquois believed in people who could assume a partly\n      animal shape. See Grinnell, Blackfoot lodge tales, p. 79:\u2014\u201cAn\n      old blind wolf with a powerful medicine cured a man, and made\n      his head and hands look like those of a wolf. The rest of his\n      body was not changed. He was called a man-wolf.\u201d\n\n(7) Witchcraft.[66] It is very easy to see why it was usually the\nso-called medicine-men (more correctly Shamans), who claimed such\ntransformation power, because they received remuneration from their\npatients.[67]\n\n      [66] Ethn. Rep. 1880-81, p. 73:\u2014Witches could and did assume\n      animal shapes. For example a dog seen by a man which had fire\n      streaming from its mouth and nostrils. It was _night_. The man\n      shot at it, and the next morning tracked it by the marks of\n      blood from its wound. At a bridge a woman\u2019s tracks took the\n      place of the dog\u2019s, and finally he found the woman. She had\n      died from the effect of the shot. Page 73: Likewise a hog, when\n      pursued, disappeared at a small creek, and finally reappeared\n      as an old man, who said it was he, whom they had been chasing.\n      So they, the pursuers, knew he was a witch. Page 74: A Canadian\n      Indian one _evening_ pursued a white bull with fire streaming\n      from its nostrils. He had never seen a white bull on the\n      reservation before. \u201cAs it passed in front of a house it was\n      transformed into a man with a _large white blanket_, who was\n      ever afterward known as a witch.\u201d\n\n      Ethn. Rep. 1901-02, p. 395:\u2014A man going out at _night_ noticed\n      a queer-looking burro. Upon his return home he was told that a\n      large cat had entered the house. He went out again, discovered\n      a man wrapped in a blanket, but not in the Zu\u00f1i fashion, his\n      head was sunk low in the blanket. He knew this creature to be a\n      wizard.\n\n      Ethn. Rep. 1887-88, p. 458:\u2014That the medicine man (Shaman)\n      has the faculty of transforming himself into a coyote and\n      other animals at pleasure and then resuming the human form, is\n      as implicitly believed in by the American Indians as it was\n      by our own forefathers in Europe. And page 459: The Abipones\n      of Paraguay credit their medicine-men with power to put on\n      the form of a tiger. The medicine-men of Honduras claimed the\n      power of turning themselves into lions and tigers. Also the\n      Shamans of the Nicaraguans possessed similar power. Hertz,\n      p. 133 fol.:\u2014\u201cIn der christlichen Zeit wurde der heidnische\n      Cultus Teufelsanbetung und hier entstand mit dem Hexenglauben\n      die Vorstellung von Menschen, die sich mit Hilfe des Satans aus\n      reiner Mordlust zu W\u00f6lfen verwandeln. So wurde der Werwolf das\n      Bild des tierisch D\u00e4monischen in der Menschennatur.\u201d\n\n      [67] Ethn. Rep. 1887-88, p. 467:\u2014The medicine-men of the\n      Apache are paid at the time they are consulted, the priest\n      beforehand among the Eskimo. Ethn. Rep. 1889-90, p. 187: \u201cThe\n      magnitude of the disease is generally measured by the amount\n      of the patient\u2019s worldly wealth.\u201d Page 416:\u2014Sioux sorcerers\n      prepared love-potions for those who bought them. Ethn. Rep.\n      1901-2, p. 568:\u2014\u201cThe shaman, like the theurgist is usually\n      paid after each visit with calico, cotton, or food, according\n      to the wealth of the family, since it is always understood\n      that these doctors expect proper compensation for their\n      services.\u201d Page 387:\u2014\u201cThe Zu\u00f1i doctor is paid according to his\n      reputation.\u201d Grinnell, Blackfoot lodge tales, p. 284: \u201cIn early\n      days if a man remained sick for three or four weeks, all his\n      possessions went to pay doctors\u2019 fees.\u201d\n\n      Ethn. Rep. 1887-88, p. 462 fol.\u2014The American Indian\u2019s theory\n      of disease is the theory of the Chaldean, the Assyrian,\n      the Hebrew, the Greek, the Roman\u2014all bodily disorders are\n      attributed to the maleficence of spirits (that is of animal\n      spirits, ghosts or witches), who must be expelled or placated.\n      Gibberish was believed to be more potential in magic than was\n      language which the practitioner or his dupes could comprehend.\n      Page 468:\u2014The medicine-men are accused of administering\n      poisons to their enemies. Ethn. Rep. 1889-90, p. 416:\u2014Sioux\n      sorcerers were thought to cause the death of those persons\n      who had incurred their displeasure. Ethn. Rep. 1887-88, p.\n      581:\u2014\u201cWhen an Apache or other medicine-man is in full regalia\n      he ceases to be a man, but becomes, or tries to make his\n      followers believe that he has become, the power he represents.\u201d\n      The Mexican priests masked and disguised, and dressed in the\n      skins of the women offered up in sacrifice.\n\n      So the shaman practiced sorcery, medicine and was a priest.\n      Ethn. Rep. 1887-88, p. 594:\u2014The Indian doctor relied far more\n      on magic than on natural remedies. Dreams, beating of the\n      drum, songs, magic feasts and dances, and howling were his\n      ordinary methods of cure. Grinnell, Story of the indian, p. 210\n      fol.:\u2014They have \u201cfirm confidence in dreams.\u201d \u201cTheir belief in\n      a future life is in part founded on dreams,\u201d etc.\n\n(8) Finally dreams[68] and exaggerated reports gave rise to fabulous\nstories.[69]\n\n      [68] Note 67, close.\n\n      [69] An example of fabulous invention for pure personal gain\n      occurs Andree, p. 77: If the Greenlanders catch too many seal\n      at one place, the latter will take a terrible revenge. Assuming\n      human form, they attack their enemy in the _night_ at his\n      home. This is the transformation of an animal into a man, but\n      the inventor of the story was no doubt looking towards his\n      own gain. It is the same old fight for seal protection which\n      in another form is still going on to-day. Andree, p. 72. In\n      Siam stories are told of people who by magic formulae become\n      tigers and roam about at _night_ in search of booty. One of the\n      man-tigers was actually a priest.\n\nWe have discussed (1), (2), and (3);[70] for an example under (4) we\nhave cited the practices of American Indians.[71] It is probable that\nabout now (at the stage indicated in (4) above), what is known as the\nreal werewolf superstition (that of a frenzied, rabid manwolf) began\nto fully develop. The man in wolf-skin was already a lurking thief\nor enemy, or a destroyer of human life. To advance from this stage\nto the werewolf frenzy, our primitive man must have seen about him\nsome exhibition of such a frenzy, and some reason for connecting this\nfrenzy particularly with, say the wolf. He did see insane persons,\nand the connecting link would be the crazy or mad wolf (or dog, as\nthe transformation was usually into a wolf or dog,[72]) for persons\nbitten by it usually went mad too.[73] The ensuing frenzy, with the\nconsternation it occasioned, soon appealed to certain primitive minds\nas a good means of terrorizing others. Of these mad ones some no doubt\nactually had the malady; others honestly believed they had it and got\ninto a frenzy accordingly; others purposely worked themselves up into a\nfrenzy in order to impose on the uninitiated.[74] Later, in the Middle\nAges, when the nature of the real disease came to be better understood,\nthe werewolf superstition had become too firmly fixed to be easily\nuprooted.\n\n      [70] Ante pp. 7, 8, 9.\n\n      [71] Ante p. 12 fol.\n\n      [72] See notes 19 and 74.\n\n      [73] Grinnell, Blackfoot lodge tales, p. 283: \u201cIt is said that\n      wolves, which in former days were extremely numerous, sometimes\n      went crazy, and bit every animal they met with, sometimes even\n      coming into camps and biting dogs, horses and people. Persons\n      bitten by a mad wolf generally went mad, too. They trembled and\n      their limbs jerked, they made their jaws work and foamed at the\n      mouth, often trying to bite other people. When any one acted in\n      this way, his relatives tied him hand and foot with ropes, and,\n      having killed a buffalo, they rolled him up in the green hide,\n      built a fire on and around him, leaving him in the fire until\n      the hide began to dry and burn. Then they pulled him out and\n      removed the buffalo hide, and he was cured. This was the cure\n      for a mad wolf\u2019s bite.\u201d\n\n      [74] Sometimes the professionals even became possessed of a\n      monomania themselves, as in witchcraft. Andree goes into this\n      widespread disease or delusion (of the first century till\n      late in the middle ages), p. 76 fol.: \u201cThe sick\u201d ones would\n      prowl about burial places _at night_, imagining themselves\n      to be _wolves_ or _dogs_, and go about barking and howling.\n      In the middle ages such people would even kill children and\n      grown people. When they came to themselves again, or were\n      cured, they claimed to know nothing of what had happened.\n      Ethn. Rep. 1888-89, p. 491: Amongst the Shamans feats of\n      jugglery or pretended magic rivaling or surpassing the best\n      of spiritualistic seances are recounted. Page 207: The use of\n      robes made of the hides of buffalo and other large animals,\n      painted with shamanistic devices, is mentioned. Page 235: The\n      speaker terms himself a wolf spirit, possessing peculiar power.\n\nWe have discussed (5), (6), (7), and (8) in the notes.[75] As further\nexamples of the development into fabulous story,[76] we may cite any of\nthose stories in which the wild werewolf, or animal-man is represented\nas roaming the land, howling, robbing, and tearing to pieces men\nand beasts, until he resumes his human form. Thus an early scout in\nanimal garb would be obliged to live on food he found on his way, and\nlater fabulous report would represent him as himself when in disguise\npossessing the attributes of the animal he represented, and tearing to\npieces man and beast. For such an account see Andree,[77] concerning\nwhat eyewitnesses reported of the wild reveling over corpses of the\nhyena-men of Africa. Naturally the uninitiated savage who witnessed\nsuch a sight would become insane, or at least would spread abroad\nsuch a report as would enhance the influence of the hyena-men far and\nwide. Some savages, as in Africa,[78] came to regard any animal that\nrobbed them of children, goats or other animals, as a witch in animal\nform;[79] just as the American Indians ascribe to evil spirits death,\nsickness and other misfortunes.\n\n      [75] Notes 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 69.\n\n      [76] See (8) above.\n\n      [77] Page 71.\n\n      [78] Andree, p. 69.\n\n      [79] Ethn. Rep. 1889-90, p. 263. gives the following story of\n      the origin of the wolf: \u201c_The wolf_ was a poor woman, who had\n      so many children that she could not find enough for them to\n      eat. They became so gaunt and hungry that they were changed\n      into wolves, constantly roaming over the land seeking food.\u201d\n\nWe can see how at first the man in animal disguise or an animal robe\nwould go quietly to work, like the Pawnee scout;[80] how though, as\nsoon as the element of magic enters in, he would try to keep up the\nillusion. At this stage, when the original defensive measure had become\ntainted with superstition, men would go about in the night time howling\nand holding their vile revels.[81] Andree,[82] narrates how a soldier\nin Northeast Africa shot at a hyena, followed the traces of blood and\ncame to the straw hut of a man who was widely famed as a magician. No\nhyena was to be seen, only the man himself with a fresh wound. Soon\nhe died, however the soldier did not survive him long. Doubtless one\nof the magician class was responsible for the death of the soldier,\njust as we to-day put to death the man who so violates our laws, as to\nbecome a menace to our society, or as formerly kings killed those who\nstood in their way; or as religious sects murder those who dissent\nfrom their faith. These magicians, supposed to be men who could assume\nanimal form, as a matter of fact do often form a class, are greatly\nfeared by other natives, often dwell with their disciples in caves and\nat _night_ come forth to plunder and kill.[83] It is to their interest\nto counterfeit well, for if suspected of being malevolent, they were\nput to death or outlawed, like criminals to-day.[84] Their frenzies\nwere, as said above, in some cases genuine delusions; in other cases\nthey offered, as one may readily imagine, excellent opportunities for\npersonal gain or vengeance.[85]\n\n      [80] Ante p. 12 fol.\n\n      [81] Ethn. Rep. 1885-86, p. 152: It is impossible to imagine\n      the horrible howlings, and strange contortions that these\n      jugglers (shamans) or conjurers make of their bodies, when they\n      are disposing themselves to conjure.\n\n      [82] Page 71.\n\n      [83] Andree, p. 70, gives an account of the chief magician\n      (Abyssinia), who demands as yearly tribute of his subordinate\n      animal-men the teeth of the persons whom they have killed\n      during the year, with which he decorates his palace. See also\n      pp. 72, 75, etc.: Ethn. Rep. 1885-86, p. 151, about sorcery\n      among American Indians: Societies existed. The purposes of\n      the society are twofold; 1. To preserve the traditions of\n      Indian genesis and cosmogony, etc. 2. To give a certain class\n      of ambitious men and women sufficient influence through\n      their acknowledged power of exorcism and necromancy to lead\n      a comfortable life at the expense of the credulous. Page\n      162: \u201cEach tribe has its medicine men and women, an order of\n      priesthood consulted and employed in all times of sickness. It\n      is to their interest to lead these credulous people to believe\n      that they can at pleasure hold intercourse with the munedoos,\u201d\n      etc. Sometimes one family constitutes the class. See note 65;\n      Andree, p. 69.\n\n      [84] Grimm, Teut. Myth. III. 1104: To higher antiquity witches\n      were priestesses, physicians, fabulous _night_-wives, never\n      as yet persecuted. Maidens might turn into swans, heroes into\n      werewolves, and lose nothing in popular estimation. The abuse\n      of a spell was punished. A wise woman, healing sickness and\n      charming wounds, begins to pass for a witch only when with\n      her art she does evil. In course of time, when the Devil\u2019s\n      complicity with every kind of sorcery came to be assumed, the\n      guilt of criminality fell upon all personal relations with him.\n      Ethn. Rep. 1901-2, p. 393: \u201cThough the witch may be regarded as\n      all powerful, none but the poor and unfortunate are condemned.\n      Few others are even brought to trial\u2014their prominence prevents\n      public accusation.\u201d This again reminds us some of our customs;\n      namely, that of overlooking the transgressions of the rich and\n      powerful. See note 91, and for outlaws note 112.\n\n      [85] Such artificial frenzies had a serious effect upon the\n      body, and more particularly the eyes, so that many shamans\n      (Siberia, America, etc.) become blind.\n\nOnly by instilling in their fellows a firm belief in this superstition\nand maintaining the sham, could the perpetrators of the outrages hope\nto escape punishment for their depredations, could they hope to plunder\nand steal with impunity.[86] So they prowled usually under the cloak\nof _night_ or of the dark of the forest,[87] howled and acted like\nthe animals they represented, hid the animal skin or blanket, if they\nused one,[88] in the daytime where they thought no one could find\nit, whereas the animal skin which was worn for defence, was put on\neither by day or night,[89] and one story recounts the swallowing of\na whole goat, the man bellowing fearfully like a tiger while he did\nit.[90] Some of the transformed men claimed they could regain human\nform only by means of a certain medicine or by rubbing. The imposters\nwere the criminal class of society that is still with us to-day,[91]\nno longer in werewolf form, but after all wolves in human dress, each\nmaintaining his trade by deception and countless artifices, just as did\nthe werewolf of old. Not unlike these shams are those of the American\nnegro, who in church, when \u201cshouting,\u201d that is, when stirred up by\nreligious fervor, inflicts blows on his enemy who happens to be in the\nchurch, of course with impunity; for he is supposed to be under some\noutside control, and when the spell has passed off, like some of the\ndelusionists mentioned,[92] claims not to know what he (or generally\nshe) has done. Similar also are the negro voudoo ceremonies, those of\nthe fire-eaters, or any other sham.\n\n      [86] Encyc. Brit., XV. under Lycanthropy: In Prussia, Livonia\n      and Lithuania, according to two bishops, werewolves were in\n      the 16th century far more destructive than \u201ctrue and natural\n      wolves.\u201d They were asserted to have formed \u201can accursed\n      college\u201d of those \u201cdesirous of innovations contrary to the\n      divine law.\u201d Also see note 90.\n\n      [87] See ante p. 13, and notes 64, 65, 66, 69, 84, 102, 110.\n\n      [88] Note 22 close, and note 102.\n\n      [89] See ante p. 13.\n\n      [90] Andree, p. 72. This same tiger-man in Asia killed a\n      woman, whose husband set out in pursuit, followed him to his\n      house, got hold of him later in his man shape and killed him.\n      Feats similar to some performed by him are cited in Ethn. Rep.\n      1887-88, p. 470: The medicine-men of the Pawnee swallowed\n      arrows and knives, and also performed the trick of apparently\n      killing a man and bringing him back to life, like the Zu\u00f1i.\n\n      [91] Grimm, Rechtsalterth\u00fcmer, II. 566: Hexen waren fast alle\n      aus der \u00e4rmsten und niedrigsten Volksklasse (see note 84).\n      Literary Digest, March 9, 1907, p. 378, article on Spiritualism\n      and Spirituality: \u201cMany, very many, spiritualists seem to care\n      for communion with spirits only that they may more surely keep\n      physically well, and earn their bread and butter and clothing\n      the easier.\u201d Encyc. Brit. under Lycanthropy: The absurdity of\n      the superstition would have much sooner appeared, but for the\n      theory that a werewolf when wounded resumed human shape; in\n      every case where one accused of being a werewolf was taken, he\n      was certain to be wounded, and thus the difficulty of his not\n      being found in beast form was satisfactorily disposed of.\n\n      [92] Notes 57 and 67.\n\nThe wolf disguise, or transformation into a werewolf was that most\noften assumed for example in Germanic lands.[93] The term _wolf_\nbecame synonymous with _robber_, and later (when the robber became an\noutlaw,[94]) with _outlaw_, the robber and outlaw alike being called\nwolf and not some other animal (i.\u00a0e., only the wolf-man surviving to\nany extent) firstly, because the wolf was plentiful; and secondly,\nbecause as civilization advanced, there came a time when the wolf was\npractically the only one of the larger undomesticated animals that\nsurvived.[95] We can notice this in our own United States, for example\nin eastern Kansas, where at night coyotes and even wolves are sometimes\nheard howling out on the prairie near woodlands, or in the pastures\nadjoining farms, where they not infrequently kill smaller animals, and\ndig up buried ones.[96] In Prussia also it is the wolf that survives\nto-day. American Indians, and other savages however do not restrict the\ntransformations to the wolf,[97] because other wild animals, are, or\nwere till recently, abundant amongst them. As civilization advances,\none by one the animal myths disappear with the animals that gave rise\nto them (like that connected with the mastodon);[98] or else stories of\nsuch domestic animals as the pig, white bull, dog superseded them.[99]\nWhen this stage was reached, as time went on and means of successfully\ncoping with the brute creation became perfected, the animals were shorn\nof many of their terrors, and finally such stories as Aesop\u2019s fables\nwould arise.[100] This however was psychologically a long step in\nadvance of our were-wolf believing peoples of an earlier period.\n\n      [93] Notes 9 and 19.\n\n      [94] Note 112.\n\n      [95] See note 11, also Ethn. Rep. 1897-98, I. 263: \u201cThe deer,\n      which is still common in the mountains, was the principal\n      dependence of the Cherokee hunter, and is consequently\n      prominent in myth, folklore, and ceremonial.\u201d see note 42.\n      Page 264: \u201cThe largest gens (clan) in the tribe bears the name\n      of \u2018wolf people.\u2019\u201d Page 420: The Cherokee have always been an\n      agricultural people, and their old country has a luxuriant\n      flora, therefore the vegetable kingdom holds a far more\n      important place in the mythology and ceremonial of the tribe\n      than it does among the Indians of the treeless plains and arid\n      sage deserts of the West.\n\n      [96] The St. Louis \u201cWestliche Post\u201d for January 9, 1908,\n      furnishes another example: A tame wolf which for the past\n      two years has been a pet in a farmer\u2019s family at Marshfield,\n      Wisconsin, escaped and attacked a chicken. The farmer\u2019s\n      daughter called to the wolf, but it had become wild from the\n      taste of blood, attacked her, and bit her on both arms and one\n      leg. It held so fast that the young lady could not be released\n      until she had nearly choked the wolf with its collar.\n\n      Also the following clipping from the same paper, January 13,\n      1908, shows the prevalence of wolves to-day in even quite\n      populous districts: \u201cWolf-Plage. Aus dem n\u00f6rdlichen Wisconsin\n      wird gemeldet, dass W\u00f6lfe in diesem Jahre zahlreicher sind\n      denn je, und dass sie, durch Hunger getrieben, sich nahe\n      an die Ortschaften wagen, und Hausthiere und auch Menschen\n      angreifen. Zwei grosse W\u00f6lfe griffen in dieser Woche das Pferd\n      der Frau Branchard an; das Pferd scheute und jagte in den Wald,\n      wo es durch Arbeiter angehalten wurde, welche die Bestien\n      verscheuchten.\u201d\n\n      [97] Note 11.\n\n      [98] Note 20.\n\n      [99] Note 109.\n\n      [100] Note 24.\n\nUp to this point the illustrations have shown that the werewolf\nsuperstition went through various stages of development. The motives\nfor assuming wolf\u2019s dress (or animal skins or robes), at first were\npurely peaceful, for protection against cold, and to secure food by\nacting as decoys; then it was used for personal advantage or gain by\nforagers (or robbers) and spies; then for purposes of vengeance;[101]\nlater from a desire for power over others; and finally men (the\nprofessional and the superstitious) began to concoct fabulous stories\nwhich were handed down as tradition or myth, according to the psychic\nlevel of the narrator and hearer.[102]\n\n      [101] Close of note 102.\n\n      [102] John Fiske, Myths and myth-makers, p. 78, fol., gives\n      the origin and development of the werewolf as follows: From\n      the conception of wolf-like ghosts it was but a short step to\n      the conception of corporeal werewolves.... Christianity did\n      not fail to impart a new and fearful character to the belief\n      in werewolves. Lycanthropy became regarded as a species of\n      witchcraft, the werewolf as obtaining his powers from the\n      Devil. It was often necessary to kill one\u2019s enemies, and at\n      that time some even killed for love of it (like the Berserker);\n      often a sort of homicidal madness, during which they would\n      array themselves in the skins of wolves or bears and sally\n      forth by _night_ to crack the backbones, smash the skulls and\n      sometimes to drink with fiendish glee the blood of unwary\n      travelers or loiterers.... Possibly often the wolves were an\n      invention of excited imagination. So people attributed a wolf\u2019s\n      nature to the maniac or idiot with cannibal appetites, then\n      the myth-forming process assigned to the unfortunate wretch\n      a tangible lupine body. The causes were three: 1. Worship\n      of dead ancestors with wolf totems originated the notion of\n      transformation of men into divine or superhuman wolves. 2. The\n      storm-wind was explained as the rushing of a troop of dead\n      men\u2019s souls or as the howling of wolf-like monsters (called by\n      Christianity demons). 3. Berserker madness and cannibalism,\n      accompanied by lycanthropic hallucinations, interpreted as due\n      to such demoniacal metamorphosis, gave rise to the werewolf\n      superstition of the Middle Ages. The theory that if one put on\n      a wolf\u2019s skin he became a werewolf, is perhaps a reminiscence\n      of the fact alleged of Berserkers haunting the woods by\n      _night_, clothed in hides of wolves or bears. A permanent cure\n      was effected by burning the werewolf\u2019s sack, unless the Devil\n      furnished him with a new wolfskin. Primitively, to become\n      incarnated into any creature, the soul had only to put on the\n      outward integument of the creature. The original werewolf is\n      the night-wind\u2014a kind of leader of departed souls, howling\n      in the wintry blasts. Encyc. Brit, under Lycanthropy:\u2014The\n      Berserkir of Iceland dressed in the skins of bears and wolves,\n      and further on: \u201cBeastform is in mythology proper far oftener\n      assumed for malignant than for benignant ends.\u201d\n\nThe starting point of the whole superstition of the harmful werewolf\nis the disguising as some common animal by members of savage races\nwhen abroad as foragers or scouts, in order to escape detection by the\nenemy. Like wolves they roamed the land in search of food. As stated\nabove,[103] later fabulous report would represent them as possessing\nin their disguise the attributes of the animal they impersonated,[104]\nand finally even of actually taking on animal form, either wholly or\nin part,[105] for longer or shorter periods of time. Some of the North\nAmerican Indian transformation stories represent men as having only\nthe head, hands and feet of a wolf.[106] The transformation into a\nwerewolf in Germanic lands is caused merely by a shirt or girdle made\nof wolf-skin.[107] This shirt or girdle of wolf-skin of the Germanic\nwerewolf is the survival of the robe or mantle originally disguising\nthe entire body. It would be but a step further to represent a person\nas rendering himself invisible by putting on any other article of\napparel, such as the Tarnkappe.[108] The stories especially in Europe\nwere of the _were-wolf_ rather than _were-bear_ or other animal,\nbecause the wolf was the commonest of the larger wild animals.[109] It\nwas the stories of the commonest animal, the wolf, which crystallized\ninto the household werewolf or transformation tales.[110]\n\n      [103] Ante p. 22.\n\n      [104] Note 57.\n\n      [105] Close note 65.\n\n      [106] Grinnell; and Ethn. Rep. 1888-89, p. 737.\n\n      [107] Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, III. 1094, fol. says: Our\n      oldest native notions make the assumption of wolf-shape\n      depend on arraying oneself in a wolf-belt or wolf-shirt, as\n      transformation into a swan does on putting on the swan-shirt\n      or swan-ring. Page 1095: \u201cThe transformation need not be for a\n      magical purpose at all: any one that puts on, or is conjured\n      into, a wolf-shirt, will undergo metamorphosis.... With the\n      appearance, he acquires also the fierceness and howling of the\n      wolf; roaming the _woods_, he rends to pieces everything that\n      comes in his way.\u201d This is like the belief of the American\n      Indian that the wearer of a mask becomes imbued with the spirit\n      of the being which his mask represents (note 57); or that the\n      shaman in full regalia becomes, or tries to make his followers\n      believe that he has become, the power he represents (note 67).\n\n      [108] Thus some American Indian stories represent men\n      transformed into wolf, turkey or owl turning into stone or\n      piece of decayed wood when pursued. And mantles of invisibility\n      are mentioned in note 60.\n\n      [109] See Hirt, Die Indogermanen, I. 187: \u201cUnter den grossen\n      Raubtieren treten uns B\u00e4r und Wolf mit alten Namen entgegen.\n      Der Wolf ist freilich \u00fcberall in Europa verbreitet gewesen, der\n      B\u00e4r ist aber ganz sicher ein Waldtier,\u201d etc. Encyc. Brit, under\n      Lycanthropy: \u201cIn England by the 17th century the werewolf had\n      long been extinct. Only small creatures, the cat, hare, weasel,\n      etc., remained for the malignant sorcerer to transform himself\n      into.\u201d See note 11.\n\n      [110] Amongst the American Indians, where various larger\n      animals were common, the designation \u201cwolf-people\u201d (see the\n      sign-language of the plains) was bestowed especially on the\n      Pawnees, because, as we have seen, they best imitated wolves.\n      In Europe, where, of the larger animals, the wolf alone was\n      universally common, the designation \u201cwolf-people\u201d (or if we\n      choose, later, werewolves) was not restricted to any one\n      locality or people, but was bestowed in general on those who\n      assumed the manner of wolves, and because of their crimes\n      became outcasts like the wolves. They best imitate wolves, and\n      no doubt, to escape detection, disguised themselves as wolves\n      (see note 102), and for this reason the _warg_ or outlaw came\n      to be called a _wolf_ (see close of note 112). Thus Golther,\n      Mythologie, p. 102, says: \u201cWird ein Werwolf verwundet oder\n      get\u00f6tet, so findet man einen wunden oder toten Menschen.\u201d The\n      werewolves, as we have seen (ante p. 25), keep to the _woods_\n      and the _dark_, of course in many cases to avoid detection.\n      Similarly witches, Ethn. Rep. 1901-02, p. 393: \u201cThey say that\n      witches love the _night_ and lurk in _shadows and darkness_.\n      Witches are believed to be able to assume the shape of beasts.\u201d\n      Sigmund and Sinfj\u00f6tli dwelt as wolves in the _woods_. Also the\n      progenitor of the M\u00fdramenn in Iceland at _night_ could leave\n      his house in wolf\u2019s form. Another Norwegian account reports\n      how earlier many people were able to take on wolf\u2019s form, then\n      dwelt in _grove_ and _woods_, where they tore people to pieces,\n      etc. See Paul, Grundriss, III. 272 fol.; also note 113.\n\n      [111] Names. See note 31. The development in the case of names\n      was perhaps the same as in the case of masks (note 57), and of\n      the werewolf superstition itself (ante p. 15, fol.); namely, a)\n      protection against outside agencies was sought; b) growth of\n      supernaturalism; c) element of humor.\n\n      a) See Encyc. Brit. under Lycanthropy: \u201cChildren are often\n      named _wolf_, are disguised as a wolf to cheat their\n      supernatural foes\u201d (for similar assumption of characteristics\n      or the nature of animals for personal advantage see note 33).\n      See also Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, III. 1139: \u201cThe escort of\n      _wolf_ or _raven_ augured victory;\u201d and in the note: \u201cA name\n      of happiest augury for a hero must have been the O.\u00a0H.\u00a0G.\n      _Wolf-hraban_ (Wolfram), to whom the two animals jointly\n      promised victory. Old names are no product of pure chance.\n      Servian mothers name a son they have longed for, _Vuk_,\n      _Wolf_: then the witches can\u2019t eat him up. O.\u00a0H.\u00a0G. _Wolfbizo_\n      was a lucky name, i.\u00a0e., one bitten by the wolf and thereby\n      protected,\u201d like our modern curing of like by like in medicine.\n\n      b) With growth of supernaturalism came probably the development\n      mentioned by Meringer, Indog. Forsch., 1904, XVI. 165, about\n      the conferring of secret names, since one could harm a person\n      by his name alone, and could summon a foe merely by mentioning\n      his name: \u201cWenn man den Wolf nennt, kommt er g\u2019rennt.\u201d Again\n      in XXI. 313 fol.: It was dangerous to name _bear_ or _wolf_\n      in regions infested by these animals, so people, out of fear,\n      avoided calling the name of such animals; called the bear for\n      example _honey-eater_, etc.\n\n      c) Finally, when man could better cope with animal foes, his\n      fear of them disappeared, the elements of fearlessness and\n      humor enter in, and such names arise as are mentioned in note\n      53; and such stories as that of Romulus and Remus, suckled by a\n      wolf.\n\n      [112] Outlaws. The notion of werewolves (see Grimm, Teutonic\n      Mythology, III. 1095) also gets mixed up with that of outlaws\n      who have fled to the woods. A notable instance is that of\n      Sigmund and Sinfj\u00f6tli in the V\u00f6lsungasaga. In regard to this W.\n      Golther, Handbuch der germanischen mythologie, Leipzig 1895,\n      p. 102, says: \u201cDie Sage mag auf einem alten Misverst\u00e4ndniss\n      beruhen. _Warg_, _Wolf_ hiess der Ge\u00e4chtete in der germanischen\n      Rechtssprache. _Warg_ wurde w\u00f6rtlich als _Wolf_ verstanden,\n      und so bildete sich die Werwolfsgeschichte.\u201d Golther again, p.\n      424:\u2014\u201cGefesselt wurde Loki als \u00c4chter in den Wald getrieben,\n      er wurde \u201c_Warg_\u201d, d. h. _Wolf_. _W\u00f6lfe_ heissen die friedlosen\n      Waldg\u00e4nger.\u201d As to _warg_, Schade in his altdeutsches\n      W\u00f6rterbuch defines it as a r\u00e4uberisch w\u00fcrgendes w\u00fctendes Wesen,\n      Mensch von roher verbrecherischer Denk- und Handlungsweise,\n      ge\u00e4chteter Verbrecher, ausgestossener Misset\u00e4ter; _warg_ ist\n      Benennung des Wolfes, in der Rechtssprache ein treu- und\n      vertragbr\u00fcchiger Mensch, vogelfreier Mann, der den Frieden\n      durch Mord gebrochen und landfl\u00fcchtig geworden, oder nun im\n      wilden Walde gleich dem Raubtiere haust und wie der Wolf\n      ungestraft erlegt werden darf; im jetzigen Gebrauche auf Island\n      Bezeichnung einer gewaltt\u00e4tigen Person. Similarly, J. Grimm,\n      Gesch. d. d. Spr. p. 233. For customs amongst the American\n      Indians relating to the outlaw see Ethn. Rep. 1879-80, p. 67\n      fol.: An outlaw is one who by his crimes has placed himself\n      without the protection of his clan, is not defended in case he\n      is injured by another. When the sentence of outlawry has been\n      declared, for example among the Wyandots, it is the duty of\n      the chief of the Wolf clan to make known the decision of the\n      council.... In outlawry of the highest degree it is the duty\n      of any member of the tribe who may meet the offender to kill\n      him like an animal. Page 60 fol.: \u201cThe chief of the Wolf gens\n      is the herald and the sheriff of the tribe\u201d (see also Ethn.\n      Rep. 1893-94, p. cxiv). Criminals kept to the _woods_ and the\n      _dark_. Many of them lived like animals, dressed in animal\n      skins, and to terrorize others assumed the role of werewolves.\n      Since therefore so many outlaws lived, dressed (note 22 close)\n      and acted like wolves, to all intents and purposes became\n      wolves, _wolf_ and outlaw became synonymous terms.\n\n      [113] The widespread custom of keeping windows closed at night\n      in Germany is perhaps a relic of heathen days, when people\n      believed that werewolves, etc., entered houses at night. In\n      place of the earlier harmful werewolf is now the \u201charmful\u201d\n      night air.\n\n\n\n\nBIBLIOGRAPHY\n\n\n  ANDREE, RICHARD. Ethnographische parallelen und vergleiche.\n        Stuttgart, 1878.\n\n  BEHAGHEL, OTTO. Die deutsche sprache. Leipzig, 1902.\n\n  BRAUNE, WILHELM. Althochdeutsches lesebuch. Halle, 1907.\n\n  BROCKHAUS, F. A. Konversations-lexikon. Leipzig, 1901 fol.\n\n  BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY. Bulletin 26. Washington, 1901.\n\n  DILTHEY, WILHELM. Erlebnis und dichtung. Leipzig, 1906.\n\n  EDDA. Die lieder der \u00e4lteren edda. Paderborn, 1876.\n\n  ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA. New York, 1883, etc.\n\n  ERMAN, ADOLF. Reise um die erde durch Nordasien. Berlin, 1833.\n\n  FISKE, JOHN. Myths and myth-makers. Boston, 1892.\n\n  FREYTAG, GUSTAV. Bilder aus neuer zeit. Leipzig, 1904.\n\n  GOLTHER, W. Handbuch der germanischen mythologie. Leipzig, 1895.\n\n  GRIMM, JAKOB. Geschichte der deutschen sprache. Leipzig, 1878.\n\n  GRIMM, JAKOB. Rechtsaltert\u00fcmer. 4te auf. Vol. II. Leipzig, 1899.\n\n  GRIMM, JAKOB. Teutonic mythology. Translation by J.\u00a0S. Stallybrass,\n        London, 1882.\n\n  GRINNELL, GEORGE BIRD. Blackfoot lodge tales. New York, 1892.\n\n  GRINNELL, G. B. Pawnee hero stories and folk-tales. New York, 1893.\n\n  GRINNELL, G. B. Story of the Indian. New York, 1895.\n\n  HERTZ, W. Der werwolf. Stuttgart, 1862.\n\n  HIRT, H. Die indogermanen. Strassburg, 1905 fol.\n\n  INDOGERMANISCHE FORSCHUNGEN. Vols. XVI, XXI. Strassburg, 1904, 1907.\n\n  KLUGE, F. Etymologisches w\u00f6rterbuch der deutschen sprache.\n        Strassburg, 1905.\n\n  LEMCKE, K. Aesthetik in gemeinverst\u00e4ndlichen vortr\u00e4gen. Leipzig,\n        1890.\n\n  LEUBUSCHER, R. \u00dcber die wehrw\u00f6lfe und thierverwandlungen im\n        mittelalter. Berlin, 1850.\n\n  LITERARY DIGEST. New York and London, March 9, 1907.\n\n  MEYERS. Kleines konversations-lexikon. Leipzig, 1899-1900.\n\n  PAUL, H. Grundriss der germanischen philologie. Strassburg, 1900.\n\n  SCHADE, O. Altdeutsches w\u00f6rterbuch. Halle, 1872 fol.\n\n  SCHRADER, O. Reallexikon der indogermanischen altertumskunde.\n        Strassburg, 1901.\n\n  V\u00d6LSUNGASAGA. Ranisch, Berlin, 1891.\n\n  WESTLICHE POST. St. Louis.\n\n  WUNDT, W. V\u00f6lkerpsychologie. Vol. II. Leipzig, 1905.\n\n  ZEITSCHRIFT F\u00dcR DEUTSCHES ALTERTUM. Vol. XLVII. Berlin, 1903-1904.\n\n  ZEITSCHRIFT F\u00dcR DEUTSCHE PHILOLOGIE. Vol. XXXVIII. Halle, 1906.\n\n\n\n\nINDEX\n\n[The pages are in roman numerals, the notes in italic.]\n\n\n  Abipones, _9, 66._\n\n  Abyssinia, _9._\n\n  Africa, 5, 23; _9, 47, 65._\n\n  Alligator, _9._\n\n  America, 5; _9, 85._\n\n  American Indians, 5, 14, 21, 23, 27; _9, 27, 66, 110._\n\n  Anglo-Saxons, _9._\n\n  Animals, _42._\n\n  Animal fable, _15._\n\n  Arabia, _9._\n\n  Arawaks, _9._\n\n  Arcadia, _9, 15._\n\n  Asia, 5; _9, 12, 16._\n\n  Assyrians, _15._\n\n\n  Bear, 5; _9, 15, 16, 38, 102, 109, 111._\n\n  Belgium, _12._\n\n  Benignant, _4, 38._\n\n  Berserkr, 1; _102._\n\n  Bird, 5.\n\n  Bison, _12, 27, 31, 32, 73, 74._\n\n  Bohemia, _9._\n\n  Borneo, _9._\n\n  Bretons, _9._\n\n  Bulgaria, _9._\n\n  Burchard von Worms, _9._\n\n  Burmah, _12._\n\n\n  Celebrations, _21._\n\n  Ceylon, _12._\n\n  Charms, 10, 16.\n\n  Clothing, 8, 9, 11, 16, 28.\n\n  Coyote, 13.\n\n\n  Dancing, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16; _32, 33, 34, 37, 42, 57._\n\n  Dante, _24._\n\n  Death, _22._\n\n  Decoy, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16, 28; _29, 30, 31._\n\n  Denmark, _9._\n\n  Dog, 5, 21, 27; _19, 64, 73, 74._\n\n  Dreams, 21; _67._\n\n\n  Edda, _15._\n\n  Enemy, 8, 12, 14, 21, 26, 29; _48, 60, 65, 102, 111._\n\n  English, _9, 109._\n\n  Eskimo, _30, 31, 67._\n\n  Europe, 5, 7; _9, 12, 16, 110._\n\n\n  Fenris\u00fblfr, _9, 51._\n\n  Finns, _5._\n\n  Fish, _5._\n\n  Fisherman, _29._\n\n  Food, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 15, 28, 29; _27, 29._\n\n  Forest, 25; _22, 65, 102, 107, 110, 112._\n\n  Fox, 5, 12; _9, 15, 21._\n\n  French, _9, 12._\n\n\n  Germany, 2, 4, 5; _9, 22._\n\n  Greece, 1, 7; _9, 15, 22._\n\n  Greenland, _12, 69._\n\n\n  Harmful, 1, 11, 13; _42, 51._\n\n  Herds, _9, 12, 20._\n\n  Herodotus, 1; _15._\n\n  Hindoos, _9._\n\n  Homer, _24._\n\n  Hunter, 7, 8; _15, 31, 52, 53, 64, 95._\n\n  Hyena, 5, 23; _9._\n\n\n  Iceland, _9, 110._\n\n  India, 5; _9, 12._\n\n  Indogermanic, 7; _9, 20, 42._\n\n  Insanity, 21, 22, 24; _24, 73, 85, 102._\n\n  Iranians, _9._\n\n  Ireland, _9._\n\n  Italians, _9._\n\n\n  Jackal, _12._\n\n  Jaguar, _9._\n\n  Japan, _9._\n\n\n  Kadiak, _29._\n\n  Kelts, 7; _9._\n\n  Knut, _9._\n\n\n  Lapps, 5.\n\n  Leopard, 5; _9, 65._\n\n  Leubuscher, 6; _9, 20._\n\n  Lion, 5; _9, 45, 65._\n\n  Lithuanians, _9._\n\n  Loki, 14; _9, 112._\n\n  Lycanthropy, 2; _9, 19, 20, 22, 74, 102._\n\n  Lykaon, _9, 15._\n\n\n  Magic, 23, 24; _22, 37, 60, 64, 65, 67, 69, 74, 81, 83, 84, 107._\n\n  Malignant, 24; _4, 84, 102, 109, 113._\n\n  Mask, 8, 11, 15; _29, 37, 42, 57, 64, 67, 107, 111._\n\n  Mastodon, _20._\n\n  Medicinemen (Shamans), 20; _52, 63, 66, 67, 74, 81, 83, 85, 90,\n    107._\n\n  Mexico, _12, 67._\n\n  Middle Ages, 22; _9, 74, 102._\n\n  Murder, 24; _20, 22, 52, 102, 112._\n\n  Myths, 7, 27; _24, 95, 102._\n\n\n  Names, _42, 53, 109, 111._\n\n  Netherlands, _9._\n\n  Neurians, 1; _15._\n\n  Night, 1, 12, 13, 23, 24, 25; _63, 65, 66, 69, 74, 84, 102, 110,\n    112, 113._\n\n  North America, _12._\n\n  Norway, _9._\n\n\n  Odin, _15._\n\n  Island Oesel, _9._\n\n  Otter, _29._\n\n  Outlaw, 24, 26; _84, 110, 112._\n\n  Owl, 5, 30; _64._\n\n\n  Pawnees, 12, 13, 23; _110._\n\n  Persia, _9._\n\n  Plants, _42, 95._\n\n  Poles, _9, 14._\n\n  Portuguese, _9._\n\n  Posen, _14._\n\n  Priests, _22, 67, 69, 83._\n\n  Professionals, 22, 23, 24, 25; _74, 81, 83, 86._\n\n  Provencal, _9._\n\n  Prussia, _14._\n\n\n  Reindeer, 5.\n\n  Religion, _22, 24, 57._\n\n  Revenge, 14, 17, 24, 28; _52, 69._\n\n  Robber, 12, 13, 14, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 28; _15, 20, 44, 53, 65,\n    112._\n\n  Romans, 7; _9, 27._\n\n  Russia, 2; _9, 12, 16._\n\n\n  Scandinavia, _9._\n\n  Scout, 12, 13, 14, 16, 22, 23, 28, 29; _47, 48, 60._\n\n  Scythians, _6._\n\n  Seal, _29, 31, 69._\n\n  Serpent, 5; _9._\n\n  Servia, _9._\n\n  Shepherds, _15, 20._\n\n  Siam, _12, 69._\n\n  Sinfj\u00f6tli, _15, 64, 110._\n\n  Song, 9, 10, 15; _33, 64._\n\n  Skins (or dress) of animals, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 22,\n    23, 25, 28, 29, 30; _21, 22, 31, 34, 52, 53, 57, 60, 63, 64,\n    65, 66, 67, 74, 102, 107, 108, 110, 112._\n\n  South America, 5; _12._\n\n  Speech (animals), 7.\n\n  Stories, 21, 22, 27, 28, 29; _9, 27, 60, 69, 102, 111._\n\n  Supernaturalism, 10, 17, 18; _57, 65, 102, 111._\n\n  Superstition, 1, 4, 5, 14, 23; _20, 64._\n\n  Sweden, _9._\n\n\n  Tiger, 5; _9, 45, 69, 90._\n\n  Totemism, 2; _47, 102._\n\n  Transformation, 5, 15, 21; _9, 11, 19, 22, 52, 64, 65, 66, 69,\n    107._\n\n  Traps, 8; _31._\n\n  Tschechs, _9._\n\n  Turkey, 5; _108._\n\n\n  Volhynia, 2; _9, 16._\n\n  V\u00f6lsungasaga, _15, 112._\n\n\n  Wales, _9._\n\n  Warfare, 12, 13, 16; _60._\n\n  Weapons, 7, 8, 9.\n\n  Werewolf, 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 21, 22, 28, 29, 30; _9, 15, 20, 22, 45,\n    64, 84, 86, 91, 102, 107, 109, 110, 112, 113._\n\n  Wiener Hundesegen, _15._\n\n  Witches, 11, 19, 23; _65, 66, 67, 74, 83, 84, 91, 102, 109, 110,\n    111._\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber\u2019s note\n\n\nWords in italics were surrounded with _underscores_, and small capitals\nchanged to all capitals.\n\nAnchors for notes 37 and 42 were missing in the original, they were\nadded. Notes 111, 112 and 113 also had no anchors in the original, they\nwere referred to in other notes. The notes were moved to directly after\nthe paragraph with the corresponding anchor.\n\n\u201cV\u00f6lsungasaga\u201d and \u201cSinfj\u00f6tli\u201d were in the original mostly written with\na little c under the o, and a few times with a plain o. For reader\u2019s\nconvenience this has been changed and standardised to the more common\nspelling with \u00f6.\n\nSome punctuation was corrected and a few missing spaces added. In note\n12 \u201cand\u201d was changed to \u201cund\u201d (seltener in Frankreich und Belgien).\n\nOtherwise the original was preserved, including possible errors and\nmissing capitalisation in quotes from German sources, and inconsistent\nspelling, for example the word Berserkr, Berserker or Berserkir.","title":"The Origin of the Werewolf Superstition","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":14075}