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Title: The Origin of the Werewolf Superstition
Author: Stewart, Caroline Taylor
Language: English
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THE ORIGIN OF THE WEREWOLF SUPERSTITION.[1]
[1] NOTE.—After the author had written the following article,
she gathered most of the material contained in the notes. That
the origin and development of the use of masks as given in
the Annual Report of the United States Bureau of Ethnology,
1881-82, p. 73 fol. (see note 32) is similar to the origin and
development of the werewolf superstition itself, as given in
the following pages, was an unexpected coincidence. The author
has italicized some words in the quotations.
The belief that a human being is capable of assuming an animal’s form,
most frequently that of a wolf, is an almost worldwide superstition.
Such a transformed person is the Germanic werewolf, or man-wolf; that
is, a wolf which is really a human being.[2] So the werewolf was a
man in wolf’s form or wolf’s dress,[2] seen mostly at night,[3] and
believed generally to be harmful to man.[4]
[2] According to Mogk, in Paul’s Grundriss der germanischen
Philologie III. 272 _wer_ means “man,” found in Old Saxon,
Anglo-Saxon, Old High German, and werewolf a man in wolf’s
form. Kögel connects _wer_ with Gothic _wasjan_ “kleiden.”
“Darum bedeutet _werwolf_ eigentlich Wolfsgewand úlfshamr;
ähnlich bedeutet vielleicht _berserkr_ Bärengewand,” therefore
werewolf according to Kögel means a wolf’s dress. See also
Schrader, Reallexikon der indogermanischen Altertumskunde.
[3] Post p. 24.
[4] Encyclopaedia Britannica, XV. 90 fol., 1883:—Beastform in
mythology proper is far oftener assumed for malignant than for
benignant ends. See note 52.
The origin of this werewolf superstition has not been satisfactorily
explained. Adolf Erman[5] explains the allusion of Herodotus[6] to the
transformation of the Neurians (the people of the present Volhynia, in
West Russia) into wolves as due merely to their appearance in winter,
dressed in their furs. This explanation, however, would not fit similar
superstitions in warm climes. Others ascribe the origin of lycanthropy
to primitive Totemism, in which the totem is an animal revered by the
members of a tribe and supposed to be hostile to their enemies.[7]
Still another explanation is that of a leader of departed souls as the
original werewolf.[8]
[5] Reise um die erde durch Nordasien, Berlin, 1833, I. 232.
[6] Herodotus says of the Neurians, that among Scythians and
Greeks settled in Scythia they pass for magicians, because once
a year every Neurian becomes a wolf for a few days, and then
resumes the human form. See concerning this also Hirt, Die
Indogermanen, I. 120.
[7] Encyclopaedia Britannica, XXIII. 467 fol.
[8] Note 102, also see note 22.
The explanation of the origin of the belief in werewolves must be one
which will apply the world over, as the werewolf superstition is found
pretty much all over the earth,[9] especially to-day[10] however in
Northwest Germany and Slavic lands; namely, in the lands where the
wolf is most common.[11][12] According to Mogk[13] the superstition
prevails to-day especially in the north and east of Germany.[14]
[9] See also Mogk in Paul’s Grundriss, III. 272. Dr. Rud.
Leubuscher, Über die Wehrwölfe und Thierverwandlungen im
Mittelalter, Berlin, 1850, mentions cases in ancient Arcadia,
in Arabia, Abyssinia (hyenas), and the almost epidemic disease
in the Middle Ages. Dr. W. Hertz, Der Werwolf, Stuttgart,
1862, ascribes the superstition to Armenia, Egypt, Abyssinia
(hyenas), Greece (pages 20-28), but not to India, contrary to
Encyc. Brit. below; on p. 133 he says: “Tierverwandlungen sind
allgemein menschlich, finden wir überall. Die eigentümliche
Entwicklung der Werwolfsagen aber finden wir vorzugsweise
bei einer bestimmten Völkergruppe, den arischen Stämmen der
Griechen, Römer, Kelten, Germanen und Slaven; bei den südwärts
gezogenen Stämmen der Inder und Iranier sind uns gleiche
Sagen nicht begegnet [but see below]. Am massenhaftesten
treten die Werwölfe bei den Slaven auf, und ihnen gehört die
älteste historische Erwähnung der Sage; viel älter aber ist
der Lykaon Mythus und arkadische Werwölfe”. According to
Andree, Ethnographische Parallelen und Vergleiche, Stuttgart,
1878, ss. 62-80, the superstition is found in every European
country (amongst Anglo-Saxons, English, French, Bretons, Poles,
Tschechs, Lithuanians, White Russians of Poland, inhabitants
of island Oesel, Russians, Italians, Portuguese, Provencal
peoples, Greeks, Kelts, in Asia, Africa, America; but not in
India nor Persia, contrary to Encyc. Brit. below), especially
though in northwestern Germany and in Slavic lands.
As to the American Indians, see Ethnological Report for
1880-81, p. 83, “From their close relations with wild animals
Indians’ stories of transformations into beasts and beasts
into men are numerous and interesting.... In times of peace,
during the long winter evenings, some famous storyteller told
of those days in the past when men and animals could transform
themselves at will and hold converse with one another.”
Jacob Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, Bell & Sons, 1883, II. 668
says no metamorphosis occurs more frequently in Germanic
antiquities than that of men into werewolves. Thus Fenrisûlfr,
a son of Loki, makes his appearance in wolf’s shape among the
gods.
Encyc. Brit. XV. 89 fol., under the heading Lycanthropy,
states:—A belief firmly rooted among all savages is that
men are in certain circumstances transformed temporarily or
permanently into wolves and other inferior animals. In Europe
the transformation into a wolf is by far more prominent and
frequent (amongst Greeks, Russians, English, Germans, French,
Scandinavians). Belief in metamorphosis into the animal most
prominent in any locality itself acquires a special prominence.
Thus the were-_wolf_ prevails in Europe, also in England,
Wales, Ireland; and in S. France, the Netherlands, Germany,
Lithuania, Bulgaria, Servia, Bohemia, Poland, Russia, he can
hardly be pronounced extinct now (see note 12). In Denmark,
Sweden, Norway and Iceland the _bear_ competes with the wolf
for pre-eminence. In Persia the _bear_ is supreme; in Japan the
_fox_; in India the _serpent_ vies with the _tiger_ (contrary
to Mogk in Paul’s Grd., III. 272, who says:—“Nur Griechen,
Römer, Kelten, Germanen, Slaven unter den indogermanischen
Völkern kennen den Werwolf, den Indern und Iraniern ist er
unbekannt.” Compare notes 6 and 9, Hertz, p. 133); in Abyssinia
and Borneo the _hyena_ with the _lion_; in E. Africa the _lion_
with the _alligator_; in W. Africa the _leopard_ is perhaps
most frequently the form assumed by man; among the Abipones the
_tiger_, among the Arawaks the _jaguar_, etc.
In Brockhaus’ Konversations-Lexikon, for the Middle Ages the
werewolf belief is ascribed to all Slavic, Keltic, Germanic and
Romanic peoples; found to-day especially in Volhynia and White
Russia.
Paul, Grundriss, III. 272:—Bei den Angelsachsen lässt sich der
Werwolf im 11. Jahrh. nachweisen: Knut befahl den Priestern,
ihre Herden vor dem werewulf zu schirmen.... Das älteste
Zeugnis auf deutschem Gebiete vom Werwolf ist vom Burchard v.
Worms (11 century).
[10] See note 9.
[11] Encyc. Brit. XV. 89 fol.:—There can nowhere be a living
belief in contemporary metamorphosis into any animal which
has ceased to exist in the particular locality. Belief in
metamorphosis into the animal most prominent in any locality
itself acquires a special prominence. (See note 12.) In none
of these cases however is the power of transformation limited
exclusively to the prominent and dominant animal.
[12] Encyc. Brit. XXIV. 628 fol. under _Wolf_:—The wolf is
found in nearly the whole of Europe and Asia, North America
from Greenland to Mexico, the Indian peninsula, but not in
Ceylon, Burmah or Siam; and not in South America or Africa, in
the two latter jackals instead.
Meyer’s Kleines konversations-lexikon:—Der wolf “ist häufig
in Ost- und Nordeuropa, Mittel- und Nordasien, Nordamerika,
seltener in Frankreich und Belgien, den Herden gefährlich,
besonders in Russland.” Encyc. Brit., XXIV under _Wolf_:—In
northern countries the wolf is generally larger and more
powerful than in the southern portion of its range. Its habits
are similar everywhere. It has from time immemorial been known
to man in all the countries it inhabits as the devastator of
his flocks of sheep. It has speed and remarkable endurance.
They usually assemble in troops or packs, except in summer, and
by their combined and persevering efforts are able to overpower
and kill even such great animals as the American bison.
Children and even grown people are not infrequently attacked by
them when pressed for hunger. The ferocity of the wolf in the
wild state is proverbial. Even when tamed, they can rarely be
trusted by strangers.
[13] Paul, Grundriss, III. 272.
[14] Gustav Freytag, Bilder aus neuer zeit, Leipzig, 1904, p.
275 fol., speaking of the Polish borderlands, says: “Noch lebte
das Landvolk in ohnmächtigem Kampf mit den Heerden der Wölfe,
wenig Dörfer, welchen nicht in jedem Winter Menschen und Thiere
decimirt wurden,” and in the same note 2, pp. 275-6:—“Als 1815
die gegenwärtige Provinz Posen an Preussen zurückfiel, waren
auch dort die Wölfe eine Landplage. Nach Angaben der Posener
Provinzialblätter wurden im Regierungsbezirk Posen vom 1. Sept.
1815 his Ende Februar 1816, 41 Wölfe erlegt, noch im Jahre 1819
im Kreise Wongrowitz 16 Kinder und 3 Erwachsene von Wölfen
gefressen.”
The werewolf superstition is an old one, a primitive one.[15] The
point in common everywhere is the transformation of a living human
being into an animal, into a wolf in regions where the wolf was
common[16] into a lion, hyena or leopard in Africa, where these animals
are common; into a tiger or serpent in India;[17] in other localities
into other animals characteristic of the region.[18] Among Lapps
and Finns occur transformations into the bear, wolf, reindeer, fish
or birds; amongst many North Asiatic peoples, as also some American
Indians, into the bear; amongst the latter also into the fox, wolf,
turkey or owl; in South America, besides into a tiger or jaguar,
also into a fish, or serpent. Most universal though it seems was the
transformation into wolves or dogs.[19]
[15] Thus in note 6 was mentioned Herodotus’ (484-425 B. C.)
statement about the Neurians. The oldest werewolf legend,
according to Hertz, is that of Lykaon, the son of Pelasgos,
the first king of ancient Arcadia. These Arcadians lived as
huntsmen and shepherds. According to J. Oppert (Andree, p. 65;
and notes 6 and 9) the werewolf superstition existed amongst
the Assyrians; and Andree states, the oldest Hellenic werewolf
myth is found in Pausanias (died 467 B. C). In the Norse “Edda”
we find Odin’s wolves, also Sköll, Hati and Fenrir. In the
Völsunga Saga, Sigmund and Sinfjötli become wolves. For other
reflections of the fear in which wolves were held, see the
10th century ms. of the “Wiener Hundesegen” against male and
female wolves (Braune, Althochdeutsches Lesebuch, 6. aufl.
1907, p. 85). Jacob Grimm,—Geschichte der deutschen sprache
s. 233:—“Unsere thierfabel stellt vortrefflich das gebannte
raubthier des waldes dar, und lehrt die nähe des wolfs und
fuchses.”
C. Lemcke, Aesthetik, 6. aufl. II. 1890, s. 562:—“In die
ältesten Zeiten hinauf reicht auch bei Jägervölkern die
Tiersage, in ihrer Weise zum Teil die Eigentümlichkeiten der
Tiere erklärend, ihr Gebahren erzählend. Die furchtbaren und
die listigen Tiere boten sich am besten dar.... Wo die Menschen
städtisch beisammen wohnen, bleibt Tier Tier; wo sie einsamer
mit Tieren leben, bekommen diese eine höhere Bedeutung. So wird
dem Wäldler Bär und Wolf zum ebenbürtigen Räuber und Kämpfer,
menschlicher aufgefasst zum Gegner voll Mut, List, Rachsucht,
der Gedanken hat wie der Mensch selbst.”
[16] Volhynia, Europe, Northern Asia. Formerly, according to
Andree, p. 65, the wolf was as common throughout Europe as it
is to-day in Russia. Hirt, Die Indogermanen, I. 187, says: “Der
Wolf ist überall in Europa verbreitet gewesen, der Bär ist aber
ganz sicher ein Waldtier.”
[17] Note 9.
[18] Cf. note 9, Encyc. Brit.
[19] Leubuscher, p. 1:—Weil die Verwandlung vorzugsweise in
Hunde und Wölfe geschehen sollte, so erhielt die Krankheit den
namen Lykanthropie.
As the superstition is so widespread—Germany, Eastern Europe, Africa,
Asia, America, it either arose at a very early time, when all these
peoples were in communication with each other[20] or else, in accord
with another view of modern science, it arose independently in various
continents in process of the natural psychical development of the human
race under similar conditions.
[20] Or as Mogk in Paul’s Grd., III. 272 expresses it, for
example amongst the West Indogermanic peoples when they still
formed a whole, as shepherds, by whom the wolf as robber of
herds was especially feared. Leubuscher, p. 55 writes: “Die
meisten Lykanthropen waren Hirten, die im Freien lebten,
mit Tieren viel verkehrten, und der Wolf schwebte ihrer
Einbildungskraft am öftersten vor, weil sie am meisten damit
zu kämpfen hatten. Wenn das Gespenst des Wehrwolfes sich in
Einzelnen als Krankheit erhob, war die Gegend wahrscheinlich
von Wölfen besonders beunruhigt worden, und wahrscheinlich
manche Mordthat nur von Wölfen begangen.” Ethn. Rep. 1888-89,
p. 282:—“The Dakotas have long believed in the appearance
from time to time of a monstrous animal that swallows human
beings. The superstition was perhaps suggested by the bones of
mastodons, often found in the territory of those Indians.”
The origin of the superstition must have been an old custom of
primitive man’s of putting on a wolf’s or other animal’s skin[21]
or dress, or a robe.[22] Thus Leubuscher,[23] says: “Es ist der
Mythenkreis eines jeden Volkes aus einfachen wahren Begebenheiten
hervorgewachsen.”[24][25] Likely also the notion of attributing speech
to animals originated from such disguising or dressing of men as
animals. In the following we shall examine into primitive man’s reasons
for putting on such a skin or robe.
[21] Ethn. Rep. 1893-94, p. 267:—In celebrations it is
possible that the foxskin so universally worn by the animistic
personifications is a survival comparable with the skin of the
animal in which formerly the whole body was clothed.
[22] Hertz, p. 17, gives the origin as follows: “In der
ältesten Naturreligion ist die Gottheit des Todes und der
winterlichen Erde als Wolf gedacht. Ihre Priester trugen wohl
in der Vorzeit Wolfsfelle und hatten nach dem Volksglauben
die Gabe, sich in das Tier der Gottheit zu verwandeln. Der
Wolf, als das schnelle, kampfgewandte Tier, war zum raschen
Zurücklegen weiter Wege und zur Erlegung von Feinden besonders
geeignet. Darum nahmen die Götter und die zauberbegabten
Menschen zu solchen Zwecken Wolfsgestalt. Der Wolf ist von
Natur gefährlich und wurde darum als diabolisch gedacht, und
beim Werwolfe auch ist Drang nach Mord und Zerstörung die
Hauptsache. Die Ursprünge des Werwolfglaubens waren also 1.
religiöse Vorstellungen, 2. Rechtsvorstellung (der friedlose
Mörder ist ein Wolf bei Griechen und Germanen); 3. die
Geisteskrankheit der Lykanthropie.” Page 51. “Die Verwandlung
in Wölfe geschieht vorzugsweise durch Wolfshemden.” Page 57:
“Dass die von allem menschlichen Verkehr abgeschnittenen
Waldflüchtigen sich in Tierfelle kleideten, ist nahe liegend.”
[23] Page 46. See also note 9.
[24] Similarly Dilthey, Erlebnis und Dichtung, 1906, p.
153 fol.;—“Ist so die Einbildungskraft in Mythos und
Götterglauben, zunächst gebunden an das Bedürfnis des Lebens,
so sondert sie sich doch allmählich im Verlauf der Kultur von
den religiösen Zweckbeziehungen und erhebt jene zweite Welt
zu einer unabhängigen Bedeutsamkeit”—like Homer, Dante, etc.
See note 20, close, and Encyc. Brit., Lycanthropy:—“Insane
delusions must reflect the usages and beliefs of
contemporaneous society.”
[25] Notes 20, 21 and 27.
Primitive man was face to face with animal foes, and had to conquer
them or be destroyed. The werewolf superstition in Europe arose
probably while the Greeks, Romans, Kelts and Germanic peoples were
still in contact with each other, if not in the original Indo-Germanic
home, for they all have the superstition (unless, as above, we prefer
to regard the belief as arising in various localities in process of
psychical development under similar conditions; namely, when people
still lived principally by the chase.[26]) Probably the primitive
Indo-European man before and at the time of the origin of the werewolf
superstition, was almost helpless in the presence of inexorable nature.
This was before he used metal for weapons. The great business of life
was to secure food. Food was furnished from three sources, roots,
berries, animals, and the most important of these was animals.[27]
Without efficient weapons, it was difficult to kill an animal of any
size, in fact the assailant was likely himself to be killed. Yet
primitive man had to learn to master the brute foe. Soon he no longer
crouched in sheltered places and avoided the enemy, but began to watch
and study it, to learn its habits, to learn what certain animals would
do under certain circumstances, to learn what would frighten them away
or what would lure them on. So at least the large animals were to early
man a constant cause of fear and source of danger; yet it was necessary
to have their flesh for food and their skins for clothing.[28]
[26] See note 15.
[27] Grinnell, Story of the indian, p. 54, says:—Traces of the
fear in which buffalo “were held may still be discovered in the
traditional stories of certain tribes, which set forth how, in
those days,” [i. e. in the stone age] “before men were provided
with arms, the buffalo used to chase, kill, and eat the
people. Such tales show very clearly how greatly the buffalo
were dreaded in ancient times, and such fear could hardly
have arisen save as the result of actual experience of their
power to inflict injury and death.” Pliny informs us how the
Romans kept the wolf out of their fields, see Grimm, Teutonic
Mythology, III. 1241. Whether the Indians lived on the steppes,
in the woods, on the coast, or in the mountains, the animals
were their whole study. They moved with the animals, followed
them for food.
[28] Note 27.
Very soon various ingenious contrivances were devised for trapping
them. No doubt one primitive method was the use of decoys to lure
animals into a trap. Some could be lured by baits, others more easily
by their kind. Occasionally masks were used,[29] and similarly, another
form of the original decoy was no doubt simply the stuffed skin of a
member of the species, whether animal or bird, say for example a wild
duck.[30] Of course the hunter would soon hit on the plan of himself
putting on the animal skin, in the case of larger animals; that is, an
individual dressed for example in a wolf’s skin could approach near
enough to a solitary wolf to attack it with his club, stone or other
weapon, without exciting the wolf’s suspicion of the nearness of a
dangerous foe.[31] So the animal disguise, entire or partial, was used
by early man acting in the capacity of a decoy, firstly, to secure
food and clothing. Secondly, he would assume animal disguise, whole
or partial, in dancing and singing; and both these accomplishments
seem to have arisen from the imitation of the motions and cries of
animals,[32] at first to lure them, when acting as a decoy. With growth
of culture came growth of supernaturalism, and an additional reason for
acquiring dance and song was to secure charms against bodily ills,[33]
and finally enlivenment.[34] In both dance and song, when used for a
serious purpose, the performers imagined themselves to be the animals
they were imitating,[35] and in the dance they wore the skins of the
animals represented.[36]
[29] Ethn. Rep. 1881-82, p. 122, note:—It seems that masks
were occasionally used as decoys.... Next to the otter the
most valuable animal in the estimation of the Kadiak men, is
the species of seal or sea-dog called by the Russians nerpa.
The easiest manner of taking it is to entice it toward the
shore. A fisherman, concealing the lower part of his body among
the rocks, puts on his head a wooden cap or rather casque
resembling the head of a seal and makes a noise like that
animal. The unsuspicious seal, imagining that he is about to
meet a partner of his own species, hastens to the spot and is
instantly killed. Compare note 57.
[30] Ethn. Rep. 1896-97, I. 132:—Bering Strait Eskimo stuff
rudely the skin of the bird called ptarmigan, and mount it upon
a stick which holds the head outstretched, then imitate the
call of the bird, which is trapped in the net attached to the
decoy. Other decoys are made by molding soft snow into the form
of a bird; for the ptarmigan, brown moss is put around the neck
for plumage. The call then brought the real birds.
[31] Thus G. B. Grinnell, Story of the Indian, p. 61, in his
description of the primitive Indians’ method of trapping
buffalo, says: “Some men went forth naked, others carried a
dress made of the entire skin of a buffalo, the head and horns
arranged like a buffalo head, while the rest of the skin hung
down over the wearer’s back,” etc. This “caller” went near to a
herd of buffalo, got them in pursuit of him, then led them into
the trap, a chute, or to a precipice, the fall from which often
proved fatal to the entire herd. Again, in Ethn. Rep. 1884-85,
p. 484, about Central Eskimo seal hunting, is stated: If a
hunter is close to an animal he imitates its movements. Some
utter sounds similar to those of a blowing seal. “The sealskin
clothing makes man and seal look so extremely alike that it is
difficult to distinguish one from the other at some distance.”
And on p. 508, about deer hunting: In a plain the Central
Eskimos carry guns on their shoulders, two men going together,
so as to resemble the antlers of a deer. The men imitate their
grunting. If they lie on the ground at some distance they
greatly resemble the animals themselves. According to Ross the
“inhabitants of Boothia imitate the appearance of the deer,
the foremost of two men stalking a herd bearing a deer’s head
upon his own.” Ethn. Rep. 1888-89, p. 534:—“The old manner of
hunting antelope and deer: the hunter would disguise himself by
covering his head with the head and skin of an antelope, and so
be enabled to approach the game near enough to use his bow and
arrow. In a similar manner the Hidatsa would mask themselves
with a wolfskin to enable them to approach buffalo.” Ethn. Rep.
1901-02, p. 439;—Two of the party of hunters (Zuñi) out after
deer “wear cotton shirts with sleeves to the elbow, the front
and back of the shirt being painted to represent as nearly
as possible the body of the deer; the hands and the arms to
the elbow and also the sleeves are colored to represent the
deer’s forelegs. Each wears the skin of a deer’s head over his
head.... In this dress the two huntsmen imitate as closely as
possible, even to the browsing, the game they would catch.”
[32] Ethn. Rep. 1897-98, I. 352:—“Tradition says the Iroquois
derived the music and action of the Buffalo dance while on
an expedition against the Cherokee, from the bellowing and
the movements of a herd of buffalo which they heard for the
first time ‘singing their favorite songs,’ i. e. bellowing and
snorting.” Also note 33.
[33] Ethn. Rep. 1897-98, I. 266, gives a song to prevent
frostbite. The wolf’s, deer’s, fox’s, opossum’s feet it is held
never become frostbitten. After each verse of the song, the
singer imitates the cry and the action of the animal. The words
used are archaic in form and may be rendered “I become a real
wolf, etc.” The song runs:
1. Tsûñ´ wa´ ‘ya-ya´ (repeated four times), wa+a! (prolonged
howl). The singer imitates a wolf pawing the ground with his
feet.
2. Tsûñ´-ka´ wi-ye´ (four times), sauh! sauh! sauh! sauh!
(imitating the call and jumping of a deer).
3. Tsûñ´-tsu´ ‘la-ya´ (four times), gaih! gaih! gaih! gaih!
(imitates barking and scratching of a fox).
4. Tsûñ´-sĭ´-kwa-ya´ (four times), kĭ+(imitates cry of the
opossum when cornered, and throws his head back as that animal
does when feigning death).
[34] Ethn. Rep. 1881-82, p. 323, about the Omaha Coyote dance
performed by warriors whenever it was thought necessary to keep
up their spirits, in which each had his robe about him and
imitated the actions of the coyote, trotting, glancing around,
etc. Page 348 describes the Omaha Buffalo dance, in which each
of four men used to put the skin of a buffalo over his head,
the horns standing up, and the hair of the buffalo head hanging
down below the chest of the wearer. The various movements of
the buffalo were imitated by the dancers. Pages 348-349, the
Omaha wolf dance, by the society of those who have supernatural
communication with wolves. The dancers wear wolfskins, and
dance in imitation of the actions of wolves. Similarly they
performed the grizzly bear dance, horse dance, etc.
[35] Notes 22, 34 and 37.
[36] See notes 34 and 37.
Probably as long as animal form, partial or entire, was assumed merely
for decoys and sport (early dancing),[37] for peaceful purposes
therefore, such people having whole or partial animal shape were not
regarded as harmful to man,[38] just as wise women began to pass
for witches only when with their art they did evil.[39] A similar
development can be traced in the case of masks.[40] It was some time
before man could cope with food- and clothing-furnishing animals that
were dangerous to life, though these are the ones he first studied;[41]
and we cannot presuppose that he disguised to represent them until he
could cope with them, since the original purpose of the disguise was
to secure food and clothing. Thus far then we see whole or partial
disguise as animals used to secure _food_ and _clothing_ when acting as
decoys to lure animals; and in _dancing_.[42]
[37] Similarly in the use of masks (see note 57). See Wundt,
Völkerpsychologie II. i. 412 fol., and in regard to this
Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, XXXVIII. 1906, ss.
558-568:—“Der maskierte mensch ist der ekstatische Mensch.
Mit dem anlegen der maske versetzt er sich in ekstase, fühlt
er sich in fremde lebensvorgänge ein, eignet er sich das wesen
an, mit dem er sich durch die maske identificiert.” Für den
naiven menschen, wie für das kind, ist die maske durchaus
nicht blosser schein, sondern wirkender charakter. Der
augenblickstanz wurde zum zaubertanz. Die naturvölker verwenden
ihre masken nur bei den feierlich-ernsten zaubertänzen, nicht
zu ihrer burlesken mimik; die tänzer sind in Tiermasken, etc.
[38] Amongst American Indians for example a man transformed
into a bear and vice versa is usually regarded as benevolent
(Ethn. Rep. 1880-81, p. 83). See, also, Grimm, Teutonic
Mythology, III. 1097:—In Norse accounts also we find
transformation into a bear, for the bear was regarded as
rational and was esteemed.
[39] Note 84.
[40] See note 57a.
[41] Notes 27 and 42.
[42] The important consideration in the mind of primitive
man was whether certain things were harmful or useful. See
Behaghel, Die deutsche Sprache, p. 98:—“Die grossen Tiere
und die mächtigen Bäume, die Tiere und Pflanzen, die für
die _Ernährung_ and _Bekleidung_ des Menschen von Bedeutung
sind, die Tiere, die sein Leben _bedrohen_, sie haben viel
früher sprachliche Bezeichnung gefunden, als der unscheinbare
Käfer im Sande, als die kleine Blume des Waldes. So kommt es,
dass die Namen der grösseren Tiere, der grossen Waldbäume,
der wichtigsten Getreidearten allen germanischer Stämmen
gemeinsam sind, einzelne sogar, wie _Wolf_, _Kuh_, _Ochse_,
_Birke_, _Buche_, _Erle_, _Gerste_ mit den Benennungen anderer
indogermanischer Völker übereinstimmen.” Doubtless animals
occupied their attention sooner than plants. See Wundt,
Völkerpsychologie, II. 412 fol., about the _maskentanz_:
“Überhaupt haben die Tiermotive weit früher Berücksichtigung
erfahren als die Pflanzenmotive.” See note 95.
Fourthly, primitive man would put on an animal’s skin or dress when
out as _forager_ (or robber) or _spy_, for the purpose of avoiding
detection by the enemy. The Pawnee Indians for example,[43] were called
by neighboring tribes _wolves_, probably not out of contempt, since it
may be doubted that an Indian feels contempt for a wolf any more than
he does for a fox, a rabbit, or an elk, but because of their adroitness
as scouts, warriors and stealers of horses; or, as the Pawnees think,
because of their great endurance, their skill in imitating wolves so
as to escape detection by the enemy by day or night; or, according to
some neighboring tribes, because they prowl like wolves[44], “have the
endurance of wolves, can travel all day and dance all night, can make
long journeys, living on the carcasses they find on their way, or on
no food at all.” ... And further, “The Pawnees, when they went on the
warpath, were always prepared to simulate wolves.... Wolves on the
prairie were too common[45] to excite remark, and at night they would
approach close to the Indian camps.” ... The Pawnee starting off on the
warpath usually carried a robe made of wolf skins, or in later times a
white blanket or a white sheet; and, at _night_, wrapping himself in
this, and getting down on his hands and knees, he walked or trotted
here and there like a wolf, having thus transformed himself into a
common object of the landscape. This disguise was employed by _day_ as
well, for reconnoissance.... While the party remained hidden in some
ravine or hollow, one Indian would put his robe over him and gallop to
the top of the hill on all fours, and would sit there on his haunches
looking all over the country, and anyone at a distance who saw him,
would take him for a wolf. It was acknowledged on all hands that the
Pawnees could imitate wolves best. “An Indian going into an enemy’s
country is often called a wolf,[46] and the sign for a scout is made up
of the signs _wolf_ and _look_.”[47] Should any scout detect danger, as
at _night_ when on duty near an encampment, he must give the cry of the
coyote.[48]
[43] G. B. Grinnell, Pawnee hero stories and folk-tales, N. Y.,
Scribners, 1893, p. 245, fol.
[44] Jacob Grimm, Geschichte der deutschen Sprache, s. 233: Ein
sabinischer stamm hiesz Hirpi (lat. _hirpus_ bedeutet _wolf_ in
sabinischer oskischer Mundart), weil den einwandernden ein wolf
führer geworden war, oder nach andrer sage sie wölfe gejagt
hatten und gleich wölfen raubten, d. h. im sinn des deutschen
ausdrucks friedlos waren.
[45] The werewolf story could arise only where the animal,
wolf, tiger or lion, etc., was common; and likewise the
werewolf tales gradually died out when the animals became rare
or extinct. See note 11.
[46] Grinnell, p. 245.
[47] The Watusi of East Africa distinctly describe all wild
beasts save their own totem-animals as _enemy-scouts_ (Encyc.
Brit. under Lycanthropy).
[48] Ethn. Rep. 1881-82, p. 323. See also Grinnell, Story of
the indian, p. 208: The wolf was believed, in the animals’
council, to be able to give the Indian the power to creep right
into the midst of the enemy’s camp without being seen.
The idea of the harmfulness to other men of a man in animal form or
dress became deeply seated now, when men in animal disguise began to
act not only as decoys for animals dangerous to life, but also as
scouts (robbers[49]—and later as possessors of supernatural power,
when growth of culture brought with it growth of supernaturalism[50]);
when people began to associate, for example, the wolf’s form with a
lurking enemy.[51]
[49] See note 53.
[50] See note 57-b.
[51] So originally the germanic god _Logi_ was not an evil
god. _Logi_ meant the natural force of fire; _Loki_ meant the
same, but the burly giant has been made a sly, seducing villain
(Grimm, Teut. Myth. I. 241). A son of Loki, Fenrisûlfr, appears
in wolf’s shape among the gods. Perhaps association with the
wolf is in part responsible for the transformation of Logi
(Loki) from a good to an evil god.
All uncivilized tribes of the world are continually on the defensive,
like our American Indian; they all no doubt on occasion have sent out
scouts who, like our American Indians, to avoid detection, assumed the
disguise of the animal most common to the special locality in question,
just as to-day they are known to disguise in animal skins for purposes
of plunder or revenge.[52][53]
[52] Encyc. Brit. under Lycanthropy:—In modern savage life we
find beastform of chiefs or spirits, medicine men, some hunt in
beast form for the community; others are said to assume beast
form in order to avenge themselves justly on enemies; others
for love of bloodshed and cannibalism. See also note 58.
[53] No doubt some of these men disguised as wolves won
considerable fame through their skill and bravery, as we should
judge from such proper names as _Rudolf_, which means really
_Ruhmwolf_, _Ruhm_ related to Gothic _hropeigs_ “victorious,”
Sanskrit _kir_ “to praise”; or _Adolf_ from _Adalolf_, which
means _Edelwolf_, originally, therefore, _Edelräuber_, for
_wolf_ meant originally about the same as _robber_ (Kluge).
So _robber_ or _wolf_ was originally a highly respectable
appellation, at a time when men lived from robbery and the
chase, either as searobbers, or mountain robbers, etc. (about
this early profession see Hirt, Die Indogermanen, 1905, p. 268
fol.), and the profession was not looked on as a disgrace (see
appellation “wolves” applied to Pawnees, p. 12.). Later we find
such names as _Wulfila_ “little wolf.” Many Indian names are
those of animals, such as Good Fox, Good Bear, Walking Bear,
Conquering Bear, Rushing Bear, Stumbling Bear, Brave Bear, Bear
Rib, Smoking Bear, Biting Bear, Bear-Looks-Back, Cloud Bear,
Mad Bear, Mad Wolf, Lone Wolf, Lean Wolf, Wolf-Ear, Wolf-Robe,
etc. See Ethn. Rep. 1882-83, p. 169: The names of Indians very
often refer to some animal, predicating some attribute or
position of that animal. For discussion of names, see note 111.
The kind of animal makes no difference, the underlying principle is
the same; namely, the transformation of a living human being into an
animal. The origin of the belief in such a transformation, as stated
above[54] was the simple putting on of an animal skin by early man. The
object of putting on animal skins was,
[54] Ante p. 6.
(1) To gain food. For this purpose the motions and cries of animals
were imitated (origin of dancing and singing),[55] artificial decoys
(like decoy ducks to-day)[56] and finally even masks were used.[57]
[55] See (3) below.
[56] See ante p. 8.
[57] See note 4 and also Ethn. Rep. 1881-82, p. 73 fol. (see
note 37):—The use of masks is worldwide. The origin and
development of the use of masks is very much the same as
the origin and development of the werewolf as given in the
preceding pages. The wolfrobe and the mask, both originally
useful devices, degenerated in unscrupulous hands into
instruments for personal aggrandizement and gain. The use of
the mask is described in the above report as follows:
a). It was used as a shield or protection for the face, for
defense against physical violence, human or otherwise. It
was therefore first used merely as a mechanical resistance
to the opposing force; then secondly, still in the lowest
grade of culture, it was used to inspire terror, to gain a
moral influence over the opposing agent by hideousness or by
symbolizing superhuman agencies. Now individual variations
arose—devices for example derived or conventionalized from
some predatory, shrewd or mysterious animal.
b). With growth of culture came growth of supernaturalism, and
the mask came to be used in religious performances, as a part
of the religious paraphernalia, like the shirts or girdles of
the shamans. Ethn. Rep. 1896-97, I. 395:—“When worn in any
ceremonial, ... the wearer is believed to become mysteriously
and unconsciously imbued with the spirit of the being which his
mask represents.”
c). Finally the element of humor enters in, and the mask is
used for public amusements and games; by secret societies; as
protection against recognition on festive occasions, etc., like
the animal skins worn in dances.
(2) To secure clothing in cold climes by trapping or decoying animals,
as in (1) above.
(3) The imitation when decoying, of the motions of animals led to
dancing, and in the dances and various ceremonies the faces and bodies
of the participants were painted in imitation of the colors of birds
and animals, the motions of animals imitated and animal disguises
used.[58]
[58] Notes 32, 34, 33, ante p. 11.
(4) Scouts disguised themselves as animals when out foraging, as well
as for warfare,[59][60] therefore for booty, and self-defense. Either
they wore the entire skin, or probably later just a part of it as a
fetich, like the left hind foot of a rabbit, worn as a charm by many of
our colored people to-day.[61]
[59] See p. 13.
[60] Ethn. Rep. 1888-89, p. 503:—Account of “a cloak or mantle
made from the skin of a deer, and covered with various mystic
paintings. It was made and used by the Apaches as a mantle
of invisibility, that is, a charmed covering for spies which
would enable them to pass with impunity through the country,
and even through the camp of their enemies. In this instance
the fetichistic power depends upon the devices drawn.” The
Apache have a similar fetich or charm. The symbols drawn were
the raincloud, serpent lightning, raindrops and the cross of
the winds of the four cardinal points. Ethn. Rep. 1889-90, p.
515:—Among the Hidatsa (Sioux) fetiches are especially the
skins of the wolf. “When they go to war, they always wear the
stripe off the back of a wolf skin, with the tail hanging down
the shoulders. They make a slit in the skin through which the
warrior puts his head, so that the skin of the wolf’s head
hangs down upon his breast.” Finally the magic robes or shirts
and girdles came to be a part of the regular paraphernalia of
the shamans, or practisers of magic. In the folklore of all
countries we find numerous notices of holy girdles.
Ethn. Rep. 1897-98, I. (Cherokee) 393: “Some warriors had
medicine to change their shape as they pleased, so that they
could escape from their enemies.” Page 501: Such stories might
be paralleled in any tribe.
[61] See further development in note 64.
(5) For purposes of revenge,[62],[63] personal or other. For some other
personal motive of advantage or gain, to inspire terror in the opposing
agent by hideousness.
[62] Note 52.
[63] As an example of the motive of vengeance, or pure
brutality, we cite from Andree, p. 69:—People in the interior
of Africa who understand magic, transform themselves into lions
and go about killing people. See also below, note 65, where the
wolf-man of Abyssinia kills his enemy and sucks his blood, and
also kills other wolf-men it meets, the question being one of
the survival of the fittest, that is the strongest. All this
takes place at _night_, which reminds us of our Pawnee Indian
starting out at night in his wolf’s robe, and trotting up to
the hostile village to ascertain where his enemies’ horses
are tied, so as to steal them when all are asleep (Grinnell’s
Pawnee hero stories and folk-tales, p. 246, and pp. 70-73).
Ethn. Rep. 1887-88, p. 461:—“To recover stolen or lost
property, especially ponies, is one of the principal tasks
imposed upon the so-called medicine-men” (shamans).
(6) To inspire terror in the opposing agent by symbolizing superhuman
agencies.[64] So now would arise first a belief in superhuman power or
attributes,[65] and then,
[64] As superstition waxed strong, no doubt the wolf robe was
put on not merely to make the wearer look just like a common
object of the landscape, but also because the wearer of the
disguise was supposed to take on the characteristics of the
animal he represented (swiftness, boldness, etc.), as in the
case of masks (see note 57), and finally the wearer of such
a robe was believed to actually become transformed, like the
wearers of the werewolf shirt, for example in Germany. Wolves
were regarded as good hunters who never fail, Ethn. Rep.
1897-98, I. 280, also p. 264:—The wolf is revered by the
Cherokee as hunter and watchdog of Kanáti; therefore we can
understand how the wolf disguise, as conferring the quality of
unerring huntsmanship, might be in especial favor amongst those
who gained their food from the chase. Similarly the singing of
songs imitating the cries of certain animals was supposed to
confer a characteristic of the animal in question (see note 33).
Ethn. Rep. 1901-02, p. 394:—To gain animal characteristics a
wizard attached crow and owl plumes to his head that he might
have the eyes of the crow to see quickly the approach of man,
and the eyes of the owl to travel by night. He flapped his
arms, ... A Zuñi man hearing a cry like an owl, yet human,
looked about him and found a man whom he recognized as a Zuñi.
“Aha!” said he, “why have you those plumes upon your head? Aha,
you are a sorcerer,” etc.
An example of the transforming power of the _robe_ we find in
Bulletin 26, of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington,
1901, Kathlamet texts, p. 156 fol.:—A woman ate of some of the
fat of a bitch, gave birth to five male dogs and one female
dog. When they grew older, she discovered one day that they
could transform themselves into real children. While they were
down at the beach, she entered the house, and now she saw the
dog _blankets_. She took them and burnt them. Then the children
retained their human form (like Sigmund and Sinfjötli in the
Völsungasaga). Page 58 fol., is the Myth of the Elk, according
to which an old man transformed himself into an elk by putting
on an elkskin.
W. Golther, Handbuch der germanischen mythologie, 1895, p.
100, writes, “Die Fähigkeit von Leuten, die sich verwandeln
können, heisst ‘sich zu häuten, die Hülle zu wechseln’.
Das Umwerfen eines äusserlichen Gewandes kann den Wechsel
der Gestalt hervorbringen, wie Freyjas Federgewand, die
Schwan- und Krähenhemden der Valkyrjen, Odins Adlergewand.
Die Wolfsgewänder (úlfahamir) wenn angelegt, verwandeln
den Menschen zum Wolfe”. See also Meissner, Ritter Tiodel,
Zeitschrift für deutsches altertum, XLVII. 261.
[65] Ethn. Rep. 1901-02, p. 392:—The owner of fine beads fears
that some witch, prompted by jealousy, will strike him with
disease.
As another example of the pretended assumption of superhuman
powers to gain influence over others, we may cite the instances
given by Andree, p. 68 fol., according to which Livingston met
in Africa a native said to have power to transform himself
into a lion. As lion he would stay for days and months in the
_forest_, in a sacred hut, to which however his wife carried
beer and food for him, so we may judge that at least this lion
did not cause much devastation amongst the wild beasts. He was
able to reassume human form by means of a certain medicine
brought him by his wife. Again Andree, p. 69:—In Banana,
Africa, the members of a certain family transform themselves in
the _dark_ of the _forest_ into leopards. They throw down those
they meet in the forest, but dare not injure them nor drink
their blood, lest they remain leopards. (See note 83.)
The motive of personal gain is exemplified by our American
Indians, who put on a wolf’s mantle to steal, or to recover
stolen animals (Grinnell, Pawnee hero stories, p. 247, also the
story of robbery entitled Wolves in the night, p. 70 fol.).
Similarly in Abyssinia, Andree, p. 69, where the lowest caste
of laborers are believed to have power to transform themselves
into hyenas or other animals, as such, plundering graves. They
employ naturally various artifices to help along their cause,
since it yields such returns. They are reported to act like
other folk by day, at _night_ though to assume the ways of
wolves, kill their enemies and suck their blood, roaming about
with other wolves till morning. They are supposed to gain their
supernatural powers by a secret beverage made from herbs. They
are not likely to be discovered to be only sham animals, since
their roaming and plundering is done in the _night_; in the
daytime they of course conceal the animal skins (see Andree, p.
72).
Ethn. Rep. 1880-81, p. 68:—Among the Chaldeans, Egyptians and
Greeks, the success of magic depended upon the ignorance of the
masses and the comparative learning of the few who practised
it. Among the American Indians the medicine-man and the more
expert sorceress have little learning above that of the body of
the tribe, and their success depends entirely upon their own
belief in being supernaturally gifted, and upon the faith and
fear of their followers.
The Iroquois believed in people who could assume a partly
animal shape. See Grinnell, Blackfoot lodge tales, p. 79:—“An
old blind wolf with a powerful medicine cured a man, and made
his head and hands look like those of a wolf. The rest of his
body was not changed. He was called a man-wolf.”
(7) Witchcraft.[66] It is very easy to see why it was usually the
so-called medicine-men (more correctly Shamans), who claimed such
transformation power, because they received remuneration from their
patients.[67]
[66] Ethn. Rep. 1880-81, p. 73:—Witches could and did assume
animal shapes. For example a dog seen by a man which had fire
streaming from its mouth and nostrils. It was _night_. The man
shot at it, and the next morning tracked it by the marks of
blood from its wound. At a bridge a woman’s tracks took the
place of the dog’s, and finally he found the woman. She had
died from the effect of the shot. Page 73: Likewise a hog, when
pursued, disappeared at a small creek, and finally reappeared
as an old man, who said it was he, whom they had been chasing.
So they, the pursuers, knew he was a witch. Page 74: A Canadian
Indian one _evening_ pursued a white bull with fire streaming
from its nostrils. He had never seen a white bull on the
reservation before. “As it passed in front of a house it was
transformed into a man with a _large white blanket_, who was
ever afterward known as a witch.”
Ethn. Rep. 1901-02, p. 395:—A man going out at _night_ noticed
a queer-looking burro. Upon his return home he was told that a
large cat had entered the house. He went out again, discovered
a man wrapped in a blanket, but not in the Zuñi fashion, his
head was sunk low in the blanket. He knew this creature to be a
wizard.
Ethn. Rep. 1887-88, p. 458:—That the medicine man (Shaman)
has the faculty of transforming himself into a coyote and
other animals at pleasure and then resuming the human form, is
as implicitly believed in by the American Indians as it was
by our own forefathers in Europe. And page 459: The Abipones
of Paraguay credit their medicine-men with power to put on
the form of a tiger. The medicine-men of Honduras claimed the
power of turning themselves into lions and tigers. Also the
Shamans of the Nicaraguans possessed similar power. Hertz,
p. 133 fol.:—“In der christlichen Zeit wurde der heidnische
Cultus Teufelsanbetung und hier entstand mit dem Hexenglauben
die Vorstellung von Menschen, die sich mit Hilfe des Satans aus
reiner Mordlust zu Wölfen verwandeln. So wurde der Werwolf das
Bild des tierisch Dämonischen in der Menschennatur.”
[67] Ethn. Rep. 1887-88, p. 467:—The medicine-men of the
Apache are paid at the time they are consulted, the priest
beforehand among the Eskimo. Ethn. Rep. 1889-90, p. 187: “The
magnitude of the disease is generally measured by the amount
of the patient’s worldly wealth.” Page 416:—Sioux sorcerers
prepared love-potions for those who bought them. Ethn. Rep.
1901-2, p. 568:—“The shaman, like the theurgist is usually
paid after each visit with calico, cotton, or food, according
to the wealth of the family, since it is always understood
that these doctors expect proper compensation for their
services.” Page 387:—“The Zuñi doctor is paid according to his
reputation.” Grinnell, Blackfoot lodge tales, p. 284: “In early
days if a man remained sick for three or four weeks, all his
possessions went to pay doctors’ fees.”
Ethn. Rep. 1887-88, p. 462 fol.—The American Indian’s theory
of disease is the theory of the Chaldean, the Assyrian,
the Hebrew, the Greek, the Roman—all bodily disorders are
attributed to the maleficence of spirits (that is of animal
spirits, ghosts or witches), who must be expelled or placated.
Gibberish was believed to be more potential in magic than was
language which the practitioner or his dupes could comprehend.
Page 468:—The medicine-men are accused of administering
poisons to their enemies. Ethn. Rep. 1889-90, p. 416:—Sioux
sorcerers were thought to cause the death of those persons
who had incurred their displeasure. Ethn. Rep. 1887-88, p.
581:—“When an Apache or other medicine-man is in full regalia
he ceases to be a man, but becomes, or tries to make his
followers believe that he has become, the power he represents.”
The Mexican priests masked and disguised, and dressed in the
skins of the women offered up in sacrifice.
So the shaman practiced sorcery, medicine and was a priest.
Ethn. Rep. 1887-88, p. 594:—The Indian doctor relied far more
on magic than on natural remedies. Dreams, beating of the
drum, songs, magic feasts and dances, and howling were his
ordinary methods of cure. Grinnell, Story of the indian, p. 210
fol.:—They have “firm confidence in dreams.” “Their belief in
a future life is in part founded on dreams,” etc.
(8) Finally dreams[68] and exaggerated reports gave rise to fabulous
stories.[69]
[68] Note 67, close.
[69] An example of fabulous invention for pure personal gain
occurs Andree, p. 77: If the Greenlanders catch too many seal
at one place, the latter will take a terrible revenge. Assuming
human form, they attack their enemy in the _night_ at his
home. This is the transformation of an animal into a man, but
the inventor of the story was no doubt looking towards his
own gain. It is the same old fight for seal protection which
in another form is still going on to-day. Andree, p. 72. In
Siam stories are told of people who by magic formulae become
tigers and roam about at _night_ in search of booty. One of the
man-tigers was actually a priest.
We have discussed (1), (2), and (3);[70] for an example under (4) we
have cited the practices of American Indians.[71] It is probable that
about now (at the stage indicated in (4) above), what is known as the
real werewolf superstition (that of a frenzied, rabid manwolf) began
to fully develop. The man in wolf-skin was already a lurking thief
or enemy, or a destroyer of human life. To advance from this stage
to the werewolf frenzy, our primitive man must have seen about him
some exhibition of such a frenzy, and some reason for connecting this
frenzy particularly with, say the wolf. He did see insane persons,
and the connecting link would be the crazy or mad wolf (or dog, as
the transformation was usually into a wolf or dog,[72]) for persons
bitten by it usually went mad too.[73] The ensuing frenzy, with the
consternation it occasioned, soon appealed to certain primitive minds
as a good means of terrorizing others. Of these mad ones some no doubt
actually had the malady; others honestly believed they had it and got
into a frenzy accordingly; others purposely worked themselves up into a
frenzy in order to impose on the uninitiated.[74] Later, in the Middle
Ages, when the nature of the real disease came to be better understood,
the werewolf superstition had become too firmly fixed to be easily
uprooted.
[70] Ante pp. 7, 8, 9.
[71] Ante p. 12 fol.
[72] See notes 19 and 74.
[73] Grinnell, Blackfoot lodge tales, p. 283: “It is said that
wolves, which in former days were extremely numerous, sometimes
went crazy, and bit every animal they met with, sometimes even
coming into camps and biting dogs, horses and people. Persons
bitten by a mad wolf generally went mad, too. They trembled and
their limbs jerked, they made their jaws work and foamed at the
mouth, often trying to bite other people. When any one acted in
this way, his relatives tied him hand and foot with ropes, and,
having killed a buffalo, they rolled him up in the green hide,
built a fire on and around him, leaving him in the fire until
the hide began to dry and burn. Then they pulled him out and
removed the buffalo hide, and he was cured. This was the cure
for a mad wolf’s bite.”
[74] Sometimes the professionals even became possessed of a
monomania themselves, as in witchcraft. Andree goes into this
widespread disease or delusion (of the first century till
late in the middle ages), p. 76 fol.: “The sick” ones would
prowl about burial places _at night_, imagining themselves
to be _wolves_ or _dogs_, and go about barking and howling.
In the middle ages such people would even kill children and
grown people. When they came to themselves again, or were
cured, they claimed to know nothing of what had happened.
Ethn. Rep. 1888-89, p. 491: Amongst the Shamans feats of
jugglery or pretended magic rivaling or surpassing the best
of spiritualistic seances are recounted. Page 207: The use of
robes made of the hides of buffalo and other large animals,
painted with shamanistic devices, is mentioned. Page 235: The
speaker terms himself a wolf spirit, possessing peculiar power.
We have discussed (5), (6), (7), and (8) in the notes.[75] As further
examples of the development into fabulous story,[76] we may cite any of
those stories in which the wild werewolf, or animal-man is represented
as roaming the land, howling, robbing, and tearing to pieces men
and beasts, until he resumes his human form. Thus an early scout in
animal garb would be obliged to live on food he found on his way, and
later fabulous report would represent him as himself when in disguise
possessing the attributes of the animal he represented, and tearing to
pieces man and beast. For such an account see Andree,[77] concerning
what eyewitnesses reported of the wild reveling over corpses of the
hyena-men of Africa. Naturally the uninitiated savage who witnessed
such a sight would become insane, or at least would spread abroad
such a report as would enhance the influence of the hyena-men far and
wide. Some savages, as in Africa,[78] came to regard any animal that
robbed them of children, goats or other animals, as a witch in animal
form;[79] just as the American Indians ascribe to evil spirits death,
sickness and other misfortunes.
[75] Notes 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 69.
[76] See (8) above.
[77] Page 71.
[78] Andree, p. 69.
[79] Ethn. Rep. 1889-90, p. 263. gives the following story of
the origin of the wolf: “_The wolf_ was a poor woman, who had
so many children that she could not find enough for them to
eat. They became so gaunt and hungry that they were changed
into wolves, constantly roaming over the land seeking food.”
We can see how at first the man in animal disguise or an animal robe
would go quietly to work, like the Pawnee scout;[80] how though, as
soon as the element of magic enters in, he would try to keep up the
illusion. At this stage, when the original defensive measure had become
tainted with superstition, men would go about in the night time howling
and holding their vile revels.[81] Andree,[82] narrates how a soldier
in Northeast Africa shot at a hyena, followed the traces of blood and
came to the straw hut of a man who was widely famed as a magician. No
hyena was to be seen, only the man himself with a fresh wound. Soon
he died, however the soldier did not survive him long. Doubtless one
of the magician class was responsible for the death of the soldier,
just as we to-day put to death the man who so violates our laws, as to
become a menace to our society, or as formerly kings killed those who
stood in their way; or as religious sects murder those who dissent
from their faith. These magicians, supposed to be men who could assume
animal form, as a matter of fact do often form a class, are greatly
feared by other natives, often dwell with their disciples in caves and
at _night_ come forth to plunder and kill.[83] It is to their interest
to counterfeit well, for if suspected of being malevolent, they were
put to death or outlawed, like criminals to-day.[84] Their frenzies
were, as said above, in some cases genuine delusions; in other cases
they offered, as one may readily imagine, excellent opportunities for
personal gain or vengeance.[85]
[80] Ante p. 12 fol.
[81] Ethn. Rep. 1885-86, p. 152: It is impossible to imagine
the horrible howlings, and strange contortions that these
jugglers (shamans) or conjurers make of their bodies, when they
are disposing themselves to conjure.
[82] Page 71.
[83] Andree, p. 70, gives an account of the chief magician
(Abyssinia), who demands as yearly tribute of his subordinate
animal-men the teeth of the persons whom they have killed
during the year, with which he decorates his palace. See also
pp. 72, 75, etc.: Ethn. Rep. 1885-86, p. 151, about sorcery
among American Indians: Societies existed. The purposes of
the society are twofold; 1. To preserve the traditions of
Indian genesis and cosmogony, etc. 2. To give a certain class
of ambitious men and women sufficient influence through
their acknowledged power of exorcism and necromancy to lead
a comfortable life at the expense of the credulous. Page
162: “Each tribe has its medicine men and women, an order of
priesthood consulted and employed in all times of sickness. It
is to their interest to lead these credulous people to believe
that they can at pleasure hold intercourse with the munedoos,”
etc. Sometimes one family constitutes the class. See note 65;
Andree, p. 69.
[84] Grimm, Teut. Myth. III. 1104: To higher antiquity witches
were priestesses, physicians, fabulous _night_-wives, never
as yet persecuted. Maidens might turn into swans, heroes into
werewolves, and lose nothing in popular estimation. The abuse
of a spell was punished. A wise woman, healing sickness and
charming wounds, begins to pass for a witch only when with
her art she does evil. In course of time, when the Devil’s
complicity with every kind of sorcery came to be assumed, the
guilt of criminality fell upon all personal relations with him.
Ethn. Rep. 1901-2, p. 393: “Though the witch may be regarded as
all powerful, none but the poor and unfortunate are condemned.
Few others are even brought to trial—their prominence prevents
public accusation.” This again reminds us some of our customs;
namely, that of overlooking the transgressions of the rich and
powerful. See note 91, and for outlaws note 112.
[85] Such artificial frenzies had a serious effect upon the
body, and more particularly the eyes, so that many shamans
(Siberia, America, etc.) become blind.
Only by instilling in their fellows a firm belief in this superstition
and maintaining the sham, could the perpetrators of the outrages hope
to escape punishment for their depredations, could they hope to plunder
and steal with impunity.[86] So they prowled usually under the cloak
of _night_ or of the dark of the forest,[87] howled and acted like
the animals they represented, hid the animal skin or blanket, if they
used one,[88] in the daytime where they thought no one could find
it, whereas the animal skin which was worn for defence, was put on
either by day or night,[89] and one story recounts the swallowing of
a whole goat, the man bellowing fearfully like a tiger while he did
it.[90] Some of the transformed men claimed they could regain human
form only by means of a certain medicine or by rubbing. The imposters
were the criminal class of society that is still with us to-day,[91]
no longer in werewolf form, but after all wolves in human dress, each
maintaining his trade by deception and countless artifices, just as did
the werewolf of old. Not unlike these shams are those of the American
negro, who in church, when “shouting,” that is, when stirred up by
religious fervor, inflicts blows on his enemy who happens to be in the
church, of course with impunity; for he is supposed to be under some
outside control, and when the spell has passed off, like some of the
delusionists mentioned,[92] claims not to know what he (or generally
she) has done. Similar also are the negro voudoo ceremonies, those of
the fire-eaters, or any other sham.
[86] Encyc. Brit., XV. under Lycanthropy: In Prussia, Livonia
and Lithuania, according to two bishops, werewolves were in
the 16th century far more destructive than “true and natural
wolves.” They were asserted to have formed “an accursed
college” of those “desirous of innovations contrary to the
divine law.” Also see note 90.
[87] See ante p. 13, and notes 64, 65, 66, 69, 84, 102, 110.
[88] Note 22 close, and note 102.
[89] See ante p. 13.
[90] Andree, p. 72. This same tiger-man in Asia killed a
woman, whose husband set out in pursuit, followed him to his
house, got hold of him later in his man shape and killed him.
Feats similar to some performed by him are cited in Ethn. Rep.
1887-88, p. 470: The medicine-men of the Pawnee swallowed
arrows and knives, and also performed the trick of apparently
killing a man and bringing him back to life, like the Zuñi.
[91] Grimm, Rechtsalterthümer, II. 566: Hexen waren fast alle
aus der ärmsten und niedrigsten Volksklasse (see note 84).
Literary Digest, March 9, 1907, p. 378, article on Spiritualism
and Spirituality: “Many, very many, spiritualists seem to care
for communion with spirits only that they may more surely keep
physically well, and earn their bread and butter and clothing
the easier.” Encyc. Brit. under Lycanthropy: The absurdity of
the superstition would have much sooner appeared, but for the
theory that a werewolf when wounded resumed human shape; in
every case where one accused of being a werewolf was taken, he
was certain to be wounded, and thus the difficulty of his not
being found in beast form was satisfactorily disposed of.
[92] Notes 57 and 67.
The wolf disguise, or transformation into a werewolf was that most
often assumed for example in Germanic lands.[93] The term _wolf_
became synonymous with _robber_, and later (when the robber became an
outlaw,[94]) with _outlaw_, the robber and outlaw alike being called
wolf and not some other animal (i. e., only the wolf-man surviving to
any extent) firstly, because the wolf was plentiful; and secondly,
because as civilization advanced, there came a time when the wolf was
practically the only one of the larger undomesticated animals that
survived.[95] We can notice this in our own United States, for example
in eastern Kansas, where at night coyotes and even wolves are sometimes
heard howling out on the prairie near woodlands, or in the pastures
adjoining farms, where they not infrequently kill smaller animals, and
dig up buried ones.[96] In Prussia also it is the wolf that survives
to-day. American Indians, and other savages however do not restrict the
transformations to the wolf,[97] because other wild animals, are, or
were till recently, abundant amongst them. As civilization advances,
one by one the animal myths disappear with the animals that gave rise
to them (like that connected with the mastodon);[98] or else stories of
such domestic animals as the pig, white bull, dog superseded them.[99]
When this stage was reached, as time went on and means of successfully
coping with the brute creation became perfected, the animals were shorn
of many of their terrors, and finally such stories as Aesop’s fables
would arise.[100] This however was psychologically a long step in
advance of our were-wolf believing peoples of an earlier period.
[93] Notes 9 and 19.
[94] Note 112.
[95] See note 11, also Ethn. Rep. 1897-98, I. 263: “The deer,
which is still common in the mountains, was the principal
dependence of the Cherokee hunter, and is consequently
prominent in myth, folklore, and ceremonial.” see note 42.
Page 264: “The largest gens (clan) in the tribe bears the name
of ‘wolf people.’” Page 420: The Cherokee have always been an
agricultural people, and their old country has a luxuriant
flora, therefore the vegetable kingdom holds a far more
important place in the mythology and ceremonial of the tribe
than it does among the Indians of the treeless plains and arid
sage deserts of the West.
[96] The St. Louis “Westliche Post” for January 9, 1908,
furnishes another example: A tame wolf which for the past
two years has been a pet in a farmer’s family at Marshfield,
Wisconsin, escaped and attacked a chicken. The farmer’s
daughter called to the wolf, but it had become wild from the
taste of blood, attacked her, and bit her on both arms and one
leg. It held so fast that the young lady could not be released
until she had nearly choked the wolf with its collar.
Also the following clipping from the same paper, January 13,
1908, shows the prevalence of wolves to-day in even quite
populous districts: “Wolf-Plage. Aus dem nördlichen Wisconsin
wird gemeldet, dass Wölfe in diesem Jahre zahlreicher sind
denn je, und dass sie, durch Hunger getrieben, sich nahe
an die Ortschaften wagen, und Hausthiere und auch Menschen
angreifen. Zwei grosse Wölfe griffen in dieser Woche das Pferd
der Frau Branchard an; das Pferd scheute und jagte in den Wald,
wo es durch Arbeiter angehalten wurde, welche die Bestien
verscheuchten.”
[97] Note 11.
[98] Note 20.
[99] Note 109.
[100] Note 24.
Up to this point the illustrations have shown that the werewolf
superstition went through various stages of development. The motives
for assuming wolf’s dress (or animal skins or robes), at first were
purely peaceful, for protection against cold, and to secure food by
acting as decoys; then it was used for personal advantage or gain by
foragers (or robbers) and spies; then for purposes of vengeance;[101]
later from a desire for power over others; and finally men (the
professional and the superstitious) began to concoct fabulous stories
which were handed down as tradition or myth, according to the psychic
level of the narrator and hearer.[102]
[101] Close of note 102.
[102] John Fiske, Myths and myth-makers, p. 78, fol., gives
the origin and development of the werewolf as follows: From
the conception of wolf-like ghosts it was but a short step to
the conception of corporeal werewolves.... Christianity did
not fail to impart a new and fearful character to the belief
in werewolves. Lycanthropy became regarded as a species of
witchcraft, the werewolf as obtaining his powers from the
Devil. It was often necessary to kill one’s enemies, and at
that time some even killed for love of it (like the Berserker);
often a sort of homicidal madness, during which they would
array themselves in the skins of wolves or bears and sally
forth by _night_ to crack the backbones, smash the skulls and
sometimes to drink with fiendish glee the blood of unwary
travelers or loiterers.... Possibly often the wolves were an
invention of excited imagination. So people attributed a wolf’s
nature to the maniac or idiot with cannibal appetites, then
the myth-forming process assigned to the unfortunate wretch
a tangible lupine body. The causes were three: 1. Worship
of dead ancestors with wolf totems originated the notion of
transformation of men into divine or superhuman wolves. 2. The
storm-wind was explained as the rushing of a troop of dead
men’s souls or as the howling of wolf-like monsters (called by
Christianity demons). 3. Berserker madness and cannibalism,
accompanied by lycanthropic hallucinations, interpreted as due
to such demoniacal metamorphosis, gave rise to the werewolf
superstition of the Middle Ages. The theory that if one put on
a wolf’s skin he became a werewolf, is perhaps a reminiscence
of the fact alleged of Berserkers haunting the woods by
_night_, clothed in hides of wolves or bears. A permanent cure
was effected by burning the werewolf’s sack, unless the Devil
furnished him with a new wolfskin. Primitively, to become
incarnated into any creature, the soul had only to put on the
outward integument of the creature. The original werewolf is
the night-wind—a kind of leader of departed souls, howling
in the wintry blasts. Encyc. Brit, under Lycanthropy:—The
Berserkir of Iceland dressed in the skins of bears and wolves,
and further on: “Beastform is in mythology proper far oftener
assumed for malignant than for benignant ends.”
The starting point of the whole superstition of the harmful werewolf
is the disguising as some common animal by members of savage races
when abroad as foragers or scouts, in order to escape detection by the
enemy. Like wolves they roamed the land in search of food. As stated
above,[103] later fabulous report would represent them as possessing
in their disguise the attributes of the animal they impersonated,[104]
and finally even of actually taking on animal form, either wholly or
in part,[105] for longer or shorter periods of time. Some of the North
American Indian transformation stories represent men as having only
the head, hands and feet of a wolf.[106] The transformation into a
werewolf in Germanic lands is caused merely by a shirt or girdle made
of wolf-skin.[107] This shirt or girdle of wolf-skin of the Germanic
werewolf is the survival of the robe or mantle originally disguising
the entire body. It would be but a step further to represent a person
as rendering himself invisible by putting on any other article of
apparel, such as the Tarnkappe.[108] The stories especially in Europe
were of the _were-wolf_ rather than _were-bear_ or other animal,
because the wolf was the commonest of the larger wild animals.[109] It
was the stories of the commonest animal, the wolf, which crystallized
into the household werewolf or transformation tales.[110]
[103] Ante p. 22.
[104] Note 57.
[105] Close note 65.
[106] Grinnell; and Ethn. Rep. 1888-89, p. 737.
[107] Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, III. 1094, fol. says: Our
oldest native notions make the assumption of wolf-shape
depend on arraying oneself in a wolf-belt or wolf-shirt, as
transformation into a swan does on putting on the swan-shirt
or swan-ring. Page 1095: “The transformation need not be for a
magical purpose at all: any one that puts on, or is conjured
into, a wolf-shirt, will undergo metamorphosis.... With the
appearance, he acquires also the fierceness and howling of the
wolf; roaming the _woods_, he rends to pieces everything that
comes in his way.” This is like the belief of the American
Indian that the wearer of a mask becomes imbued with the spirit
of the being which his mask represents (note 57); or that the
shaman in full regalia becomes, or tries to make his followers
believe that he has become, the power he represents (note 67).
[108] Thus some American Indian stories represent men
transformed into wolf, turkey or owl turning into stone or
piece of decayed wood when pursued. And mantles of invisibility
are mentioned in note 60.
[109] See Hirt, Die Indogermanen, I. 187: “Unter den grossen
Raubtieren treten uns Bär und Wolf mit alten Namen entgegen.
Der Wolf ist freilich überall in Europa verbreitet gewesen, der
Bär ist aber ganz sicher ein Waldtier,” etc. Encyc. Brit, under
Lycanthropy: “In England by the 17th century the werewolf had
long been extinct. Only small creatures, the cat, hare, weasel,
etc., remained for the malignant sorcerer to transform himself
into.” See note 11.
[110] Amongst the American Indians, where various larger
animals were common, the designation “wolf-people” (see the
sign-language of the plains) was bestowed especially on the
Pawnees, because, as we have seen, they best imitated wolves.
In Europe, where, of the larger animals, the wolf alone was
universally common, the designation “wolf-people” (or if we
choose, later, werewolves) was not restricted to any one
locality or people, but was bestowed in general on those who
assumed the manner of wolves, and because of their crimes
became outcasts like the wolves. They best imitate wolves, and
no doubt, to escape detection, disguised themselves as wolves
(see note 102), and for this reason the _warg_ or outlaw came
to be called a _wolf_ (see close of note 112). Thus Golther,
Mythologie, p. 102, says: “Wird ein Werwolf verwundet oder
getötet, so findet man einen wunden oder toten Menschen.” The
werewolves, as we have seen (ante p. 25), keep to the _woods_
and the _dark_, of course in many cases to avoid detection.
Similarly witches, Ethn. Rep. 1901-02, p. 393: “They say that
witches love the _night_ and lurk in _shadows and darkness_.
Witches are believed to be able to assume the shape of beasts.”
Sigmund and Sinfjötli dwelt as wolves in the _woods_. Also the
progenitor of the Mýramenn in Iceland at _night_ could leave
his house in wolf’s form. Another Norwegian account reports
how earlier many people were able to take on wolf’s form, then
dwelt in _grove_ and _woods_, where they tore people to pieces,
etc. See Paul, Grundriss, III. 272 fol.; also note 113.
[111] Names. See note 31. The development in the case of names
was perhaps the same as in the case of masks (note 57), and of
the werewolf superstition itself (ante p. 15, fol.); namely, a)
protection against outside agencies was sought; b) growth of
supernaturalism; c) element of humor.
a) See Encyc. Brit. under Lycanthropy: “Children are often
named _wolf_, are disguised as a wolf to cheat their
supernatural foes” (for similar assumption of characteristics
or the nature of animals for personal advantage see note 33).
See also Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, III. 1139: “The escort of
_wolf_ or _raven_ augured victory;” and in the note: “A name
of happiest augury for a hero must have been the O. H. G.
_Wolf-hraban_ (Wolfram), to whom the two animals jointly
promised victory. Old names are no product of pure chance.
Servian mothers name a son they have longed for, _Vuk_,
_Wolf_: then the witches can’t eat him up. O. H. G. _Wolfbizo_
was a lucky name, i. e., one bitten by the wolf and thereby
protected,” like our modern curing of like by like in medicine.
b) With growth of supernaturalism came probably the development
mentioned by Meringer, Indog. Forsch., 1904, XVI. 165, about
the conferring of secret names, since one could harm a person
by his name alone, and could summon a foe merely by mentioning
his name: “Wenn man den Wolf nennt, kommt er g’rennt.” Again
in XXI. 313 fol.: It was dangerous to name _bear_ or _wolf_
in regions infested by these animals, so people, out of fear,
avoided calling the name of such animals; called the bear for
example _honey-eater_, etc.
c) Finally, when man could better cope with animal foes, his
fear of them disappeared, the elements of fearlessness and
humor enter in, and such names arise as are mentioned in note
53; and such stories as that of Romulus and Remus, suckled by a
wolf.
[112] Outlaws. The notion of werewolves (see Grimm, Teutonic
Mythology, III. 1095) also gets mixed up with that of outlaws
who have fled to the woods. A notable instance is that of
Sigmund and Sinfjötli in the Völsungasaga. In regard to this W.
Golther, Handbuch der germanischen mythologie, Leipzig 1895,
p. 102, says: “Die Sage mag auf einem alten Misverständniss
beruhen. _Warg_, _Wolf_ hiess der Geächtete in der germanischen
Rechtssprache. _Warg_ wurde wörtlich als _Wolf_ verstanden,
und so bildete sich die Werwolfsgeschichte.” Golther again, p.
424:—“Gefesselt wurde Loki als Ächter in den Wald getrieben,
er wurde “_Warg_”, d. h. _Wolf_. _Wölfe_ heissen die friedlosen
Waldgänger.” As to _warg_, Schade in his altdeutsches
Wörterbuch defines it as a räuberisch würgendes wütendes Wesen,
Mensch von roher verbrecherischer Denk- und Handlungsweise,
geächteter Verbrecher, ausgestossener Missetäter; _warg_ ist
Benennung des Wolfes, in der Rechtssprache ein treu- und
vertragbrüchiger Mensch, vogelfreier Mann, der den Frieden
durch Mord gebrochen und landflüchtig geworden, oder nun im
wilden Walde gleich dem Raubtiere haust und wie der Wolf
ungestraft erlegt werden darf; im jetzigen Gebrauche auf Island
Bezeichnung einer gewalttätigen Person. Similarly, J. Grimm,
Gesch. d. d. Spr. p. 233. For customs amongst the American
Indians relating to the outlaw see Ethn. Rep. 1879-80, p. 67
fol.: An outlaw is one who by his crimes has placed himself
without the protection of his clan, is not defended in case he
is injured by another. When the sentence of outlawry has been
declared, for example among the Wyandots, it is the duty of
the chief of the Wolf clan to make known the decision of the
council.... In outlawry of the highest degree it is the duty
of any member of the tribe who may meet the offender to kill
him like an animal. Page 60 fol.: “The chief of the Wolf gens
is the herald and the sheriff of the tribe” (see also Ethn.
Rep. 1893-94, p. cxiv). Criminals kept to the _woods_ and the
_dark_. Many of them lived like animals, dressed in animal
skins, and to terrorize others assumed the role of werewolves.
Since therefore so many outlaws lived, dressed (note 22 close)
and acted like wolves, to all intents and purposes became
wolves, _wolf_ and outlaw became synonymous terms.
[113] The widespread custom of keeping windows closed at night
in Germany is perhaps a relic of heathen days, when people
believed that werewolves, etc., entered houses at night. In
place of the earlier harmful werewolf is now the “harmful”
night air.
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INDEX
[The pages are in roman numerals, the notes in italic.]
Abipones, _9, 66._
Abyssinia, _9._
Africa, 5, 23; _9, 47, 65._
Alligator, _9._
America, 5; _9, 85._
American Indians, 5, 14, 21, 23, 27; _9, 27, 66, 110._
Anglo-Saxons, _9._
Animals, _42._
Animal fable, _15._
Arabia, _9._
Arawaks, _9._
Arcadia, _9, 15._
Asia, 5; _9, 12, 16._
Assyrians, _15._
Bear, 5; _9, 15, 16, 38, 102, 109, 111._
Belgium, _12._
Benignant, _4, 38._
Berserkr, 1; _102._
Bird, 5.
Bison, _12, 27, 31, 32, 73, 74._
Bohemia, _9._
Borneo, _9._
Bretons, _9._
Bulgaria, _9._
Burchard von Worms, _9._
Burmah, _12._
Celebrations, _21._
Ceylon, _12._
Charms, 10, 16.
Clothing, 8, 9, 11, 16, 28.
Coyote, 13.
Dancing, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16; _32, 33, 34, 37, 42, 57._
Dante, _24._
Death, _22._
Decoy, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16, 28; _29, 30, 31._
Denmark, _9._
Dog, 5, 21, 27; _19, 64, 73, 74._
Dreams, 21; _67._
Edda, _15._
Enemy, 8, 12, 14, 21, 26, 29; _48, 60, 65, 102, 111._
English, _9, 109._
Eskimo, _30, 31, 67._
Europe, 5, 7; _9, 12, 16, 110._
Fenrisûlfr, _9, 51._
Finns, _5._
Fish, _5._
Fisherman, _29._
Food, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 15, 28, 29; _27, 29._
Forest, 25; _22, 65, 102, 107, 110, 112._
Fox, 5, 12; _9, 15, 21._
French, _9, 12._
Germany, 2, 4, 5; _9, 22._
Greece, 1, 7; _9, 15, 22._
Greenland, _12, 69._
Harmful, 1, 11, 13; _42, 51._
Herds, _9, 12, 20._
Herodotus, 1; _15._
Hindoos, _9._
Homer, _24._
Hunter, 7, 8; _15, 31, 52, 53, 64, 95._
Hyena, 5, 23; _9._
Iceland, _9, 110._
India, 5; _9, 12._
Indogermanic, 7; _9, 20, 42._
Insanity, 21, 22, 24; _24, 73, 85, 102._
Iranians, _9._
Ireland, _9._
Italians, _9._
Jackal, _12._
Jaguar, _9._
Japan, _9._
Kadiak, _29._
Kelts, 7; _9._
Knut, _9._
Lapps, 5.
Leopard, 5; _9, 65._
Leubuscher, 6; _9, 20._
Lion, 5; _9, 45, 65._
Lithuanians, _9._
Loki, 14; _9, 112._
Lycanthropy, 2; _9, 19, 20, 22, 74, 102._
Lykaon, _9, 15._
Magic, 23, 24; _22, 37, 60, 64, 65, 67, 69, 74, 81, 83, 84, 107._
Malignant, 24; _4, 84, 102, 109, 113._
Mask, 8, 11, 15; _29, 37, 42, 57, 64, 67, 107, 111._
Mastodon, _20._
Medicinemen (Shamans), 20; _52, 63, 66, 67, 74, 81, 83, 85, 90,
107._
Mexico, _12, 67._
Middle Ages, 22; _9, 74, 102._
Murder, 24; _20, 22, 52, 102, 112._
Myths, 7, 27; _24, 95, 102._
Names, _42, 53, 109, 111._
Netherlands, _9._
Neurians, 1; _15._
Night, 1, 12, 13, 23, 24, 25; _63, 65, 66, 69, 74, 84, 102, 110,
112, 113._
North America, _12._
Norway, _9._
Odin, _15._
Island Oesel, _9._
Otter, _29._
Outlaw, 24, 26; _84, 110, 112._
Owl, 5, 30; _64._
Pawnees, 12, 13, 23; _110._
Persia, _9._
Plants, _42, 95._
Poles, _9, 14._
Portuguese, _9._
Posen, _14._
Priests, _22, 67, 69, 83._
Professionals, 22, 23, 24, 25; _74, 81, 83, 86._
Provencal, _9._
Prussia, _14._
Reindeer, 5.
Religion, _22, 24, 57._
Revenge, 14, 17, 24, 28; _52, 69._
Robber, 12, 13, 14, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 28; _15, 20, 44, 53, 65,
112._
Romans, 7; _9, 27._
Russia, 2; _9, 12, 16._
Scandinavia, _9._
Scout, 12, 13, 14, 16, 22, 23, 28, 29; _47, 48, 60._
Scythians, _6._
Seal, _29, 31, 69._
Serpent, 5; _9._
Servia, _9._
Shepherds, _15, 20._
Siam, _12, 69._
Sinfjötli, _15, 64, 110._
Song, 9, 10, 15; _33, 64._
Skins (or dress) of animals, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 22,
23, 25, 28, 29, 30; _21, 22, 31, 34, 52, 53, 57, 60, 63, 64,
65, 66, 67, 74, 102, 107, 108, 110, 112._
South America, 5; _12._
Speech (animals), 7.
Stories, 21, 22, 27, 28, 29; _9, 27, 60, 69, 102, 111._
Supernaturalism, 10, 17, 18; _57, 65, 102, 111._
Superstition, 1, 4, 5, 14, 23; _20, 64._
Sweden, _9._
Tiger, 5; _9, 45, 69, 90._
Totemism, 2; _47, 102._
Transformation, 5, 15, 21; _9, 11, 19, 22, 52, 64, 65, 66, 69,
107._
Traps, 8; _31._
Tschechs, _9._
Turkey, 5; _108._
Volhynia, 2; _9, 16._
Völsungasaga, _15, 112._
Wales, _9._
Warfare, 12, 13, 16; _60._
Weapons, 7, 8, 9.
Werewolf, 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 21, 22, 28, 29, 30; _9, 15, 20, 22, 45,
64, 84, 86, 91, 102, 107, 109, 110, 112, 113._
Wiener Hundesegen, _15._
Witches, 11, 19, 23; _65, 66, 67, 74, 83, 84, 91, 102, 109, 110,
111._
Transcriber’s note
Words in italics were surrounded with _underscores_, and small capitals
changed to all capitals.
Anchors for notes 37 and 42 were missing in the original, they were
added. Notes 111, 112 and 113 also had no anchors in the original, they
were referred to in other notes. The notes were moved to directly after
the paragraph with the corresponding anchor.
“Völsungasaga” and “Sinfjötli” were in the original mostly written with
a little c under the o, and a few times with a plain o. For reader’s
convenience this has been changed and standardised to the more common
spelling with ö.
Some punctuation was corrected and a few missing spaces added. In note
12 “and” was changed to “und” (seltener in Frankreich und Belgien).
Otherwise the original was preserved, including possible errors and
missing capitalisation in quotes from German sources, and inconsistent
spelling, for example the word Berserkr, Berserker or Berserkir.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Origin of the Werewolf Superstition" ***
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