CHAPTER II. LYCANTHROPY AMONG THE ANCIENTS
Definition of Lycanthropy—Marcellus
Sidetes—Virgil—Herodotus—Ovid—Pliny—Agriopas—Story from
Petronius—Arcadian Legends—Explanation offered
CHAPTER III. THE WERE-WOLF IN THE NORTH
Norse Traditions—Manner in which the Change was effected—Vœlundar
Kvœda—Instances from the Völsung Saga—Hrolf’s Saga—Kraka—Faroëse
Poem—Helga Kvida—Vatnsdæla Saga—Eyrbyggja Saga
CHAPTER IV. THE ORIGIN OF THE SCANDINAVIAN WERE-WOLF
Advantage of the Study of Norse Literature—Bear and Wolf-skin
Dresses—The Berserkir—Their Rage—The Story of Thorir—Passages from the
Aigla—The Evening Wolf—Skallagrim and his Son-Derivation of the Word
“Hamr:” of “Vargr”—Laws affecting Outlaws—“To become a
Boar”—Recapitulation
CHAPTER V. THE WERE-WOLF IN THE MIDDLE AGES
Stories from Olaus Magnus of Livonian Were-wolves—Story from Bishop
Majolus—Story of Albertus Pericofcius—Similar occurrence at
Prague—Saint Patrick—Strange incident related by John of
Nüremberg—Bisclaveret—Courland Were-wolves—Pierre Vidal—Pavian
Lycanthropist—Bodin’s Stories—Forestus’ Account of a
Lycanthropist—Neapolitan Were-wolf
CHAPTER VI. A CHAPTER OF HORRORS
Pierre Bourgot and Michel Verdung—’Me Hermit of S. Bonnot—The Gandillon
Family—Thievenne Paget—The Tailor of Châlons—Roulet
Chapter VII. JEAN GRENIER
On the Sand-dunes—A Wolf attacks Marguerite Poirier—Jean Grenier
brought to Trial—His Confessions—Charges of Cannibalism proved—His
Sentence—Behaviour in the Monastery—Visit of Del’ancre
CHAPTER VIII. FOLK-LORE RELATING TO WERE-WOLVES
Barrenness of English Folk-lore—Devonshire Traditions—Derivation of
Were-wolf—Cannibalism in Scotland—The Angus Robber—The Carle of
Perth—French Superstitions—Norwegian Traditions—Danish Tales of
Were-wolves—Holstein Stories—The Werewolf in the Netherlands—Among the
Greeks; the Serbs; the White Russians; the Poles; the Russians—A
Russian Receipt for becoming a Were-wolf—The Bohemian Vlkodlak—Armenian
Story—Indian Tales—Abyssinian Budas—American Transformation Tales—A
Slovakian Household Tale—Similar Greek, Béarnais, and Icelandic Tales
CHAPTER IX. NATURAL CAUSES OF LYCANTHROPY
Innate Cruelty—Its Three Forms—Dumollard—Andreas Bichel—A Dutch
Priest—Other instances of Inherent Cruelty—Cruelty united to
Refinement—A Hungarian Bather in Blood—Suddenness with which the
Passion is developed—Cannibalism; in pregnant Women; in
Maniacs—Hallucination; how Produced—Salves—The Story of
Lucius—Self-deception
CHAPTER X. MYTHOLOGICAL ORIGIN OF THE WERE-WOLF MYTH
Metempsychosis—Sympathy between Men and Beasts—Finnbog and the
Bear—Osage and the Beaver—The Connexion of Soul and Body—Buddism—Case
of Mr. Holloway—Popular ideas concerning the Body—The derivation of the
German Leichnam—Feather Dresses—Transmigration of Souls—A Basque
Story—Story from the Pantschatantra—Savage ideas regarding Natural
Phenomena—Thunder, Lightning, and Cloud—The origin of the Dragon—John
of Bromton’s Dragon a Waterspout—The Legend of Typhoeus—Allegorizing of
the Effects of a Hurricane—Anthropomorphosis—The Cirrus Cloud, a
Heavenly Swan—Urvaci—The Storm-cloud a Daemon—Vritra and
Rakschasas—Story of a Brahmin and a Rakschasas
CHAPTER XI. THE MARÉCHAL DE REZT I: THE INVESTIGATION OF CHARGES
Introduction—History of Gilles de Laval—The Castle of
Machecoul—Surrender of the Marshal—Examination of Witnesses—Letter of
De Retz—The Duke of Brittany reluctant to move—The Bishop of Nantes
CHAPTER XII. THE MARÉCHAL DE REZT II: THE TRIAL
The Appearance of the Marshal—Pierre de l’Hospital—The Requisition—The
Trial adjourned—Meeting of the Marshal and his Servants—The Confession
of Henriet—Pontou persuaded to confess all—The adjourned Trial not
hurried on—The hesitation of the Duke of Brittany
CHAPTER XIII. MARÉCHAL DE RETZ III: THE SENTENCE AND EXECUTION
The adjourned Trial—The Marshal Confesses—The Case handed over to the
Ecclesiastical Tribunal—Prompt steps taken by the Bishop—The
Sentence—Ratified by the Secular Court—The Execution
CHAPTER XIV. A GALICIAN WERE-WOLF
The Inhabitants of Austrian Galicia—The Hamlet of Polomyja—Summer
Evening in the Forest—The Beggar Swiatek—A Girl disappears—A School-boy
vanishes—A Servant-girl lost—Another Boy carried of—The Discovery made
by the Publican of Polomyja—Swiatek locked up—Brought to Dabkow—Commits
suicide
Chapter XV. ANOMALOUS CASE—THE HUMAN HYENA
Ghouls—Story from Fornari—Quotation from Apuleius—Incident mentioned by
Marcassus—Cemeteries of Paris violated—Discovery of Violator—Confession
of M. Bertrand
CHAPTER XVI. A SERMON ON WERE-WOLVES
The Discourses of Dr. Johann—The Sermon—Remarks
THE BOOK OF WERE-WOLVES.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
I shall never forget the walk I took one night in Vienne, after having
accomplished the examination of an unknown Druidical relic, the Pierre
labie, at La Rondelle, near Champigni. I had learned of the existence
of this cromlech only on my arrival at Champigni in the afternoon, and
I had started to visit the curiosity without calculating the time it
would take me to reach it and to return. Suffice it to say that I
discovered the venerable pile of grey stones as the sun set, and that I
expended the last lights of evening in planning and sketching. I then
turned my face homeward. My walk of about ten miles had wearied me,
coming at the end of a long day’s posting, and I had lamed myself in
scrambling over some stones to the Gaulish relic.
A small hamlet was at no great distance, and I betook myself thither,
in the hopes of hiring a trap to convey me to the posthouse, but I was
disappointed. Few in the place could speak French, and the priest, when
I applied to him, assured me that he believed there was no better
conveyance in the place than a common charrue with its solid wooden
wheels; nor was a riding horse to be procured. The good man offered to
house me for the night; but I was obliged to decline, as my family
intended starting early on the following morning.
Out spake then the mayor—“Monsieur can never go back to-night across
the flats, because of the—the—” and his voice dropped; “the
loups-garoux.”
“He says that he must return!” replied the priest in patois. “But who
will go with him?”
“Ah, ha,! M. le Curé. It is all very well for one of us to accompany
him, but think of the coming back alone!”
“Then two must go with him,” said the priest, and you can take care of
each other as you return.”
“Picou tells me that he saw the were-wolf only this day se’nnight,”
said a peasant; “he was down by the hedge of his buckwheat field, and
the sun had set, and he was thinking of coming home, when he heard a
rustle on the far side of the hedge. He looked over, and there stood
the wolf as big as a calf against the horizon, its tongue out, and its
eyes glaring like marsh-fires. Mon Dieu! catch me going over the marais
to-night. Why, what could two men do if they were attacked by that
wolf-fiend?”
“It is tempting Providence,” said one of the elders of the village;” no
man must expect the help of God if he throws himself wilfully in the
way of danger. Is it not so, M. le Curé? I heard you say as much from
the pulpit on the first Sunday in Lent, preaching from the Gospel.”
“That is true,” observed several, shaking their heads.
“His tongue hanging out, and his eyes glaring like marsh-fires!” said
the confidant of Picou.
“Mon Dieu! if I met the monster, I should run,” quoth another.
“I quite believe you, Cortrez; I can answer for it that you would,”
said the mayor.
“As big as a calf,” threw in Picou’s friend.
“If the loup-garou were _only_ a natural wolf, why then, you see”—the
mayor cleared his throat—“you see we should think nothing of it; but,
M. le Curé, it is a fiend, a worse than fiend, a man-fiend,—a worse
than man-fiend, a man-wolf-fiend.”
“But what is the young monsieur to do?” asked the priest, looking from
one to another.
“Never mind,” said I, who had been quietly listening to their patois,
which I understood. “Never mind; I will walk back by myself, and if I
meet the loup-garou I will crop his ears and tail, and send them to M.
le Maire with my compliments.”
A sigh of relief from the assembly, as they found themselves clear of
the difficulty.
“Il est Anglais,” said the mayor, shaking his head, as though he meant
that an Englishman might face the devil with impunity.
A melancholy flat was the marais, looking desolate enough by day, but
now, in the gloaming, tenfold as desolate. The sky was perfectly clear,
and of a soft, blue-grey tinge; illumined by the new moon, a curve of
light approaching its western bed. To the horizon reached a fen,
blacked with pools of stagnant water, from which the frogs kept up an
incessant trill through the summer night. Heath and fern covered the
ground, but near the water grew dense masses of flag and bulrush,
amongst which the light wind sighed wearily. Here and there stood a
sandy knoll, capped with firs, looking like black splashes against the
grey sky; not a sign of habitation anywhere; the only trace of men
being the white, straight road extending for miles across the fen.
That this district harboured wolves is not improbable, and I confess
that I armed myself with a strong stick at the first clump of trees
through which the road dived.
This was my first introduction to were-wolves, and the circumstance of
finding the superstition still so prevalent, first gave me the idea of
investigating the history and the habits of these mythical creatures.
I must acknowledge that I have been quite unsuccessful in obtaining a
specimen of the animal, but I have found its traces in all directions.
And just as the palæontologist has constructed the labyrinthodon out of
its foot-prints in marl, and one splinter of bone, so may this
monograph be complete and accurate, although I have no chained
were-wolf before me which I may sketch and describe from the life.
The traces left are indeed numerous enough, and though perhaps like the
dodo or the dinormis, the werewolf may have become extinct in our age,
yet he has left his stamp on classic antiquity, he has trodden deep in
Northern snows. has ridden rough-shod over the mediævals, and has
howled amongst Oriental sepulchres. He belonged to a bad breed, and we
are quite content to be freed from him and his kindred, the vampire and
the ghoul. Yet who knows! We may be a little too hasty in concluding
that he is extinct. He may still prowl in Abyssinian forests, range
still over Asiatic steppes, and be found howling dismally in some
padded room of a Hanwell or a Bedlam.
In the following pages I design to investigate the notices of
were-wolves to be found in the ancient writers of classic antiquity,
those contained in the Northern Sagas, and, lastly, the numerous
details afforded by the mediæval authors. In connection with this I
shall give a sketch of modern folklore relating to Lycanthropy.
It will then be seen that under the veil of mythology lies a solid
reality, that a floating superstition holds in solution a positive
truth.
This I shall show to be an innate craving for blood implanted in
certain natures, restrained under ordinary circumstances, but breaking
forth occasionally, accompanied with hallucination, leading in most
cases to cannibalism. I shall then give instances of persons thus
afflicted, who were believed by others, and who believed themselves, to
be transformed into beasts, and who, in the paroxysms of their madness,
committed numerous murders, and devoured their victims.
I shall next give instances of persons suffering from the same passion
for blood, who murdered for the mere gratification of their natural
cruelty, but who were not subject to hallucinations, nor were addicted
to cannibalism.
I shall also give instances of persons filled with the same
propensities who murdered and ate their victims, but who were perfectly
free from hallucination.