The Origin of the Werewolf Superstition by Caroline Taylor Stewart

Author:Caroline Taylor Stewart [Stewart, Caroline Taylor]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2013-11-07T16:00:00+00:00

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.”

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