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diff --git a/26629.txt b/26629.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c84dd96 --- /dev/null +++ b/26629.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11237 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Werwolves, by Elliott O'Donnell + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Werwolves + +Author: Elliott O'Donnell + +Release Date: September 16, 2008 [EBook #26629] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WERWOLVES *** + + + + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Lisa Reigel and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + WERWOLVES + + + BY THE SAME AUTHOR + + SOME HAUNTED HOUSES OF ENGLAND AND WALES + + THE HAUNTED HOUSES OF LONDON + + SCOTTISH GHOST TALES + + BYEWAYS OF GHOSTLAND + + GHOSTLY PHENOMENA + + THE REMINISCENCES OF MRS. E. M. WARD + + + + + WERWOLVES + + + BY + + ELLIOTT O'DONNELL + + + METHUEN & CO. LTD. + 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. + LONDON + + + _First Published in 1912_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAP. PAGE + I. WHAT IS A WERWOLF? 1 + + II. WERWOLF METAMORPHOSIS COMPARED WITH OTHER BRANCHES OF + LYCANTHROPY 20 + + III. THE SPIRITS OF WERWOLVES 44 + + IV. HOW TO BECOME A WERWOLF 55 + + V. WERWOLVES AND EXORCISM 71 + + VI. THE WERWOLF IN THE BRITISH ISLES 92 + + VII. THE WERWOLF IN FRANCE 110 + + VIII. WERWOLVES AND VAMPIRES AND GHOULS 126 + + IX. WERWOLVES IN GERMANY 143 + + X. A LYCANTHROPOUS BROOK IN THE HARZ MOUNTAINS; OR, THE + CASE OF THE COUNTESS HILDA VON BREBER 161 + + XI. WERWOLVES IN AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE BALKAN PENINSULA 174 + + XII. THE WERWOLF IN SPAIN 194 + + XIII. THE WERWOLF IN BELGIUM AND THE NETHERLANDS 212 + + XIV. THE WERWOLVES AND MARAS OF DENMARK 225 + + XV. WERWOLVES IN NORWAY AND SWEDEN 236 + + XVI. WERWOLVES IN ICELAND, LAPLAND, AND FINLAND 256 + + XVII. THE WERWOLF IN RUSSIA AND SIBERIA 270 + + + + +WERWOLVES + + + + +CHAPTER I + +WHAT IS A WERWOLF? + + +What is a werwolf? To this there is no one very satisfactory reply. +There are, indeed, so many diverse views held with regard to the nature +and classification of werwolves, their existence is so keenly disputed, +and the subject is capable of being regarded from so many standpoints, +that any attempt at definition in a restricted sense would be well-nigh +impossible. + +The word werwolf (or werewolf) is derived from the Anglo-Saxon _wer_, +man, and _wulf_, wolf, and has its equivalents in the German _Waehrwolf_ +and French _loup-garou_, whilst it is also to be found in the languages, +respectively, of Scandinavia, Russia, Austria-Hungary, the Balkan +Peninsula, and of certain of the countries of Asia and Africa; from +which it may be concluded that its range is pretty well universal. + +Indeed, there is scarcely a country in the world in which belief in a +werwolf, or in some other form of lycanthropy, has not once existed, +though it may have ceased to exist now. But whereas in some countries +the werwolf is considered wholly physical, in others it is looked upon +as partly, if not entirely, superphysical. And whilst in some countries +it is restricted to the male sex, in others it is confined to the +female; and, again, in others it is to be met with in both sexes. + +Hence, when asked to describe a werwolf, or what is generally +believed to be a werwolf, one can only say that a werwolf is an +anomaly--sometimes man, sometimes woman (or in the guise of man or +woman); sometimes adult, sometimes child (or in the guise of +such)--that, under certain conditions, possesses the property of +metamorphosing into a wolf, the change being either temporary or +permanent. + +This, perhaps, expresses most of what is general concerning werwolves. +For more particular features, upon which I will touch later, one must +look to locality and time. + +Those who are sceptical with regard to the existence of the werwolf, and +refuse to accept, as proof of such existence, the accumulated testimony +of centuries, attribute the origin of the belief in the phenomenon +merely to an insane delusion, which, by reason of its novelty, gained a +footing and attracted followers. + +Humanity, they say, has ever been the same; and any fresh idea--no +matter how bizarre or monstrous, so long as it is monstrous enough--has +always met with support and won credence. + +In favour of this argument it is pointed out that in many of the cases +of persons accused of werwolfery, tried in France, and elsewhere, in the +middle of the sixteenth century, when belief in this species of +lycanthropy was at its zenith, there was an extraordinary readiness +among the accused to confess, and even to give circumstantial evidence +of their own metamorphosis; and that this particular form of +self-accusation at length became so popular among the leading people in +the land, that the judicial court, having its suspicions awakened, and, +doubtless, fearful of sentencing so many important personages, acquitted +the majority of the accused, announcing them to be the victims of +delusion and hysteria. + +Now, if it were admitted, argue these sceptics, that the bulk of +so-called werwolves were impostors, is it not reasonable to suppose that +all so-called werwolves were either voluntary or involuntary +impostors?--the latter, _i.e._, those who were not self-accused, being +falsely accused by persons whose motive for so doing was revenge. For +parallel cases one has only to refer to the trials for sorcery and +witchcraft in England. And with regard to false accusations of +lycanthropy--accusations founded entirely on hatred of the accused +person--how easy it was to trump up testimony and get the accused +convicted. The witnesses were rarely, if ever, subjected to a searching +examination; the court was always biased, and a confession of guilt, +when not voluntary--as in the case of the prominent citizen, when it was +invariably pronounced due to hysteria or delusion--could always be +obtained by means of torture, though a confession thus obtained, +needless to say, is completely nullified. Moreover, we have no record of +metamorphosis taking place in court, or before witnesses chosen for +their impartiality. On the contrary, the alleged transmutations always +occurred in obscure places, and in the presence of people who, one has +reason to believe, were both hysterical and imaginative, and therefore +predisposed to see wonders. So says this order of sceptic, and, to my +mind, he says a great deal more than his facts justify; for although +contemporary writers generally are agreed that a large percentage of +those people who voluntarily confessed they were werwolves were mere +dissemblers, there is no recorded conclusive testimony to show that all +such self-accused persons were shams and delusionaries. Besides, even +if such testimony were forthcoming, it would in nowise preclude the +existence of the werwolf. + +Nor does the fact that all the accused persons submitted to the rack, or +other modes of torture, confessed themselves werwolves prove that all +such confessions were false. + +Granted also that some of the charges of lycanthropy were groundless, +being based on malice--which, by the by, is no argument for the +non-existence of lycanthropy, since it is acknowledged that accusations +of all sorts, having been based on malice, have been equally +groundless--there is nothing in the nature of written evidence that +would justify one in assuming that all such charges were traceable to +the same cause, _i.e._, a malicious agency. Neither can one dismiss the +testimony of those who swore they were actual eye-witnesses of +metamorphoses, on the mere assumption that all such witnesses were +liable to hallucination or hysteria, or were hyper-imaginative. + +Testimony to an event having taken place must be regarded as positive +evidence of such an occurrence, until it can be satisfactorily proved to +be otherwise--and this is where the case of the sceptic breaks down; he +can only offer assumption, not proof. + +Another view, advanced by those who discredit werwolves, is that belief +in the existence of such an anomaly originates in the impression made +on man in early times by the great elemental powers of nature. It was, +they say, man's contemplation of the changes of these great elemental +powers of nature, _i.e._, the changes of the sun and moon, wind, thunder +and lightning, of the day and night, sunshine and rain, of the seasons, +and of life and death, and his deductions therefrom, that led to his +belief in and worship of gods that could assume varying shapes, such, +for example, as India (who occasionally took the form of a bull), +Derketo (who sometimes metamorphosed into a fish), Poseidon, Jupiter +Ammon, Milosh Kobilitch, Minerva, and countless others--and that it is +to this particular belief and worship, which is to be found in the +mythology of every race, that all religions, as well as belief in +fairies, demons, werwolves, and phantasms, may be traced. + +Well, this might be so, if there were not, in my opinion, sufficient +accumulative corroborative evidence to show that not only were there +such anomalies as werwolves formerly, but that, in certain restricted +areas, they are even yet to be encountered. + +Taking, then, the actual existence of werwolves to be an established +fact, it is, of course, just as impossible to state their origin as it +is to state the origin of any other extraordinary form of creation. +Every religious creed, every Occult sect, advances its own respective +views--and has a perfect right to do so, as long as it advances them as +views and not dogmatisms. + +I, for my part, bearing in mind that everything appertaining to the +creation of man and the universe is a profound mystery, cannot see the +object on the part of religionists and scientists in being arbitrary +with regard to a subject which any child of ten will apprehend to be one +whereon it is futile to do other than theorize. My own theory, or rather +one of my own theories, is that the property of transmutation, _i.e._, +the power of assuming any animal guise, was one of the many +properties--including second sight, the property of becoming invisible +at will, of divining the presence of water, metals, the advent of death, +and of projecting the etherical body--which were bestowed on man at the +time of his creation; and that although mankind in general is no longer +possessed of them, a few of these properties are still, in a lesser +degree, to be found among those of us who are termed psychic. + +The history of the Jews is full of references to certain of these +properties. The greatest of all the Superphysical Forces--the creating +Force (the Hebrew Jah, Jehovah)--so says the Bible, constantly held +direct communication with His elect--with Adam, Noah, Abraham, and +Moses, while His emissaries, the angels, or what modern Occultists would +term Benevolent Elementals, conversed with Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, and +hosts of others. In this same history, too, there is no lack of +reference to sorcery; and whilst Black Magic is illustrated in the +tricks wrought by the magicians before Pharaoh, and the infliction of +all manner of plagues upon the Egyptians, one is rather inclined to +attribute to White Magic Daniel's safety among the lions; Shadrach, +Meshach, and Abed-nego's preservation from the flames; Elijah's +miraculous spinning out of the barrel of meal and cruse of oil, in the +days of famine, and his raising of the widow's son. Also, to the account +of White Magic--and should anyone dispute this point let me remind him +that it is merely a difference in the point of view--I would add +Elisha's calling up of the bears that made such short work of the +naughty children who tormented him. There are, too, many examples of +divination recorded in the Bible. In Genesis, chapter xxx., verses +27-43, a description is given of a divining rod and its influence over +sheep and other animals; in Exodus, chapter xvii., verse 15, Moses with +the aid of a rod discovers water in the rock at Rephidim, and for +similar instances one has only to refer to Exodus, chapter xiv., verse +16, and chapter xvii., verses 9-11. The calling up of the phantasm of +Samuel at Endor more than suggests a biblical precedent for the modern +practice of spiritualism; and it was, undoubtedly, the abuse of such +power as that possessed by the witch of Endor, and the prevalence of +sorcery, such as she practised, that finally led to the decree delivered +by Moses to the Children of Israel, that on no account were they to +suffer a witch to live. Reference to yet another property of the +occult--namely, Etherical Projection--which is clearly exemplified in +the Scriptures, may be found in Numbers, chapter xii., verse 6; in Job, +chapter xxxiii., verse 15; in the First Book of Kings, chapter iii., +verse 5; in Genesis, chapter xx., verses 3 and 6, and chapter xxxi., +verse 24; in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Nahum, and Zechariah; and more +particularly in the Acts of the Apostles, and in the Revelation of St. +John. Lastly, in this history of the Jews, which is surely neither more +nor less authenticated than any other well established history, +testimony as to the existence of one species of Elemental of much the +same order as the werwolf is recorded by Isaiah. In chapter xiii., verse +21, we read: "And their houses shall be full of doleful creatures, and +owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there." Satyrs! we +repeat; are not satyrs every whit as grotesque and outrageous as +werwolves? Why, then, should those who, regarding the Scriptures as +infallible, confess to a belief in the satyr, reject the possibility of +a werwolf? And for those who are more logically sceptical--who question +the veracity of the Bible and are dubious as to its authenticity--there +are the chronicles of Herodotus, Petronius Arbiter, Baronius, Dole, +Olaus Magnus, Marie de France, Thomas Aquinas, Richard Verstegan, and +many other recognized historians and classics, covering a large area in +the history of man, all of whom specially testify to the existence--in +their own respective periods--of werwolves. + +And if any further evidence of this once near relationship with the +Other World is required, one has only to turn to Aristotle, who wrote so +voluminously on psychic dreams (most of which I am inclined to think +were due to projection); to the teachings of Pythagoras and his +followers, Empedocles and Apollonius; to Cicero and Tacitus; to Virgil, +who frequently talks of ghosts and seers of Tyana; to Plato, the +exponent of magic; and to Plutarch, whose works swarm with allusions to +Occultism of all kinds--phantasms of the dead, satyrs, and numerous +other species of Elementals. + +I say, then, that in ages past, before any of the artificialities +appertaining to our present mode of living were introduced; when the +world was but thinly populated and there were vast regions of wild +wastes and silent forests, the Known and Unknown walked hand in hand. It +was seclusion of this kind, the seclusion of nature, that spirits loved, +and it was in this seclusion they were always to be found whenever man +wanted to hold communication with them. To such silent spots--to the +woods and wildernesses--Buddha, Mohammed, the Hebrew Patriarchs and +Prophets, all, in their turn, resorted, to solicit the companionship of +benevolently disposed spirits, to be tutored by them, and, in all +probability, to receive from them additional powers. To these wastes and +forests, too, went all those who wished to do ill. There they communed +with the spirits of darkness, _i.e._, demons, or what are also termed +Vice Elementals; and from the latter they acquired--possibly in exchange +for some of their own vitality, for spirits of this order are said to +have envied man his material body--tuition in sorcery, and such +properties as second sight, invisibility, and lycanthropy. + +This property of lycanthropy, or metamorphosing into a beast, probably +dates back to man's creation. It was, I am inclined to believe, +conferred on man at his creation by Malevolent Forces that were +antagonistic to man's progress; and that these Malevolent Forces had a +large share in the creation of this universe is, to my mind, extremely +probable. But, however that may be, I cannot believe that the creation +of man and the universe were due entirely to one Creator--there are +assuredly too many inconsistencies in all we see around us to justify +belief in only one Creative Force. The Creator who inspired man with +love--love for his fellow beings and love of the beautiful--could not be +the same Creator who framed that irredeemably cruel principle observable +throughout nature, _i.e._, the survival of the fittest; the preying of +the stronger on the weaker--of the tiger on the feebler beasts of the +jungle; the eagle on the smaller birds of the air; the wolf on the +sheep; the shark on the poor, defenceless fish, and so on; neither could +He be the Creator that deals in diseases--foul and filthy diseases, +common, not only to all divisions of the human species, but to +quadrupeds, birds, fish, and even flora; that brings into existence +cripples and idiots, the blind, the deaf and dumb; and watches with +passive inertness the most acute sufferings, not only of adults, but of +sinless children and all manner of helpless animals. No! It is +impossible to conceive that such incompatibilities can be the work of +one Creator. But, supposing, for the sake of argument, we may admit the +possibility of only one Creator, we cannot concede that this Creator is +at the same time both omnipotent and merciful. My own belief, which is +merely based on common sense and observation, is that this earth was +created by many Forces--that everything that makes for man's welfare is +due to Benevolent Forces; and that everything that tends to his +detriment is due to antagonistic Malevolent Forces; and that the +Malevolent Forces exist for the very simple reason that the Benevolent +Forces are not sufficiently powerful to destroy them. + +These Malevolent Forces, then--the originators of all evil--created +werwolves; and the property of lycanthropy becoming in many cases +hereditary, there were families that could look back upon countless +generations possessed of it. But lycanthropy did not remain in the +exclusive possession of a few families; the bestowal of it continued +long after its original creation, and I doubt if this bestowal has, even +now, become entirely a thing of the past. There are still a few +regions--desolate and isolated regions in Europe (in Russia, +Scandinavia, and even France), to say nothing of Asia, Africa and +America, Australasia and Polynesia--which are unquestionably the haunts +of Vagrarians, Barrowvians, and other kinds of undesirable Elementals, +and it is quite possible that, through the agency of these spirits, the +property of lycanthropy might be acquired by those who have learned in +solitude how to commune with them. + +I have already referred to the werwolf as an anomaly, and for its +designation I do not think I could have chosen a more suitable term. +Though its movements and actions are physical--for what could be more +material than the act of devouring flesh and blood?--the actual process +of the metamorphosis savours of the superphysical; whilst to still +further strengthen its relationship with the latter, its appearance is +sometimes half man and half wolf, which is certainly more than +suggestive of the semi-human and by no means uncommon type of Elemental. +Its inconsistency, too, which is a striking characteristic of all +psychic phenomena, is also suggestive of the superphysical; and +there is certainly neither consistency as to the nature of the +metamorphosis--which is sometimes brought about at will and sometimes +entirely controlled by the hour of day, or by the seasons--nor as to the +outward form of the werwolf, which is sometimes merely that of a wolf, +and sometimes partly wolf and partly human; nor as to its shape at the +moment of death, when in some cases there is metamorphosis, whilst in +other cases there is no metamorphosis. Nor is this inconsistency only +characteristic of the movements, actions, and shape of the werwolf. It +is also characteristic of it psychologically. When the metamorphosis is +involuntary, and is enforced by agencies over which the subject has no +control, the werwolf, though filled with all the passions characteristic +of a beast of prey, when a wolf, is not of necessity cruel and savage +when a human being, that is to say, before the transmutations take +place. There are many instances of such werwolves being, as people, +affectionate and kindly disposed. On the other hand, in some cases of +involuntary metamorphosis, and in the majority of cases of voluntary +metamorphosis--that is to say, when the transmutation is compassed by +means of magic--the werwolf, as a person, is evilly disposed, and as a +wolf shows a distinct blending of the beast with the passions, subtle +ingenuity, and reasoning powers of the human being. From this it is +obvious, then, that the werwolf is a hybrid of the material and +immaterial--of man and Elemental, known and Unknown. The latter term +does not, of course, meet with acceptance at the hands of the +Rationalists, who profess to believe that all phenomena can be explained +by perfectly natural causes. They suggest that belief in the werwolf (as +indeed in all other forms of lycanthropy) is traceable to the craving +for blood which is innate in certain natures and is sometimes +accompanied by hallucination, the subject genuinely believing himself to +be a wolf (or whatever beast of prey is most common in the district), +and, in imitation of that animal's habits, committing acts of +devastation at night, selecting his victims principally from among women +and children--those, in fact, who are too feeble to resist him. + +Often, however, say these Rationalists, there is no suggestion of +hallucination, the question resolving itself into one of vulgar +trickery. The anthropophagi, unable to suppress their appetite for human +food, taking advantage of the general awe in which the wolf is held by +their neighbours, dress themselves up in the skins of that beast, and +prowling about lonely, isolated spots at night, pounce upon those people +they can most easily overpower. Rumours (most probably started by the +murderers themselves) speedily get in circulation that the mangled and +half-eaten remains of the villagers are attributable to creatures, half +human and half wolf, that have been seen gliding about certain places +after dark. The simple country-folk, among whom superstitions are rife, +are only too ready to give credence to such reports; the existence of +the monsters becomes an established thing, whilst the localities that +harbour them are regarded with horror, and looked upon as the happy +hunting ground of every imaginable occult power of evil. + +Now, although such an explanation of werwolves might be applicable in +certain districts of West Africa, where the native population is +excessively bloodthirsty and ignorant, it could not for one moment be +applied to werwolfery in Germany, France, or Scandinavia, where the +peasantry are, generally speaking, kindly and intelligent people, whom +one could certainly accuse neither of being sanguinary nor of possessing +any natural taste for cannibalism. + +The rationalist view can therefore only be said to be feasible in +certain limited spheres, outside of which it is grotesque and +ridiculous. + +Now a question that has occurred to me, and which, I fancy, may give +rise to some interesting speculation, is, whether some of the werwolves +stated to have been seen may not have been some peculiar type of +phantasm. I make this suggestion because I have seen several sub-human +and sub-animal occult phenomena in England, and have, too, met other +people who have had similar experiences. + +With our limited knowledge of the Unknown it is, of course, impossible +to be arbitrary as to the class of spirits to which such phenomena +belong. They may be Vice Elementals, _i.e._, spirits that have never +inhabited any material body, whether human or animal, and which are +wholly inimical to man's progress--such spirits assume an infinite +number of shapes, agreeable and otherwise; or they may be phantasms of +dead human beings--vicious and carnal-minded people, idiots, and +imbecile epileptics. It is an old belief that the souls of cataleptic +and epileptic people, during the body's unconsciousness, adjourned +temporarily to animals, and it is therefore only in keeping with such a +view to suggest that on the deaths of such people their spirits take +permanently the form of animals. This would account for the fact that +places where cataleptics and idiots have died are often haunted by semi +and by wholly animal types of phantasms. + +According to Paracelsus Man has in him two spirits--an animal spirit and +a human spirit--and that in after life he appears in the shape of +whichever of these two spirits he has allowed to dominate him. If, for +example, he has obeyed the spirit that prompts him to be sober and +temperate, then his phantasm resembles a man; but on the other hand, if +he has given way to his carnal and bestial cravings, then his phantasm +is earthbound, in the guise of some terrifying and repellent +animal--maybe a wolf, bear, dog, or cat--all of which shapes are far +from uncommon in psychic manifestations. + +This view has been held either _in toto_, or with certain reservations, +by many other writers on the subject, and I, too, in a great measure +endorse it--its pronouncement of a limit to man's phantasms being, +perhaps, the only important point to which I cannot accede. My own view +is that so complex a creature as man--complex both physically and +psychologically--may have a representative spirit for each of his +personalities. Hence on man's physical dissolution there may emanate +from him a host of phantasms, each with a shape most fitting the +personality it represents. And what more thoroughly representative of +cruelty, savageness, and treachery than a wolf, or even something partly +lupine! Therefore, as I have suggested elsewhere, in some instances, but +emphatically not in all, what were thought to have been werwolves may +only have been phantasms of the dead, or Elementals. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +WERWOLF METAMORPHOSIS COMPARED WITH OTHER BRANCHES OF LYCANTHROPY + + +The wolf is not the only animal whose shape, it is stated, man may +possess the power of assuming; and it may be of some interest to inquire +briefly into the varying branches of lycanthropy, comparing them with +the one already under discussion. + +In Orissa, the power of metamorphosing into a tiger is asserted by the +Kandhs to be hereditary, and also to be acquired through the practice of +magic; many who have travelled in this country have assured me that +there is a very great amount of truth in this assertion; and that +although there are, without doubt, a number of impostors among those +designated wer-tigers, there are most certainly many who are genuine. + +As with the werwolf, so with the wer-tiger, the metamorphosis is usually +dependent on the hour of the day, and generally occurs cotemporaneous +with the setting of the sun. + +But the lycanthropy of the wer-tiger differs from that of the werwolf +inasmuch as there is a definite god or spirit, in the shape of a tiger, +that is directly responsible for the bestowal of the property. This +tiger deity is looked upon and worshipped as a totem or national +deity--that is to say, as a divine being that has the welfare of the +Kandh nation especially at heart. It is communed with at home, but more +particularly in the wild dreariness of the jungle, where, on the +condition that the prayers of its devotees are sufficiently concentrated +and in earnest, it confers--as an honour and privilege--the power of +transmutation into its own shape. Some idea of its appearance may +perhaps be gathered from the following description of it given me by a +Mr. K----, whose name I see in the list of passengers reported "missing" +in the deplorable disaster to the "Titanic." + +"Anxious to see," Mr. K---- stated, "if there was anything of truth in +the alleged materialization of the tiger totem to those supplicating it, +I went one evening to a spot in the jungle--some two or three miles from +the village--where I had been informed the manifestations took place. As +the jungle was universally held to be haunted I met no one; and in spite +of my dread of the snakes, big cats, wild boars, scorpions, and other +poisonous vermin with which the place was swarming, arrived without +mishap at the place that had been so carefully described to me--a +circular clearing of about twenty feet in diameter, surrounded on all +sides by rank grass of a prodigious height, trolsee shrubs, kulpa and +tamarind-trees. Quickly concealing myself, I waited the coming of the +would-be tiger-man. + +"He was hardly more than a boy--slim and almost feminine--and came +gallivanting along the narrow path through the brushwood, like some +careless, high-spirited, brown-skinned hoyden. + +"The moment he reached the edge of the mystic circle, however, his +behaviour changed; the light of laughter died from his eyes, his lips +straightened, his limbs stiffened, and his whole demeanour became one of +respect and humility. + +"Advancing with bare head and feet some three or so feet into the +clearing, he knelt down, and, touching the ground three times in +succession with his forehead, looked up at a giant kulpa-tree opposite +him, chanting as he did so some weird and monotonous refrain, the +meaning of which was unintelligible to me. Up to then it had been +light--the sky, like all Indian skies at that season, one blaze of +moonbeams and stars; but now it gradually grew dark. An unnatural, +awe-inspiring shade seemed to swoop down from the far distant mountains +and to hush into breathless silence everything it touched. Not a bird +sang, not an insect ticked, not a leaf stirred. One might have said all +nature slept, had it not been for an uncomfortable sensation that the +silence was but the silence of intense expectation--merely the prelude +to some unpleasant revelation that was to follow. At this juncture my +feelings were certainly novel--entirely different from any I had +hitherto experienced. + +"I had not believed in the supernatural, and had had absolutely no +apprehensions of coming across anything of a ghostly character--all my +fears had been of malicious natives and tigers; they now, however, +changed, and I was confronted with a dread of what I could not +understand and could not analyse--of something that suggested an +appearance, alarming on account of its very vagueness. + +"The pulsations of my heart became irregular, I grew faint and sick, and +painfully susceptible to a sensation of excessive coldness, which +instinct told me was quite independent of any actual change in the +atmosphere. + +"I made several attempts to remove my gaze from the kulpa-tree, which +intuition told me would be the spot where the something, whatever it +was, that was going to happen would manifest itself. My eyes, however, +refused to obey, and I was obliged to keep them steadily fixed on this +spot, which grew more and more gloomy. All of a sudden the silence was +broken, and a cry, half human and half animal, but horribly ominous, +sounding at first faint and distant, speedily grew louder and louder. +Soon I heard footsteps, the footsteps of something running towards us +and covering the ground with huge, light strides. Nearer and nearer it +came, till, with a sudden spring, it burst into view--the giant reeds +and trolsees were dashed aside, and I saw standing in front of the +kulpa-tree a vertical column of crimson light of perhaps seven feet in +height and one or so in width. A column--only a column, though the +suggestion conveyed to me by the column was nasty--nasty with a +nastiness that baffles description. I looked at the native, and the +expression in his eyes and mouth assured me he saw more--a very great +deal more. For some seconds he only gasped; then, by degrees, the +rolling of his eyes and twitching of his lips ceased. He stretched out a +hand and made some sign on the ground. Then he produced a string of +beads, and after placing it over the scratchings he had made on the +soil, jerked out some strange incantation in a voice that thickened and +quivered with terror. I then saw a stream of red light steal from the +base of the column and dart like forked lightning to the beads, which +instantly shone a luminous red. The native now picked them up, and, +putting them round his neck, clapped the palms of his hands vigorously +together, uttering as he did so a succession of shrill cries, that +gradually became more and more animal in tone, and finally ended in a +roar that converted every particle of blood in my veins into ice. The +crimson colour now abruptly vanished--whither it went I know not--the +shade that had been veiling the jungle was dissipated, and in the burst +of brilliant moonlight that succeeded I saw, peering up at me, from the +spot where the native had lain, the yellow, glittering, malevolent eyes, +not of a man, but a tiger--a tiger thirsting for human blood. The shock +was so great that for a second or two I was paralysed, and could only +stare back at the thing in fascinated helplessness. Then a big bird +close at hand screeched, and some small quadruped flew past me +terrified; and with these awakenings of nature all my faculties revived, +and I simply jumped on my feet and--fled! + +"Some fifty yards ahead of me, and showing their tops well above the +moon-kissed reeds and bushes, were two trees--a tamarind and a kulpa +briksha. God knows why I decided on the latter! Probably through a mere +fluke, for I hadn't the remotest idea which of the trees offered the +best facilities to a poor climber. My mind once made up, there was no +time to alter. The wer-tiger was already terribly close behind. I could +gauge its distance by the patter of its feet--apparently the +metamorphosis had only been in part--and by the steadily intensifying +purr, purr; so unmistakably interpretative of the brute's utter +satisfaction in its power to overtake me, as well as at the prospect of +so good a meal. I was just thirteen stone, seemingly a most unlucky +number even in weight! Had the tiger wanted, I am sure he could have +caught me at once, but I fancy it wished to play with me a little +first--to let me think I was going to escape, and then, when it had got +all the amusement possible out of me, just to give a little sprint and +haul me over. Perhaps it was my anger at such undignified treatment of +the human race that gave a kind of sting to my running, for I certainly +got over the ground at twice the speed I had ever done before, or ever +thought myself capable of doing. At times my limbs were on the verge of +mutiny, but I forced them onward, and though my lungs seemed bursting, I +never paused. At last a clearing was reached and the kulpa-tree stood +fully revealed. I glanced at once at the trunk. The lowest branch of any +size was some eight feet from the ground. . . . Could I reach it? +Summoning up all my efforts for this final, and in all probability +fatal, rush, I hurled myself forward. There was a low exultant roar, a +soft, almost feminine purr, and a long hairy paw, with black, gleaming +claws shot past my cheek. I gave a great gasp of anguish, and with all +the pent-up force of despair clutched at the branch overhead. My +finger-tips just curled over it; I tightened them, but, at the most, it +was a very feeble, puny grasp, and totally insufficient to enable me to +swing my body out of reach of the tiger. I immediately gave myself up as +lost, and was endeavouring to reconcile myself to the idea of being +slowly chewed alive, when an extraordinary thing happened. The wer-tiger +gave a low growl of terror and, bounding away, was speedily lost in the +jungle. Fearing it might return, I waited for some time in the tree, and +then, as there were no signs of it, descended, and very cautiously made +my way back to the village. + +"That night an entire family, father, mother, son, and daughter, were +murdered, and their mutilated and half-eaten bodies were discovered on +the floor of their hut in the morning. Evidence pointed to their having +been killed by a tiger; and as they had been the sworn enemies of the +young man whose metamorphosis I had witnessed, it was not difficult to +guess at the identity of their destroyer. + +"I related my adventure to one of the chief people, and he informed me +he knew that particular kulpa-tree well. 'You undoubtedly owe your +salvation to having touched it,' he said. 'The original kulpa, which now +stands in the first heaven, is said to have been one of the fourteen +remarkable things turned up by the churning of the ocean by the gods and +demons; and the name of Ram and his consort Seeter are written on the +silvery trunks of all its earthly descendants. If once you touch any +portion of a kulpa briksha tree, you are quite safe from any +animal--that is why the wer-tiger snarled and ran away! But take my +advice, sahib, and leave the village.' + +"I did so, and on the way to my home in the hills visited the tree. +There, sure enough, plainly visible on the silvery surface in the +twilight, was the name of the incarnation of Vishnu, written in Sanskrit +characters, and apparently by some supernatural hand; that is to say, +there was a softness in the impression, as if the finger of some +supernatural being had traced the characters. I did not want any further +proofs--I had had enough; and taking good care to see my gun was loaded, +I hurried off. Nor have I ever ventured into that neighbourhood since." + +Mr. K----, continuing, informed me that from what he had been told by +his friend in the Kandh village, he concluded that only those who had +been initiated into the full rites of magic in their early youth could +see the totem in its full state of materialization, _i.e._, an enormous +tiger--half man and half beast. To those who were in some degree +clairvoyant it would appear as it had appeared to him, a mere column of +crimson light (crimson on account of its association with Black Magic); +whilst to those who were not in any way clairvoyant it would remain +entirely invisible. The young Kandh had prayed for the property of +lycanthropy solely as a means of revenge on those whom he imagined had +wronged him; and as a wer-tiger he was able to destroy them in the most +cruel manner possible. The property when once acquired, however, could +never be cast off, and the young man would, willy-nilly, undergo +transmutation every night, and in all probability continue killing and +eating people till some one plucked up the courage--for wer-tigers were +not only dreaded, but held in the greatest awe--to shoot him. + +There are certain tribes in India known to be adepts in Occultism, and +therefore one is not surprised to find lycanthropy linked with the +mysterious jugglery, etherical projection, and other psychic feats +accomplished by these tribesmen. The wer-tiger is not confined to the +Kandhs: it is met with in Malaysia, in the gorgeous tropical forests of +Java and Sumatra, where it is feared more than anything on earth by the +gentle and intelligent natives; and, if rumour be true, in the great, +lone mountains and dense jungles, and along the hot, unhealthy +river-banks of New Guinea. + +In Arawak, it gives place to the wer-jaguar; in Ashangoland, and many +parts of West Africa, to the wer-leopard. Of course, there are cases of +charlatanism in lycanthropy as in medicine, politics, palmistry, and in +every other science. But most, if not all, of these cases of sham +lycanthropy seem to come from West Africa, where leopard societies are +from time to time formed by young savages unable to restrain their +craving for cannibalism. These human vampires dress up in leopard-skins, +and stealing stealthily through the woods at night, attack stray +pedestrians or isolated households. After killing their victims, they +cut off any portions of the body--usually the breasts and thighs--they +fancy most for eating, and then mutilate the rest with the signia of +their society, _i.e._, long and deep scratchings, which are made either +with the claws of a leopard or some other beast, or with sharp iron +nails. Whole districts are often put in a state of panic by these +marauders, who, retiring to their retreat in the heart of some little +known, vast, and almost impenetrable forest, successfully defy capture. +But the fact of there being pseudo-wer-leopards by no means disposes of +the fact that there are genuine ones, any more than the fact that there +are charlatan palmists precludes the possibility of there being _bona +fide_ palmists; and I am inclined to believe lycanthropy exists in +certain parts of West Africa (_i.e._, where primitive conditions are +most in evidence), although not, perhaps, to the same extent as it does +in Asia and Europe. I do not think the negro's relationship to the +Occult Forces is quite the same as that of other races. He is often +clairvoyant and clairaudiant, and always very much in awe of the +superphysical; but it is rarely he can ever claim close intimacy with +it--not close enough, at all events, to be the recipient of its special +gifts. + +In werwolfery there is no "totem." The property of metamorphosis, in +this branch of lycanthropy, is not deemed the gift of a national deity, +but either of the Occult Powers in general or of some particular local +phantasm. In other branches of lycanthropy, viz., that of the wer-tiger +and wer-leopard--I am doubtful about the wer-jaguar--the property of +transmutation is said to be conferred solely by the god, or a god, of +the tribe. + +But although these various properties of lycanthropy are apparently +derived from different sources, the difference is only in outward form; +and I have no hesitation in saying that the occult power from which all +lycanthropy proceeds, whether in the form of a wolf, tiger, leopard, or +any other beast, is in reality the same species of Elemental.[32:1] But +whether a Vagrarian, Vice, or some other Elemental, I cannot possibly +say. + +I have stated that I am doubtful as to whether totemism exists in +Arawak. The truth is, with regard to this question, I am in receipt of +somewhat conflicting testimony. Some say that the natives have as their +god a deity in the form of a jaguar, to whom they pray for vengeance on +their foes and for the property of lycanthropy; which property (_vide_ +the case of the Kandhs) would give them the additional pleasure of +executing vengeance in their own person. On the other hand, I have heard +that the form of a jaguar is the form most commonly assumed by spirits +in Arawak, particularly by those invoked at seances. Hence it is +extremely difficult to arrive at the truth. From the corroborating +testimony of various people, however, I conclude that whereas among the +Kandhs and West African negroes the property of lycanthropy (unless, of +course, hereditary) is rarely conferred on females, or on anyone younger +than sixteen, in Arawak and Malaysia it is awarded regardless of sex or +age. + +Some years ago there was current, among certain tribes of the natives in +Arawak, a story to this effect:-- + +A Dutch trader, of the name of Van Hielen, was visiting for purely +business purposes an Indian settlement in a very remote part of the +colony. Roaming about the village one evening, he came to a hut standing +alone on the outskirts of one of those dense forests that are so +characteristic of Arawak. Van Hielen paused, and was marvelling how +anyone could choose to live in so outlandish and lonely a spot, when a +shrill scream, followed by a series of violent guttural ejaculations, +came from the interior of the building, and the next moment a little +boy--some seven or eight years of age--rushed out of the house, pursued +by a prodigiously fat woman, who whacked him soundly across the +shoulders with a knotted club and then halted for want of breath. Van +Hielen, who was well versed in the native language, politely asked her +what the boy had done to deserve so severe a chastisement. + +"Done!" the woman replied, opening her beady little eyes to their full +extent; "why, he's not done anything--that's why I beat him--he's +incorrigibly idle. He and his sister spend all their time amid the trees +yonder conversing with the bad spirits. They learned that trick from +Guska, with the evil eye. She has bewitched them. She was shot to death +with arrows in the market-place last year, and my only regret is that +she wasn't put out of the way ten years sooner. Ah! there's that wicked +girl Yarakna--she's been hiding from me all the day. I must punish her, +too!" and before Van Hielen could speak the indignant parent waddled +off--with surprising swiftness for one of her vast proportions--and +reappeared dragging by the wrist an elfish-looking girl of about ten. +She gave the urchin one blow, and was about to give her another, when +Van Hielen, whose heart was particularly tender where children were +concerned, interfered, and by dint of bribery persuaded her to desist. +She retired indoors, and Van Hielen found himself alone with the child. + +"May the spirit of the woods for ever be your friend!" the maiden said. +"But for you my poor back would have been beaten to a tonka bean. My +brother and I have suffered enough at the hands of the old woman--we'll +suffer no more." + +"What will you do then?" Van Hielen asked, shocked at the revengeful +expression that marred the otherwise pretty features of the child. +"Remember, she is your mother, and has every right to expect you to be +obedient and industrious." + +"She is not our mother!" the girl answered. "Our mother is the spirit of +the woods. We work for her--not for this old woman, and in return she +tells us tales and amuses us." + +"You work for her!" Van Hielen said in amazement. "What do you mean?" + +The child smiled--the ignorance of the white man tickled her. "We gather +aloes for medicine for her sick children; the core of the lechugilla for +their food, yucca leaves for plumes for their heads, and scarlet +panicles of the _Fouquiera splendens_ for their clothes. My brother and +I will go to her to-night when the old woman is sleeping. Where? Ah! we +do not tell anyone that. Do we see her? The spirit of the woods, you +mean? Yes, we see her, but it is not every one who can see her--only +those who have sight like ours. But I must go now--my brother is calling +me." + +Van Hielen could hear nothing; though he did not doubt, from the child's +behaviour, that she had been called. She ran merrily away, and he +watched her black head disappear in the thick undergrowth facing him. +Van Hielen's curiosity was roused. What the child had said impressed him +deeply; and against his saner judgment he resolved to secrete himself +near the hut and watch. After it had been dusk some time, and all sounds +had ceased, he saw the two children emerge from the hut, and, tiptoeing +softly towards the trees, fall on their hands and knees and crawl along +a tiny, deviating path. Hardly knowing what he was doing, but impelled +by a force he could not resist, Van Hielen followed them. It was a +delicious night--at that time of year every night in Arawak is +delicious--and Van Hielen, who was very simple in his love of nature, +imbibed delight through every pore in his body. As he trod gently along, +pushing first this branch and then that out of the way, and stooping +down to half his height to creep under a formidable bramble, countless +voices from animal land fell on his ears. From a glimmering patch of +water, away on his left, came the trump of a bull-frog and the wail of +the whip-poor-will; a monkey chattered, a parrot screeched, whilst a +shrill cry of terror, accompanied by a savage growl, plainly told of the +surprise and slaughter of some defenceless animal by one of the many big +beasts of prey that made every tree their lurking place. + +On any other occasion Van Hielen would have thought twice before +embarking on such an expedition; but that night he seemed to be +labouring under some charm which had lulled to sleep all sense of +insecurity. It was true he was armed, but of what avail is a rifle +against the unexpected spring of a jaguar or leopard--from a bough some +ten or twenty feet directly over one's head--or the sudden lunge of a +boa constrictor! + +At first, the path wound its way through a dense chapparal consisting of +the various shrubs and plants rarely to be met with in other parts of +Arawak, namely, acacias, aloes, lechuguillas, and the _Fouquiera +splendens_. But after a short time this kind of vegetation was succeeded +by something far more imposing--by dense masses of trees, many of them +at the least one hundred and fifty feet in height: the mora, which from +a distance appears like a hillock clothed with the brightest vegetation; +the ayucari, or red cedar; and the cuamara, laden with tonka beans. So +thick was their foliage overhead that one by one Van Hielen watched the +stars disappear; and the path ahead of him darkened till it was as much +as he could do to grope along. Still he was not afraid. The thought of +that elfish little maiden with the luminous eyes crawling along in front +of him inspired him with extraordinary confidence and he plunged on, +anxious only to catch another glimpse of her and see the play out. Once +his progress was interrupted by something hot and leathery, that pushed +him nearly off his feet and puffed rudely in his face. It was on the tip +of his tongue to give vent to his ruffled feelings in forcible language, +but the knowledge that this would assuredly warn the children of his +proximity kept him quiet, and he contented himself with striking a +vigorous blow. There was a loud snort, a crashing and breaking of +brushwood, and the thing, whatever it was, rushed away. Another time he +stumbled over a snake which was gliding from one side of the path to the +other. The creature hissed, and Van Hielen, giving himself up for lost, +jumped for all he was worth. As luck would have it the snake missed, and +Van Hielen, escaping with nothing more serious than a few scratches and +a bump or two, was able to continue his course. After long gropings the +path at length came to an end, the trees cleared, and Van Hielen saw +before him a pool, radiantly illuminated by the moon, and in the very +centre--an immense Victoria Regia water-lily. + +Though accustomed to the fine species of this plant in Guiana--which is +the home of the Victoria Regia--Van Hielen was doubtful if he had ever +before beheld such a magnificent specimen. The silvery moonlight, +falling on its white and pink petals, threw into relief all the +exquisite delicacy of their composition, and gave to them a glow which +could only have been rivalled in Elysium. Indeed, the whole scene, +enhanced by the glamour of the hour and the sweet scent of plants and +flowers, was so reminiscent of fairyland that Van Hielen--enraptured +beyond description--stood and gazed in open-mouthed ecstasy. + +Then his eyes fell on the children and he noiselessly slipped back under +cover of a tree. + +Hand in hand the boy and girl advanced to the water's edge, and +kneeling, commenced to recite some strange incantation, which Van Hielen +tried in vain to interpret. Sometimes their voices reached a high, +plaintive key; sometimes they sank to a low murmur, strangely musical, +and strangely suggestive of the babbling of brook water over stones and +pebbles. When they had finished their incantation, they got up, and +running to some bushes, returned in a few seconds with their arms full +of flowers, which they threw with great dexterity on to the leaves of +the giant lily. With their faces still turned to the water they remained +standing, side by side, whilst a silence--deep and impressive, and +shared, so it appeared to Van Hielen, by all nature--fell upon them. + +A cold current of air, rising apparently from the pool, blew across the +opening, and sweeping past Van Hielen, set all the leaves in motion. It +rustled on till its echoes gradually ceased, and all was still again. It +now seemed to Van Hielen that the character of everything around +underwent a subtle change; and the feeling that every object around him +was indulging in a hearty laugh at his expense intensified with every +breath he drew. For the first time Van Hielen was afraid. He could not +define the cause of his fear--but that only made his fear the more +acute. He was frightened of the wind and darkness, and of something more +than the wind and darkness--something concealed in--something cloaked by +the wind and darkness. Even the atmosphere had altered--it, too, was +making game of him. It distorted his vision. The things he saw around +him were no longer stationary--they moved. They twirled and twisted +themselves into all sorts of grotesque and fanciful attitudes; grew +large, then small; nearer and then more distant. The plot of ground in +front of which the children knelt played all manner of pranks--pranks +Van Hielen did not at all like. It moved round and round--faster and +faster, until it eventually became a whirlpool; which suddenly reversed +and assumed the appearance of a pyramid revolving on its apex. Quicker +and quicker it spun round--closer and closer it drew; until, without +warning, it suddenly stopped and disappeared; whilst its place was taken +by an oddly shaped bulge in the ground, which, swaying backward and +forward, increased and increased in stature, till it attained the height +of some seven or eight feet. Van Hielen could not compare this with +anything he had ever seen. It was monstrous but shapeless--a mere mass +of irregular lumps, a dull leadish white, and vibrating horribly in the +moonlight. He thought of the children; but where they had stood he saw +only two greenish-yellow spheres that, twirling round and round, +suddenly approached him. As he started back to escape them, all was +again changed. The lumpy figure had vanished, the atmosphere cleared, +and everything was absolutely normal. There were now, however, solid +grounds for fear. Advancing on him with flashing eyes and scintillating +teeth were two vividly marked jaguars--a male and female. Van Hielen, +usually calm and collected in the face of danger, on this occasion lost +his presence of mind: his gun dropped from his hands, his knees +quivered, and, helpless and inert, he reeled against the tree under +which he had been standing. The jaguars--which seemed to be unusually +savage even for jaguars--prepared to spring, and Van Hielen, certain +his hour had come, was about to close his eyes and resign himself to his +fate, when the female brute, although the bigger and more formidable, +hesitated--thrust its dark, handsomely spotted head almost in its +victim's face, and then, lashing its companion sharply with its tail, +swerved aside and was off like a dart. + +It took Van Hielen some minutes to realize his escape, and then, more in +a dream than awake, he mechanically shouldered his rifle and slowly +followed in the beasts' wake. + +An hour's walking brought him to the end of the forest. The dawn was +breaking, and the track leading to the settlement was just beginning to +exhibit the mellowing influence of the first rays of the sun. There was +an exhilarating freshness in the air that made Van Hielen keenly +sensitive to the ambitious demands of a newly awakened stomach. Opposite +him was the hut of the old woman, the entrance somewhat clumsily blocked +with a makeshift door. As Van Hielen looked at it curiously, wondering +if the woman was in the habit of barricading it in this fashion on +account of her proximity to the forest, sounds greeted him from within. + +Stepping lightly up to the hut, Van Hielen listened attentively. Some +big animal--a hound most probably--was gnawing a bone--crunch, crunch, +crunch! + +Van Hielen moved away, but hadn't gone very far before an indefinable +something made him turn back. That crunching, was it a dog or was +it----? His heart turned sick within him at the bare thought. Again he +listened at the threshold, and again he heard the sounds--gnaw, gnaw, +gnaw--crunch, crunch, crunch! He rapped at first gently, and then +loudly, ever so loudly. + +The gnawing at once stopped, but no one answered him. Then he +called--once, twice, thrice: there was no reply. Assured now there was +something amiss, he gripped his rifle, and putting his shoulder to the +door, burst it open. A flood of daylight rushed in, and he saw before +him on the floor the mutilated and half-eaten remains of a woman, +and--did his eyes deceive him or did he see?--crouching in a corner all +ready to spring, two magnificent jaguars. Van Hielen raised his rifle, +but--in less than a second--it fell from his grasp. + +Towards him, from the same spot--their small mouths and slender hands +smeared with blood--ran Yarakna and her brother. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[32:1] A spirit that has never inhabited any material body. Elementals +are a genus of a large order, and include innumerable species. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE SPIRITS OF WERWOLVES + + +It seems that there is a disposition in certain minds to associate +lycanthropy with the doctrine of the transmigration of souls. A brief +examination of the latter will, however, suffice to show there is very +little analogy between the two. + +Transmigration of souls, a metempsychosis, deals solely with the passing +of the soul after death into another mortal form. Lycanthropy confines +itself to the metamorphosis of physical man to animal form only during +man's physical lifetime. + +Metempsychosis is a change of condition dependent on the principle of +evolution (_i.e._ evolution upward and retrogressive). Lycanthropy is a +change of condition relative to a property, entirely independent of +evolution. The one is wholly determined by man's spiritual state at the +time of his physical dissolution; the other is simply a faculty of +sense, either handed down to man by his forefathers or acquired by man, +during his lifetime, through the knowledge and practice of magic. + +There are absolutely no grounds, other than purely hypothetical ones, +for supposing a werwolf to be a reincarnation; but on the other hand +there is reason to believe that the wolf personality of the werwolf, at +the latter's physical dissolution, remains earthbound in the form of a +lupine phantasm. So that although there is nothing to associate +lycanthropy with metempsychosis, there is, at all events, something in +common between lycanthropy and animism. Animism, be it understood, holds +that every living thing, whether man, beast, reptile, insect, or +vegetable, has a representative spirit. + +As an example of a lupine phantasm representing the personality of the +werwolf, I will quote a case, reported to me some years ago as having +occurred in Estonia, on the shores of the Baltic. A gentleman and his +sister, whom I will call Stanislaus and Anno D'Adhemar, were invited to +spend a few weeks with their old friends, the Baron and Baroness Von +A----, at their country home in Estonia. On the day arranged, they set +out for their friends' house, and alighting at a little station, within +twenty miles of their destination, were met by the Baron's droshky. It +was one of those exquisite evenings--a night light without moon, a day +shady without clouds--peculiar to that clime. Indeed, it seemed as if +the last glow of the evening and the first grey of the morning had +melted together, and as if all the luminaries of the sky merely rested +their beams without withdrawing them. To Stanislaus and Anno, jaded with +the wear and tear of life in a big city, the calm and quiet of the +country-side was most refreshing, and they heaved great sighs of +contentment as they leaned far back amid the luxurious upholstery of the +carriage, and drew in deep breaths of the smokeless, pure, scented air. +Their surroundings modelled their thoughts. Instead of discussing +monetary matters, which had so long been uppermost in their minds, they +discoursed on the wonderful economy of happiness in a world full of toil +and struggle; the fewer the joys, they argued, the higher the enjoyment, +till the last and highest joy of all, true peace of mind, _i.e._, +content, was the one joy found to contain every other joy. Occasionally +they paused to remark on the brilliant lustre of the stars, and, not +infrequently, alluded to the Creator's graciousness in allowing them to +behold such beauty. Occasionally, too, they would break off in the midst +of their conversation to listen to the plaintive utterings of some night +bird or the shrill cry of a startled hare. The rate at which they were +progressing--for the horses were young and fresh--speedily brought them +to an end of the open country, and they found themselves suddenly +immersed in the deepening gloom of a dense and extensive forest of +pines. The track now was not quite so smooth; here and there were big +ruts, and Stanislaus and his sister were subjected to such a vigorous +bumping that they had to hold on to the sides of the droshky, and to one +another. In the altered conditions of their travel, conversation was +well-nigh impossible. The little they attempted was unceremoniously +jerked out of them, and the nature of it--I am loath to admit--had +somewhat deteriorated. It had, in fact, in accordance with their +surroundings, undergone a considerable change. + +"What a vile road!" Stanislaus exclaimed, clutching the side of the +droshky with both hands to save himself from being precipitated into +space. + +"Yes--isn't--it?" gasped Anno, as she lunged forward, and in a vain +attempt to regain her seat fell on their handbag, which gave an ominous +squish. "I declare there--there--will be--nothing left of me--by the--by +the time we get there. Oh dear! Whatever shall I do? Wherever have you +got to, Stanislaus?" + +The upper half of Stanislaus was nowhere to be seen! His lower half, +however, was discovered by his sister convulsively pressed against the +side of the droshky. In another moment this, too, would undoubtedly have +disappeared, and the lower extremities would have gone in pursuit of the +upper, had not Anno with admirable presence of mind effected a rescue. +She tugged at her brother's coat-tails in the very nick of time, with +the result that his whole body once again hove into view. + +Just then a bird sang its final song before retiring for the night, and +Stanislaus, hot and trembling all over, shouted out: "What a hideous +noise! I declare it quite frightened me"; whilst Anno shuddered and put +her fingers in her ears. They once more abused the road; then the trees. +"Great ugly things," they said; "they shut out all the light." And then +they abused the driver for not looking out where he was going, and +finally they began to abuse one another. Anno abused Stanislaus, because +he had disarranged her hat and hair, and Stanislaus, Anno, because he +couldn't hear all she said, and because what he did hear was silly. Then +the Stygian darkness of the great pines grew; and the silence of wonder +fell on the two quarrellers. On, on, on rolled the droshky, a monotonous +rumble, rumble, that sounded very loud amid the intense hush that had +suddenly fallen on the forest. Stanislaus and Anno grew drowsy; the cold +night air, crowning their exertions of the day, induced sleep, and they +were soon very much in the land of nods: Stanislaus with his head thrust +back as far as it would go, and Anno with her head leaning slightly +forward and her chin deeply rooted in the silvery recesses of her rich +fur coat. + +The driver stopped for a moment. He had to attend to his lights, which, +he reflected, were behaving in rather an odd manner. Then, scratching +his head thoughtfully, he cracked his whip and drove hurriedly on. Once +again, rumble, rumble, rumble; and no other sounds but far away echoes +and the gentle cooing of a soft night breeze through the forked and +ragged branches of the sad and stately pines. On, on, on, the light +uncertain and the horses brisk. Suddenly the driver hears something--he +strains his ears to catch the meaning of the sounds--a peculiar, quick +patter, patter--coming from far away in the droshky's wake. There is +something--he can't exactly tell what--in those sounds he doesn't like; +they are human, and yet not human; they may proceed from some one +running--some one tall and lithe, with an unusually long stride. They +may--and he casts a shuddering look over his shoulder as the thought +strikes him--they may be nothing human--they may be the patter of a +wolf! A huge, gaunt, hungry wolf! an abnormally big wolf! a wolf with a +gallop like that of a horse! The driver was new to these parts; he had +but lately come from the Baron's establishment in St. Petersburg. He had +never been in this wood after dark, and he had never seen a wolf save in +the Zoological Gardens. The atmosphere now began to sharpen. From being +merely cold it became positively icy, and muttering, "I never felt +anything like this in St. Petersburg," the driver shrank into the depths +of his furs, and tried to settle himself more comfortably in his seat. +The horses, too, four in number, were strangers in Estonia, the Baron +having only recently paid a heavy price for them in Nava on account of +their beauty. Not that they were merely handsome; despite their small +and graceful build, and the glossy sleekness of their coats, they were +both strong and spirited, and could cover twenty-five versts without a +pause. But now they, too, heard the sounds--there was no doubt of +that--and felt the cold. At first they shivered, then whined, and then +came to an abrupt halt; and then, without the slightest warning, tore +the shifting tag and rag tight around them, and bounding forward, were +off like the wind. Then, away in their rear, and plainly audible above +the thunder of their hoofs, came a moaning, snarling, drawn-out cry, +which was almost instantly repeated, not once, but again and again. + +Stanislaus and Anno, who had been rudely awakened from their slumbers by +the unusual behaviour of the horses, were now on the _qui vive_. + +"Good heavens! What's that?" they cried in chorus. + +"What's that, coachman?" shrieked Anno, digging the shivering driver in +the back. + +"Volki, mistress, volki!" was the reply, and on flew the droshky faster, +faster, faster! + +To Stanislaus and Anno the word "wolves" came as a stunning shock. All +the tales they had ever heard of these ferocious beasts crowded their +minds at once. Wolves! was it possible that those dreadful bogies of +their childhood--those grim and awful creatures, grotesquely but none +the less vividly portrayed in their imagination by horror-loving +nurses--were actually close at hand! Supposing the brutes caught them, +who would be eaten first? Anno, Stanislaus, or the driver? Would they +devour them with their clothes on? If not, how would they get them off? +Then, filled with morbid curiosity, they strained their ears and +listened. Again--this time nearer, much nearer--came that cry, dismal, +protracted, nerve-racking. Nor was that all, for they could now discern +the pat-pat, pat-pat of footsteps--long, soft, loping footsteps, as of +huge furry paws or naked human feet. However, they could see +nothing--nothing but blackness, intensified by the feeble flickering of +the droshky's lanterns. + +"Faster! drive faster!" Anno shouted, turning round and poking the +coachman in the ribs with her umbrella. "Do you want us all to be +eaten?" + +"I can't mistress, I can't!" the man expostulated; "the horses are +outstripping the wind as it is. They can't go quicker." And the driver, +consigning Stanislaus and his sister to the innermost recesses of hell, +prayed to the Virgin to save him. + +Nearer and nearer drew the steps, and again a cry--a cry close behind +them, perhaps fifty yards--fifty yards at the most. And as they were +trying to locate it there burst into view a gigantic figure--nude and +luminous, a figure that glowed like a glow-worm and bent slightly +forward as it ran. It covered the ground with long, easy, swinging +strides, without any apparent effort. In general form its body was like +that of a man, saving that the limbs were longer and covered with short +hair, and the feet and hands, besides being larger as a whole, had +longer toes and fingers. Its head was partly human, partly lupine--the +skull, ears, teeth, and eyes were those of a wolf, whilst the remaining +features were those of a man. Its complexion was devoid of colour, +startlingly white; its eyes green and lurid, its expression hellish. + +Stanislaus and Anno did not know what to make of it. Was it some +terrible monstrosity that had escaped from a show, or something that was +peculiar to the forest itself, something generated by the giant trees +and dark, silent road? In their sublime terror they shrieked aloud, beat +the air with their hands to ward it off, and finally left their seats to +cling on to the back of the driver's box. + +But it came nearer, nearer, and nearer, until they were almost within +reach of its arms. They read death in the glinting greenness of its eyes +and in the flashing of its long bared teeth. The climax of their agony, +they argued, could no longer be postponed. The thing had only to make a +grab at them and they would die of horror--die even before it touched +them. But this was not to be. + +They were still staring into the pale malevolent face drawing nearer and +nearer, and wondering when the long twitching fingers would catch them +by the throats, when the droshky with a mad swirl forward cleared the +forest, and they found themselves gazing wildly into empty moonlit +space, with no sign of their pursuer anywhere. + +An hour later they narrated their adventure to the Baron. Nothing could +have exceeded his distress. "My dear friends!" he said, "I owe you a +profound apology. I ought to have told my man to choose any other road +rather than that through the forest, which is well known to be haunted. +According to rumour, a werwolf--we have good reason to believe in +werwolfs here--was killed there many years ago." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +HOW TO BECOME A WERWOLF + + +As I have already stated, in some people lycanthropy is hereditary; and +when it is not hereditary it may be acquired through the performance of +certain of the rites ordained by Black Magic. For the present I can only +deal with the more general features of these rites (which vary according +to locality) and the conditions of mind essential to those who would +successfully practise these rites. In the first place, it is necessary +that the person desirous of acquiring the property of lycanthropy should +be in earnest and a believer in those superphysical powers whose favour +he is about to ask. + +Assuming we have such an individual he must, first of all, betake +himself to a spot remote from the haunts of men. The powers to be +petitioned are not to be found promiscuously--anywhere. They favour only +such waste and solitary places as the deserts, woods, and mountain-tops. + +The locality chosen, our candidate must next select a night when the +moon is new and strong.[56:1] He must then choose a perfectly level +piece of ground, and on it, at midnight, he must mark, either with chalk +or string--it really does not matter which--a circle of not less than +seven feet in radius, and within this, and from the same centre, another +circle of three feet in radius. Then, in the centre of this inner circle +he must kindle a fire, and over the fire place an iron tripod containing +an iron vessel of water. As soon as the water begins to boil the +would-be lycanthropist must throw into it handfuls of any three of the +following substances: Asafoetida, parsley, opium, hemlock, henbane, +saffron, aloe, poppy-seed and solanum; repeating as he does so these +words:-- + + "Spirits from the deep + Who never sleep, + Be kind to me. + + "Spirits from the grave + Without a soul to save, + Be kind to me. + + "Spirits of the trees + That grow upon the leas, + Be kind to me. + + "Spirits of the air, + Foul and black, not fair, + Be kind to me. + + "Water spirits hateful, + To ships and bathers fateful, + Be kind to me. + + "Spirits of earthbound dead + That glide with noiseless tread, + Be kind to me. + + "Spirits of heat and fire, + Destructive in your ire, + Be kind to me. + + "Spirits of cold and ice, + Patrons of crime and vice, + Be kind to me. + + "Wolves, vampires, satyrs, ghosts! + Elect of all the devilish hosts! + I pray you send hither, + Send hither, send hither, + The great grey shape that makes men shiver! + Shiver, shiver, shiver! + Come! Come! Come!" + +The supplicant then takes off his vest and shirt and smears his body +with the fat of some newly killed animal (preferably a cat), mixed with +aniseed, camphor, and opium. Then he binds round his loins a girdle made +of wolf's-skin, and kneeling down within the circumference of the first +circle, waits for the advent of the Unknown. When the fire burns blue +and quickly dies out, the Unknown is about to manifest itself; if it +does not then actually appear it will make its presence felt. + +There is little consistency in the various methods of the spirit's +advent: sometimes a deep unnatural silence immediately precedes it; +sometimes crashes and bangs, groanings and shriekings, herald its +approach. When it remains invisible its presence is indicated and +accompanied by a sensation of abnormal cold and the most acute terror. +It is sometimes visible in the guise of a huntsman--which is, perhaps, +its most popular shape--sometimes in the form of a monstrosity, partly +man and partly beast--and sometimes it is seen ill defined and only +partially materialized. To what order of spirits it belongs is, of +course, purely a matter of conjecture. I believe it to be some +malevolent, superphysical, creative power, such as, in my opinion, +participated largely in the creation of this and other planets. I do not +believe it to be the Devil, because I do not believe in the existence of +only one devil, but in countless devils. It is difficult to say to what +extent the Unknown is believed to be powerful by those who approach it +for the purpose of acquiring the gift of lycanthropy; but I am inclined +to think that the majority of these, at all events, do not ascribe to it +any supreme power, but regard it merely as a local spirit--the spirit +of some particular wilderness or forest. + +Of course, it is quite possible that the property of werwolfery might be +acquired by other than a direct personal communication with the Unknown, +as, for example, by eating a wolf's brains, by drinking water out of a +wolf's footprints, or by drinking out of a stream from which three or +more wolves have been seen to drink; but as most of the stories I have +heard of werwolfery acquired in this way are of a wild and improbable +nature, I think there is little to be learned from the _modus operandi_ +they advocate. The following story, which I believe to be true in the +main, was told me by a Dr. Broniervski, whom I met in Boulogne. + +"Ten years ago," my informant began, "I was engaged in a geological +expedition in Montenegro. I left Cetinge in company with my escort, +Dugald Dalghetty, a Dalmatian who had served me on many former +occasions; but owing to an accident I was compelled to leave him behind +at a village about thirty miles east of the capital. As it was +absolutely necessary for me to have a guide, I chose a Montenegrin +called Kniaz. Dalghetty warned me against him. 'Kniaz has the evil eye,' +he said; 'he will bring misfortune on you. Choose some one else.' + +"Kniaz was certainly not particularly prepossessing. He was tall and +angular, and pock-marked and sandy-haired; and his eyes had a peculiar +cast--only a cast, of course, nothing more. To balance these detractions +he was civil in his manners and extremely moderate in his terms. +Dalghetty, faithful fellow, almost wept as he watched us depart. 'I +shall never see you again,' he said. 'Never!' + +"Just outside the last cottage in the village we passed a gigantic, +broad-shouldered man, clad in the usual clothes of frieze, a black +skullcap, wide trousers, and tights from the knee to the ankle. Over his +shoulders was a new white strookah, of which he seemed very proud; +whilst he had a perfect armament of weapons--rifles, pistols, +yatagan--polished up to the knocker--and cartouche-box. He was +conversing with a girl at one of the windows, but turned as we came up +to him and leered impudently at Kniaz. The sallow in Kniaz's cheeks +turned to white, and the cast in his eyes became ten times more +pronounced. But he said nothing--only drooped his head and shuffled a +little closer to me. + +"For the rest of the day he spoke little; and I could tell from his +expression and general air of dejection that he was still brooding over +the incident. The following morning--we stayed the night in a wayside +inn--Kniaz informed me that the route we had intended taking to +Skaravoski--the town I meant to make the head quarters for my daily +excursions--was blocked (a blood feud had suddenly been declared between +two tribes), and that consequently we should have to go by some other +way. I inquired who had told him and whether he was sure the information +was correct. He replied that our host had given him the warning, and +that the possibility of such an occurrence had been suggested to him +before leaving Cetinge. 'But,' he added, 'there is no need to worry, for +the other road, though somewhat wild and rough, is, in reality, quite as +safe, and certainly a good league and a half shorter.' As it made no +very great difference to me which way I went, I acquiesced. There was no +reason to suspect Kniaz of any sinister motive--cases of treachery on +the part of escorts are practically unknown in Montenegro--and if it +were true that some of the tribes were engaged in a vendetta, then I +certainly agreed that we could not give them too wide a berth. At the +same time I could not help observing a strange innovation in Kniaz's +character. Besides the sullenness that had laid hold of him since his +encounter with the man and girl, he now exhibited a restless +eagerness--his eyes were never still, his lips constantly moved, and I +could frequently hear him muttering to himself as we trudged along. He +asked me several times if I believed in the supernatural, and when I +laughingly replied 'No, I am far too practical and level-headed,' he +said 'Wait. We are now in the land of spirits. You will soon change your +opinion.' + +"The country we were traversing was certainly forbidding--forbidding +enough to be the hunting ground of legions of ferocious animals. But the +supernatural! Bah! I flouted such an idea. All day we journeyed along a +lofty ridge, from which, shortly before dusk, it became necessary to +descend by a narrow and precipitous declivity, full of danger and +difficulty. At the bottom we halted three or four hours, to wait for the +moon, in a position sufficiently romantic and uncomfortable. A +north-east wind, cold and biting, came whistling over the hills, and +seemed to be sucked down into the hollow where we sat on the chilly +stones. The moment we sighted the slightly depressed orb of the moon +over the vast hill of rocks, and the Milky Way spanning the heavens with +a brilliancy seen only in the East, we pushed on again. On, along a +painfully rough and uneven track, flanked on either side by +perpendicular masses of rock that reared themselves, black and frowning, +like some huge ruined wall. On, till we eventually came to the end of +the defile. Then an extraordinary scene burst upon us. + +"Whilst the irregular line of rocks continued close on our left, beyond +it--glittering in the miraculously magnifying moonlight with more +gigantic proportions than nature had afforded--was a huge pile of white +rocks, looking like the fortifications of some vast fabulous city. There +were yawning gateways flanked by bastions of great altitude; towers and +pyramids; crescents and domes; and dizzy pinnacles; and castellated +heights; all invested with the unearthly grandeur of the moon, yet +showing in their wide breaches and indescribable ruin sure proofs that +during a long course of ages they had been battered and undermined by +rain, hurricane, and lightning, and all the mighty artillery of time. +Piled on one another, and repeated over and over again, these strangely +contorted rocks stretched as far as the eye could reach, sinking, +however, as they receded, and leading the mind, though not the eye, down +to the plain below, through which a turbid stream wound its way +rebelliously, like some great twisting, twirling, silvery-scaled +serpent. + +"It was into this gorge that Kniaz in a voice thrilling with excitement +informed me we must plunge. + +"'It is called,' he explained to me, 'the haunted valley, and it is said +to have been from time immemorial under the spell of the grey spirits--a +species of phantasm, half man and half animal, that have the power of +metamorphosing men into wild beasts.' Horses, he went on to inform me, +showed the greatest reluctance to enter the valley, which was a sure +proof that the place was in very truth phantom-ridden. I must say its +appearance favoured that theory. The path by which we descended was +almost perpendicular, and filled with shadows. Precipices hemmed us in +on every side; and here and there a huge fragment of rock, standing like +a petrified giant, its summit gleaming white in the moonbeams, barred +our way. + +"On reaching the bottom we found ourselves exactly opposite the pile of +white rocks, at the base of which roared the stream. Kniaz now declared +that our best plan was to halt and bivouac here for the night. I +expostulated, saying that I did not feel in the least degree tired, that +the spot was far from comfortable, and that I preferred to push on. +Kniaz then pleaded that he was too exhausted to proceed, and, in fact, +whined to such an extent that in the end I gave way, and lying down +under cover of a boulder, tried to imagine myself in bed. I did actually +fall asleep, and awoke with the sensation of something crawling over my +face. Sitting up, I looked around for Kniaz--he was nowhere to be seen. +The oddness of his behaviour, his alternate talkativeness and +sullenness, and the anxiety he had manifested to come by this route, +made me at last suspicious. Had he any ulterior motive in leading me +hither? What had become of him? Where was he? I got up and approached +the margin of the stream, and then for the first time I felt frightened. +The illimitable possibilities of that enormous mass of castellated rocks +towering above me both quelled and fascinated me. Were these flickering +shadows shadows, or--or had Kniaz, after all, spoken the truth when he +said this valley was haunted? The moonlight rendered every object I +looked upon so startlingly vivid, that not even the most trivial detail +escaped my notice, and the more I scrutinized the more firmly the +conviction grew on me that I was in a neighbourhood differing +essentially from any spot I had hitherto visited. I saw nothing with +which I had been formerly conversant. The few trees at hand resembled no +growth of either the torrid, temperate, or northern frigid zones, and +were altogether unlike those of the southern latitudes with which I was +most familiar. The very rocks were novel in their mass, their colour, +and their stratification; and the stream itself, utterly incredible as +it may appear, had so little in common with the streams of other +countries that I shrank away from it in alarm. I am at a loss to give +any distinct idea of the nature of the water. I can only say it was not +like ordinary water, either in appearance or behaviour. Even in the +moonlight it was not colourless, nor was it of any one colour, +presenting to the eye every variety of green and blue. Although it fell +over stones and rocks with the same rapid descent as ordinary water, it +made no sound, neither splash nor gurgle. Summoning up courage, I dipped +my fingers in the stream; it was quite cold and limpid. The difference +did not lie there. I was still puzzling over this phenomenon, still +debating in my mind the possibility of the valley being haunted, when I +heard a cry--a peculiarly ominous cry--human and yet animal. For a few +seconds I was too overcome with fear to move. At last, however, having +in some measure pulled myself together, I ventured cautiously in the +direction of the noise, and after treading as lightly as I could over +the rough and rocky soil for some couple of hundred yards, suddenly came +to an abrupt standstill. + +"Kneeling beside the stream with its back turned to me was an +extraordinary figure--a thing with a man's body and an animal's head--a +dark, shaggy head with unmistakable prick ears. I gazed at it aghast. +What was it? What was it doing? As I stared it bent down, lapped the +water, and raising its head, uttered the same harrowing sound that had +brought me thither. I then saw, with a fresh start of wonder, that its +hands, which shone very white in the moonlight, were undergoing a +gradual metamorphosis. I watched carefully, and first one finger, and +then another, became amalgamated in a long, furry paw, armed with sharp, +formidable talons. + +"I suppose that in my fear and astonishment I made some sound of +sufficient magnitude to attract attention; anyhow, the creature at once +swung round, and, with a snarl of rage, rushed savagely at me. Being +unarmed, and also, I confess, unnerved, I completely lost my presence of +mind, and not attempting to escape--though flight would have been +futile, for I was nothing of a runner--shrieked aloud for help. The +thing sprang at me, its jaws wide open, its eyes red with rage. I struck +at it wildly, and have dim recollections of my puny blows landing on its +face. It closed in on me, and gripping me tightly round the body with +its sinewy arms, hurled me to the ground. My head came in violent +contact with a stone, and I lost consciousness. On recovering my senses, +I was immeasurably surprised to find Dalghetty sitting on a rock +watching me, whilst close beside him was Kniaz, bloodstained and +motionless. + +"Dalghetty explained the situation. 'Convinced that evil would befall +you in the company of such a man,' he said, pointing to the figure at +his feet, 'I determined to set out in pursuit of you. By a miracle, +which I attribute to Our Lady, the effects of my accident suddenly wore +off, and I felt absolutely well. I borrowed a horse, and, starting from +Cetinge at nine this morning, reached the inn where you passed last +night at eleven. There I learned the route you had taken, and leaving +the horse behind--on such a road I was safer on my legs--I pressed on. +The ground, being moist in places, revealed your footprints, and I had +no difficulty at all in tracing you to the bottom of the declivity. +There I was at sea for some moments, since the rocky soil was too hard +to receive any impressions. But hearing the howl of some wild animal, I +concluded you were attacked, and, guided by the sound, I arrived here to +find a werwolf actually preparing to devour you. A bullet from my rifle +speedily rendered the creature harmless, and a close inspection of it +proved that my surmises were only too correct. It was none other than +our friend here with the evil eye--Kniaz!' + +"'Kniaz a werwolf!' I ejaculated. + +"'Yes! he inveigled you here because he had made up his mind to drink +the water of the enchanted stream, and so become metamorphosed from a +man to a wild beast. His object in doing so was to destroy a young +farmer who had stolen his sweetheart, and for whom he, as a man, was no +match. However, he is harmless now, but it is a warning to you in future +to trust no one who has the evil eye.'" + +Belief in the evil eye is everywhere prevalent in the East, and it is +undoubtedly true that people who have certain peculiarities in their +eyes, both with regard to expression, colour, and formation, are people +to be avoided. If malevolently inclined, they invariably bring ill-luck +on all who become acquainted with them. I have followed the careers of +several people in whom I have noticed this baneful feature, and their +histories have been one long tale of sin or sorrow--often both. + +But though the evil eye denotes an evil superphysical influence, the +werwolf is not necessarily possessed of it. Sometimes a werwolf may be +told by the long, straight, slanting eyebrows, which meet in an angle +over the nose; sometimes by the hands, the third finger of which is a +trifle the longest; or by the finger-nails, which are red, +almond-shaped, and curved; sometimes by the ears, which are set rather +low, and far back on their heads; and sometimes by a noticeably long, +swinging stride, which is strongly suggestive of some animal. Either one +or other of these features is always present in hereditary werwolves, +and is also frequently developed in those people who become werwolves, +either at the same time as or soon after they acquire the property. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[56:1] Psychic influences are demonstrated by the position of the +planets. For instance, at a new moon, cusp of Seventh House, and +cojoined with Saturn in opposition to Jupiter, sinister superphysical +presences are much in evidence on the earth. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +WERWOLVES AND EXORCISM + + +In the preceding chapter I touched on one or two modes of evoking the +spirits that have it in their power to confer the property of +lycanthropy; I now pass on to the question of exorcism in relation to +werwolves. + +Is it possible to exorcize the evil power of metamorphosis possessed by +the werwolf, or, as those would say who see in the werwolf, not the +possession of a property, but a spirit, "to exorcize the evil spirit"? + +For my own part, and basing my opinion on my own experiences with other +forms of the superphysical, with regard to the success of exorcism I am +sceptical. I have been present when exorcism has been tried--tried on +people supposed to be obsessed with demoniacal spirits, and tried on +spontaneous psychic phenomena in haunted houses--and in both cases it +has failed. Now, although, as I have said, I regard lycanthropy in the +light of a property, and do not believe in the lycanthropist being +possessed of a separate individual spirit, I am inclined to think, were +exorcism efficacious at all, that it would take effect on werwolves, +since the property of werwolfery is a gift which is, more or less, +directly acquired from the malevolent spirits. + +But I am not only dubious as to the powers of exorcism generally, I am +also dubious as to its effect on werwolves. I have come across a good +many alleged cases of its having been successfully practised on +werwolves, but in regard to these cases, the authority is not very +reliable, nor the corroborative evidence strong. + +Nearly all the methods prescribed embrace the use of some potion; such, +for example, as sulphur, asafoetida, and castoreum, mixed with clear +spring water; or hypericum, compounded with vinegar--which two potions +seem to have been (and to be still) the most favoured recipes for +removing the devilish power. + +The ceremony of exorcism proceeded as follows: The werwolf was sprinkled +three times with one of the above solutions, and saluted with the sign +of the cross, or addressed thrice by his baptismal name, each address +being accompanied by a blow on the forehead with a knife; or he was +sprinkled, whilst at the same time his girdle was removed; or in lieu of +being sprinkled, he had three drops of blood drawn from his chest, or +was compelled to kneel in one spot for a great number of years. + +A full description of the practice and failure of exorcism was cited to +me the other day in connexion with a comparatively recent happening in +Asiatic Russia:-- + +Tina Peroviskei, a wealthy young widow, who lived in St. Nicholas +Street, Moscow--not a hundred yards from the house of Herr Schauman, the +well-known German banker and horticulturist (every one in Russia has +heard of the Schauman tulips)--met a gentleman named Ivan Baranoff at a +friend's house, and, despite the warning of her brother, married him. + +Ivan Baranoff did not look more than thirty years of age. He was usually +dressed in grey furs--a grey fur coat, grey fur leggings, and a grey fur +cap. His features were very handsome--at least, so Tina thought--his +hair was flaxen, glossy, and bright as a mirror; and his mouth, when +open, displayed a most brilliant set of even, white teeth. Tina had +three children by her first husband, and the fuss Ivan Baranoff made of +them pleased her immensely. Their own father never evinced a greater +anxiety for their welfare. Ivan brought them the most expensive toys and +sweetmeats--particularly sweetmeats--and would insist on seeing for +himself that they had plenty of rich, creamy milk, fresh eggs, and the +best of butter. + +"You'll kill them with kindness," Tina often remonstrated. "They are too +fat by half now." + +"They can't be too fat," Ivan would reply. "No one is too fat. I love to +see rosy cheeks and stout limbs. Wait till you're in the country! Then +you may talk about putting on flesh. The air there will fatten you even +more than the food." + +"Then we shall burst, and there will be an end of us," Tina would +laughingly say. + +But despite all this, despite the way in which he fondled and caressed +them, the children involuntarily shrank away from Ivan; and on Tina +angrily demanding the reason, they told her they could not help +it--there was something in his bright eyes and touch that frightened +them. When Tina's brothers and sisters heard of this, they upheld the +children. + +"We are not in the least surprised," they said; "his eyes are cruel--so +are his lips; and as for his eyebrows--those dark, straight eyebrows +that meet in a point over the nose--why, every one knows what a bad sign +that is!" + +But Tina grew so angry they had to desist. "You are jealous," she said +to her brothers. "You envy him his looks and money." And to her sisters +she said, "You only wish you could have had him yourselves. You know I +love him already far more than I ever loved Rupert." (Rupert was her +first husband.) + +And within a month or so of the marriage Tina left all her relatives in +Moscow, and, accompanied by her children and dogs--some people hinted +that Tina was fonder of her dogs than of her children--went with Ivan +Baranoff to his ancestral home near Orsk. + +Though accustomed to the cold, Tina found the climate of Orsk almost +more than she could bear. Her husband's house, which occupied an +extremely solitary position on the confines of a gloomy forest, some few +miles from the town, was a large, grey stone building full of dark +winding passages and dungeon-like rooms. The furniture was scant, and +the rooms, with the exception of those devoted to herself, her husband +and the children, which were covered with crimson drugget, were +carpetless. A more barren, inhospitable looking house could not be +imagined, and the moment Tina entered it, her spirits sank to zero. The +atmosphere of the place frightened her the most. It was not that it was +merely forlorn and cheerless, but there was a something in it that +reminded her of the smell of the animal houses in the Zoological Gardens +in Moscow, and a something she could not analyse--a something which she +concluded must be peculiar to the house. The children were very much +upset. The sight of the dark entrance hall and wide, silent staircases, +bathed in gloom, terrified them. + +"Oh, mother!" they cried, clutching hold of Tina Baranoff and dragging +her back, "we can never live here. Take us away at once. Look at those +things. Whatever are they?" And they pointed to the shadows--queerly +shaped shadows--that lay in thick clusters on the stairs and all around +them. + +Tina did not know what to say. Her own apprehensions and the only too +obvious terror of the dogs, whom she had literally to drive across the +threshold, and who whined and cringed at her feet, confirming the +children's fears, made it impossible for her to check them. Moreover, +since leaving Moscow the warnings of her friends and relations had often +come back to her. Though Ivan had never ceased to be kind, his conduct +roused her suspicions. During the journey, which he had insisted should +be performed in a droshky, he halted every evening directly the moon +became invisible, and used to disappear regularly between dusk and +sunrise. He would never tell her where he went or attempt to explain the +oddness of his conduct, but when pressed by her would merely say: + +"It is a habit. I always like to roam abroad in the night-time--it would +be very bad for my health if I did not." + +And this was all Tina could get out of him. She noticed, too, what her +blind infatuation had prevented her observing before, that there was a +fierce expression in his eyes when he set out on these nocturnal +rambles, and that on his return the corners of his mouth and his long +finger-nails were always smeared with blood. Furthermore, she noticed +that although he was concerned about the appetites of herself and the +children, he ate very little cooked food himself--never vegetables or +bread--and would often furtively put a raw piece of meat into his mouth +when he thought no one was looking. + +Tina hoped that these irregularities would cease on their arrival at the +chateau, but, on the contrary, they rather increased, and she became +greatly perturbed. + +The second night after their arrival, when she had been in bed some time +and was nearly asleep, Tina, between her half-closed eyelids, watched +her husband get out of bed, stealthily open the window, and drop from +the sill. Some hours later she was again aroused. She heard the growl of +a wolf--and immediately afterwards saw Ivan's grey-clad head at the +window. He came softly into the room, and as he tiptoed across the floor +to the washstand, Tina saw splashes of blood on his face and coat, +whilst it dripped freely from his finger-tips. In the morning the news +was brought her by the children that one of her favourite dogs was +dead--eaten by some wild animal, presumably a wolf. Tina's position now +became painful in the extreme. She was more than suspicious of her +husband, and had no one--saving her children--in whom she could confide. +The house seemed to be under a ban; no one, not even a postman or +tradesman, ever came near it, and with the exception of the two +servants, whose silent, gliding movements and light glittering eyes +filled both her and her children with infinite dread, she did not see a +soul. + +On four consecutive nights one of her four dogs was killed, each in +precisely the same manner; and on each of these consecutive nights Tina +watched Ivan surreptitiously leave the house and return all +bloodstained, and accompanied by the distant howl of wolves. And on the +day following the death of each dog respectively, Tina noticed the grey +glinting eyes of the two servants become more and more earnestly fixed +on the children and herself. At meal-times the eyes never left her; she +was conscious of their scrutiny at every mouthful she took; and when she +passed them in the passages, she instinctively felt their gaze following +her steadily till she was out of sight. Sometimes, hearing a stealthy +breathing outside her room, she would quickly open the door, demanding +who was there; and she invariably caught one or other of the servants +slinking away disconcerted, but still peeping at her furtively from +under his long pointed eyebrows. When she spoke to them they answered +her in harsh, curiously discordant tones, and usually only in +monosyllables; but she never heard them converse with one another save +in whispers--always in whispers. The house was now full of shadows--and +whispers. They haunted her even in her sleep. For the first two or three +days her husband had been communicative; but he gradually grew more and +more taciturn, until at last he rarely said anything at all. He merely +watched her--watched her wherever she went, and whatever she did; and he +watched the children--particularly the children--with the same +expression, the same undefinable secretive expression that harmonized so +well with the shadows and whispers. And it was this treatment--the +treatment she now received from her husband--that made Tina appreciate +the company of her children. Before, they had been quite a tertiary +consideration--Ivan had come first; then the dogs; and lastly, Hilda, +Olga, and Peter. But this order was at length reversed; and on the death +of the last of her pets, Hilda, Olga and Peter stood first. She spent +practically every minute of the day with them; and, despite the +protestations of her husband, converted her dressing-room into a bedroom +for them. The first evening of their removal to their new quarters, Tina +sat and played with them till one after another they fell asleep from +sheer exhaustion. Then she sat beside them and examined them curiously. +Hilda, the eldest, was lying composed and orderly, with pale cheek and +smooth hair, her limbs straight, her head slightly bent, the bedclothes +unruffled upon the regularly heaving chest. How pretty Hilda looked, and +how odd it was that she, Tina, had never noticed the beauty of the child +before! Why, with her fair complexion, delicate features, and perfectly +shaped arms and hands she would undoubtedly one day take all Moscow by +storm; and every one would say, "Do you know who that lovely girl is? +She is the daughter of Tina--Tina Baranoff. [She shuddered at the name +Baranoff.] No wonder she is beautiful!" + +Tina turned from Hilda to Olga. What a contrast, but not an unpleasant +one--for Olga was pretty, too, though in a different style. What a +sight!--defying all order and bursting all bounds, flushed, tumbled and +awry--the round arms tossed up, the rosy face flung back, the bedclothes +pushed off, the pillow flung out, the nightcap one way, the hair +another--all that was disorderly and lovely by night, all that was +unruly and winning by day. Tina--dainty, elegant, perfumed, manicured +Tina--bent over untidy little Olga and kissed her. + +Then she turned to Peter, and, unable to resist the temptation, tickled +his toes and woke him. When she had at last sent him to sleep again, it +was almost dinner-time; and she had barely got into her dress when one +of the servants rapped at the door to say that the meal was ready. The +house was very large, and Tina had to pass through two halls and down a +long corridor before reaching the room where the dinner was served. +Rather to her relief than otherwise, her husband did not put in an +appearance, and a note from him informed her that he had unexpectedly +been called away on business and would not be able to return till late +the following day. + +Tina did not enjoy her dinner. The soup had rather a peculiar flavour, +but she knew it was useless to make any comment. The servants either +could not or would not understand, and Ivan invariably upheld them in +everything they did. Unable to bear the man's eyes continually fixed on +her, she told him not to wait, and hurried through the meal so as to get +him out of the way, and be left for the rest of the evening in peace. +The big wood fire appealed to Tina--it was the only thing in that part +of the house that seemed to have any life--and she resolved to sit by +it, and, perhaps, skim through a book. Tina seldom read--in Moscow, all +her evenings were spent at cards. She remembered, however, that somebody +had told her repeatedly, and emphatically, that she ought to read +Tolstoy's "Resurrection," and she had actually brought it with her. Now +she would wade through it. But whether it was the heat of the fire, or +the lateness of the hour, or both, her senses grew more and more drowsy, +and before she had begun to read, she fell asleep. + +She was, at length, partially awakened by a loud noise. At first her +sleepy senses paid little attention and she dozed on. But again she was +roused. A noise which grew louder and louder at last compelled her to +shake off sleep, and starting up, she opened the door and looked into +the passage. A few streaks of moonlight, streaming through an iron +grating high up in the wall, enabled her to see a tall figure stealing +softly along the corridor, with its back towards her. The thing was so +extraordinary that for a moment or so she fancied she must still be +dreaming; but the cold night air blowing freely in her face speedily +assured her that what she saw was grim reality. The thing was a +monstrosity, a hideous hybrid of man and beast, and as she gazed at it, +too horror-stricken to move, a second and third form exactly similar to +it crept out from among the shadows against the wall and joined it. And +Tina, yielding to a sudden fascination, followed in their wake. In this +fashion they crossed the hall and ascended the staircase, Tina keeping +well behind them. She knew where they were aiming for, and any little +doubt that she might have had was set at rest, when they turned into the +passage leading to her bedroom. A moaning cry of fear from one of the +children told her that they, too, knew by intuition of their coming +danger. Tina was now in an agony of mind as to what to do for the best. +That the intention of these hideous creatures--be they what they +might--phantasms or things of flesh and blood--was sinister, she had not +the slightest doubt; but how could she prevent them getting at her +children? The most she could do would be to shout to Hilda and tell her +to lock the two doors. But would that keep them out? She opened her +mouth and jerked out "Hilda!" She tried again, but her throat had +completely dried up, and she could not articulate another syllable. The +sound, however, though faint, had been sufficient to attract the +attention of the hindermost creature. It turned, and the light from the +moon, coming through the half-open door of her bedroom, shone on its +glittering eyes and white teeth. It sprang towards her. With one +convulsive bound Tina cleared the threshold of a room immediately behind +her, dashed the door to--locked it--barred it--flung a chair against it; +and stood in an agony, for which no words exist. She seemed to see, all +in a moment, herself safe, and her children--not a door closed between +them and those dreadful jaws! She then became stupefied with terror, and +a strange, dinning sound, like the pulsation of her heart, filled her +ears and shut out every sense. + +"It is a devil! a devil!" she repeated mechanically; and then, forcing +herself out of the trance-like feeling that oppressed her, she combated +with the cowardice that prevented her rushing out--if only to die in an +attempt to save her children. She had not realized till then that it was +possible to care for them more even--much more even--than she had cared +for her dogs. She placed one hand on the lock, and looked round for some +weapon of defence. There was not a thing she could use--not a stanchion +to the window, not a rod to the bed. And even if there had been, how +futile in her puny grip! She glanced at her tiny white fingers with +their carefully trimmed and polished nails, and smiled--a grim smile of +irony. Then she placed her ear against the panels of the door and +listened--and from the other side came the sound of heavy panting and +the stealthy movement of hands. Suddenly a scream rang out, so clear and +vibrating, so full of terror, that her heart stood still and her blood +congealed. It was Hilda! Hilda shrieking "Mother!" There it was again, +"Mother! Mother! Help! Help!" Then a series of savage snarls and growls +and more shrieks--the combined shrieks of all three children. Shrieks +and growls were then mingled together in one dreadful, hideous +pandemonium, which all of a sudden ceased, and was succeeded by the loud +crunching and cracking of bones. At last that, too, ceased, and Tina +heard footsteps rapidly approaching her door. For a moment the room and +everything in it swam round her. She felt choked; the dinning in her +ears came again, it beat louder and louder and completely paralysed her. +A crash on the door panel, however, abruptly restored her faculties, and +the idea of escaping by the window for the first time entered her mind. +If her husband could use the window as a means of exit, why couldn't +she? Not a second was to be lost--the creatures outside were now +striving their utmost to get in. It was the work of a moment to throw +open the window, and almost before she knew she had opened it, she found +herself standing on the ground beneath. The night had grown darker; she +could not see the path; she knew that she was losing time, and yet that +all depended on her haste; she felt fevered with impatience, yet torpid +with terror. At length she disengaged herself from the broken, uneven +soil on to which she had dropped, and struggled forward. On and on she +went, not knowing where her next step would land her, and dreading every +moment to hear the steps of her pursuers. The darkness of the night +favoured her, and by dodging in and out the bushes and never keeping to +the same track, although still keeping a forward course, she +successfully eluded her enemies, whose hoarse cries gradually grew +fainter and fainter. By good luck she reached the high road, which +eventually brought her to Orsk; and there she sought shelter in a hotel. +In the morning, on learning from the landlord that a friend of hers, a +Colonel Majendie, was in the town, Tina sought him out, and into his +sympathizing ears poured the story of her adventures. + +Now it so happened that a priest of the name of Rappaport, a friend of +the Colonel's, came in before Tina had finished her story, and on being +told what had happened, declared that Ivan Baranoff and his servants had +long been suspected of being werwolves. He then begged that before +anything was done to them he might be allowed to try his powers of +exorcism. The Colonel ridiculed the idea, but in the end was persuaded +to postpone his visit to the chateau till the evening, and to go there +with an escort, a quartette of his most trusted soldiers, and +accompanied by his friend the Rev. Father Rappaport. Accordingly, at +about nine o'clock the party set out, and, on arriving at the house, +found it in total darkness and apparently deserted. + +But they had not waited long before a series of savage growls from the +adjacent thicket put them on their guard, and almost immediately +afterwards three werwolves stalked across the path and prepared to enter +the house. At a word from the Colonel the soldiers leaped forward, and +after a most desperate scuffle, in which they were all more or less +badly mauled, succeeded in securing their quarry. In more civilized +parts of the country the police would have been called in, but here, +where that good old law, "Might is right," still held good, a man in the +Colonel's position could do whatever he deemed most expedient, and +Colonel Majendie had made up his mind that justice should no longer be +delayed. The chateau had borne an ill reputation for generations. From +time immemorial Ivan Baranoff's ancestors had been suspected of +lycanthropy, and this last deed of the family was their crowning +atrocity. + +"You may exorcize the devils first," the Colonel grimly remarked to the +priest, wiping the blood off his sleeves. "We will hang and quarter the +brutes afterwards." + +To this the holy Father willingly agreed, for he did not care what +happened so long as his exorcism was successful. + +The rites that were performed in connexion with this ceremony (and which +I understand are those most commonly observed in exorcizing all manner +of evil spirits) were as follows:-- + +A circle of seven feet radius was drawn on the ground in white chalk. At +the centre of the circle were inscribed, in yellow chalk, certain +magical figures representing Mercury, and about them was drawn, in white +chalk, a triangle within a circle of three feet radius--the centre of +the circle being the same as that of the outer circle. Within this inner +circle were then placed the three captive werwolves. It would be well to +explain here that in exorcism, as well as in the evocation of spirits, +great attention must be paid to the position of the stars, as astrology +exercises the greatest influence on the spirit world. The present +occasion, the reverend Father pointed out, was specially favourable for +the casting out of devils, since from 8.32 p.m. to 9.16 p.m. was under +the dominion of the great angel Mercury--the most bitter opponent of +all evil spirits; that is to say, Mercury was in 17 deg. [Gemini symbol] +on the cusp of Seventh House, slightly to south of due west. + + [waxing crescent Moon symbol] going to [Mars symbol] with + [Mercury symbol] in 14 deg. [Gemini symbol] + [Mercury symbol] to [Mars symbol] [Neptune symbol] [Mercury + symbol] 130 deg. [Saturn symbol] + +Round the outer circle the reverend Father now proceeded to place, at +equal intervals, hand-lamps, burning olive oil. He then erected a rude +altar of wood, about a foot to the southeast of the circumference of the +inner circle. Exactly opposite this altar, and about 1-1/2 feet to the +far side of the circumference of the inner circle, he ordered the +soldiers to build a fire, and to place over it a tripod and pot, the +latter containing two pints of pure spring water. + +He then prepared a mixture consisting of these ingredients:-- + + 2 drachms of sulphur. + 1/2 oz. of castoreum. + 6 drachms of opium. + 3 drachms of asafoetida. + 1/2 oz. of hypericum. + 3/4 oz. of ammonia. + 1/2 oz. of camphor. + +When this was thoroughly mixed he put it in the water in the pot, adding +to it a portion of a mandrake root, a live snake, two live toads in +linen bags, and a fungus. He then bound together, with red tape, a wand +consisting of three sprigs taken, respectively, from an ash, birch, and +white poplar. + +He next proceeded to pray, kneeling in front of the altar; and continued +praying till the unearthly cries of the toads announced the fact that +the water, in which they were immersed, was beginning to boil. Slowly +getting up and crossing himself, he went to the fire, and dipping a cup +in the pot, solemnly approached the werwolves, and slashing them +severely across the head with his wand, dashed in their faces the +seething liquid, calling out as he did so: "In the name of Our Blessed +Lady I command thee to depart. Black, evil devils from hell, begone! +Begone! Again I say, Begone!" He repeated this three times to the +vociferous yells of the smarting werwolves, who struggled so frantically +that they succeeded in bursting their bonds, and, leaping to their feet, +endeavoured to escape into the bushes. The soldiers at once rose in +pursuit and the priest was left alone. He had got rid of the flesh and +blood, and he presumed he had got rid of the devils. But that remained +to be proved. + +In the chase that ensued one of the werwolves was shot, and, +simultaneously with death, metamorphosis into the complete form of a +huge grey wolf took place. The other two eluded their pursuers for some +time, but were eventually tracked owing to the discovery of the +half-eaten remains of an old woman and two children in a cave. True to +their lupine natures,[91:1] they showed no fight when cornered, and a +couple of well-directed bullets put an end to their existence--the same +metamorphosis occurring in their case as in the case of their companion. +With the death of the three werwolves the chateau, one would naturally +have thought, might have emerged from its ban. But no such thing. It +speedily acquired a reputation for being haunted. + +And that it was haunted--haunted not only by werwolves but by all sorts +of ghastly phantasms--I have no doubt. + +I was told, not long ago, that Tina, whose property it became, pulled it +down, and that another house, replete with every modern luxury--but +equally haunted[91:2]--now marks the site of the old chateau. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[91:1] The wolf and puma, alone among savage animals, give in directly +they are brought to bay. + +[91:2] The hauntings in houses are often due to something connected with +the ground on which the houses are built. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE WERWOLF IN THE BRITISH ISLES + + +It is commonly known that there were once wolves in Great Britain and +Scotland. Whilst history tells us of a king who tried to get rid of them +by offering so much for every wolf's head that was brought to him, we +read in romance how Llewellyn slew Gelert, the faithful hound that, +having slain the wolf, saved his infant's life; and tradition has handed +down to us many other stories of them. But the news that werwolves, too, +once flourished in these climes will come as a surprise to many. + +Yet Halliwell, quoting from a Bodleian MS., says: "Ther ben somme that +eten chyldren and men, and eteth noon other flesh fro that tyme that +thei be a-charmed with mannys flesh for rather thei wolde be deed; and +thei be cleped werewolfes for men shulde be war of them." + +Nor is this the only reference to them in ancient chronicles, for +Gervase of Tilbury, in his "Otia Imperiala," writes:-- + +"Vidimus enim frequenter in Anglia per lunationes homines in lupos +mutari, quod hominum genus gerulphos Galli nominant, Angli vero +were-wulf dicunt." And Richard Verstegan, in his "Restitution of Decayed +Intelligence," 1605, says: "The were-wolves are certain sorcerers who +having anointed their bodies with an ointment which they make by the +instinct of the devil, and putting on a certain enchanted girdle, do not +only unto the view of others seem as wolves, but to their own thinking +have both the shape and nature of wolves, so long as they wear the said +girdle; and they do dispose themselves as very wolves in worrying and +killing, and eating most of human creatures." + +In my investigations of haunted houses and my psychical research work +generally, I have come across much that I believe to be good evidence in +support of the testimony of these writers. For instance, in localities +once known to have been the favourite haunts of wolves, I have met +people who have informed me they have seen phantasms, in shape half +human and half beast, that might well be the earth-bound spirits of +werwolves. + +A Miss St. Denis told me she was once staying on a farm, in +Merionethshire, where she witnessed a phenomenon of this class. The +farm, though some distance from the village, was not far off the railway +station, a very diminutive affair, with only one platform and a mere box +that served as a waiting-room and booking-office combined. It was, +moreover, one of those stations where the separate duties of +station-master, porter, booking-clerk, and ticket-collector are +performed by one and the same person, and where the signal always +appears to be down. As the platform commanded the only paintable view in +the neighbourhood, Miss St. Denis often used to resort there with her +sketch-book. On one occasion she had stayed rather later than usual, and +on rising hurriedly from her camp-stool saw, to her surprise, a figure +which she took to be that of a man, sitting on a truck a few yards +distant, peering at her. I say to her surprise, because, excepting on +the rare occasion of a train arriving, she had never seen anyone at the +station besides the station-master, and in the evening the platform was +invariably deserted. The loneliness of the place was for the first time +brought forcibly home to her. The station-master's tiny house was at +least some hundred yards away, and beyond that there was not another +habitation nearer than the farm. On all sides of her, too, were black, +frowning precipices, full of seams and fissures and inequalities, +showing vague and shadowy in the fading rays of the sun. Here and there +were the huge, gaping mouths of gloomy slate quarries that had long been +disused, and were now half full of foul water. Around them the earth was +heaped with loose fragments of rock which had evidently been detached +from the principal mass and shivered to pieces in the fall. A few trees, +among which were the black walnut, the slippery elm, and here and there +an oak, grew among the rocks, and attested by their dwarfish stature the +ungrateful soil in which they had taken root. It was not an exhilarating +scene, but it was one that had a peculiar fascination for Miss St. +Denis--a fascination she could not explain, and which she now began to +regret. The darkness had come on very rapidly, and was especially +concentrated, so it seemed to her, round the spot where she sat, and she +could make nothing out of the silent figure on the truck, save that it +had unpleasantly bright eyes and there was something queer about it. She +coughed to see if that would have any effect, and as it had none she +coughed again. Then she spoke and said, "Can you tell me the time, +please?" But there was no reply, and the figure still sat there staring +at her. Then she grew uneasy and, packing up her things, walked out of +the station, trying her best to look as if nothing had occurred. She +glanced over her shoulder; the figure was following her. Quickening her +pace, she assumed a jaunty air and whistled, and turning round again, +saw the strange figure still coming after her. The road would soon be at +its worst stage of loneliness, and, owing to the cliffs on either side +of it, almost pitch dark. Indeed, the spot positively invited murder, +and she might shriek herself hoarse without the remotest chance of +making herself heard. To go on with this _outre_ figure so unmistakably +and persistently stalking her, was out of the question. Screwing up +courage, she swung round, and, raising herself to her full height, +cried: "What do you want? How dare you?"--She got no further, for a +sudden spurt of dying sunlight, playing over the figure, showed her it +was nothing human, nothing she had ever conceived possible. It was a +nude grey thing, not unlike a man in body, but with a wolf's head. As it +sprang forward, its light eyes ablaze with ferocity, she instinctively +felt in her pocket, whipped out a pocket flash-light, and pressed the +button. The effect was magical; the creature shrank back, and putting +two paw-like hands in front of its face to protect its eyes, faded into +nothingness. + +She subsequently made inquiries, but could learn nothing beyond the +fact that, in one of the quarries close to the place where the phantasm +had vanished, some curious bones, partly human and partly animal, had +been unearthed, and that the locality was always shunned after dusk. +Miss St. Denis thought as I did, that what she had seen might very well +have been the earth-bound spirit of a werwolf. + +The case of another haunting of this nature was related to me last year. +A young married couple of the name of Anderson, having acquired, through +the death of a relative, a snug fortune, resolved to retire from +business and spend the rest of their lives in indolence and ease. Being +fond of the country, they bought some land in Cumberland, at the foot of +some hills, far away from any town, and built on it a large two-storied +villa. + +They soon, however, began to experience trouble with their servants, who +left them on the pretext that the place was lonely, and that they could +not put up with the noises that they heard at night. The Andersons +ridiculed their servants, but when their children remarked on the same +thing they viewed the matter more seriously. "What are the noises like?" +they inquired. "Wild animals," Willie, the eldest child, replied. "They +come howling round the window at night and we hear their feet patter +along the passage and stop at our door." Much mystified, Mr. and Mrs. +Anderson decided to sit up with the children and listen. They did so, +and between two and three in the morning were much startled by a noise +that sounded like the growling of a wolf--Mr. Anderson had heard wolves +in Canada--immediately beneath the window. Throwing open the window, he +peered out; the moon was fully up and every stick and stone was plainly +discernible; but there was now no sound and no sign of any animal. When +he had closed the window the growling at once recommenced, yet when he +looked again nothing was to be seen. After a while the growling ceased, +and they heard the front door, which they had locked before coming +upstairs, open, and the footsteps of some big, soft-footed animal ascend +the stairs. Mr. Anderson waited till the steps were just outside the +room and then flung open the door, but the light from his acetylene lamp +revealed a passage full of moonbeams--nothing else. + +He and his wife were now thoroughly mystified. In the morning they +explored the grounds, but could find no trace of footmarks, nothing to +indicate the nature of their visitant. It was now close on Christmas, +and as the noises had not been heard for some time, it was hoped that +the disturbances would not occur again. The Andersons, like all modern +parents, made idols of their children. They never did wrong, nothing was +too good for them, and everything they wanted they had. At Christmas, +perhaps, their authority was more particularly in evidence; at any rate, +it was then that the greatest care was taken that the menu should be in +strict accordance with their instructions. "What shall Santa Claus bring +you this time, my darlings?" Mr. Anderson asked, a week or so before the +great day arrived; and Willie, aged six, at once cried out: "What a fool +you are, daddy! It is all tosh about old Claus, there's no such person!" + +"Wait and see!" Mr. Anderson meekly replied. "You mark my words, he will +come into your room on Christmas Eve laden with presents." + +"I don't believe it!" Willie retorted. "You told us that silly tale last +year and I never saw any Claus!" + +"He came when you were asleep, dearie," Mrs. Anderson ventured to +remark. + +"Well! I'll keep awake this time!" Willie shouted. + +"And we'll take the presents first and pinch old Claus afterwards," +Violet Evelyn, the second child, joined in. + +"And I'll prick his towsers wif pins!" Horace, aged three and a half, +echoed. "I don't care nothink for old Santa Claus!" and he pulled a long +nose in the manner his doting father had taught him. + +Christmas Eve came at last--a typical old-fashioned Christmas with heaps +of snow on the ground and frost on the window-panes and trees. The +Andersons' house was warm and comfortable--for once in a way the windows +were shut--and enormous fires blazed merrily away in the grates. Whilst +the children spent most of the day viewing the good things in the larder +and speculating how much they could eat of each, and which would taste +the nicest, Mr. Anderson rehearsed in full costume the role of Santa +Claus. He had an enormous sack full of presents--everything the children +had demanded--and he meant to enter their room with it on his shoulder +at about twelve o'clock. + +Tea-time came, and during the interval between that meal and supper all +hands--even Horace's--were at work, decorating the hall and staircases +with holly and mistletoe. After supper "Good King Wencelas," "Noel," and +one or two other carols were sung, and the children then decided to go +to bed. + +It was then ten o'clock; and exactly two hours later their father, +elaborately clad as Santa Claus, and staggering, in the orthodox +fashion, beneath a load of presents, shuffled softly down the passage +leading to their room. The snow had ceased falling, the moon was out, +and the passage flooded with a soft, phosphorescent glow that threw into +strong relief every minute object. Mr. Anderson had got half-way along +it when on his ears there suddenly fell a faint sound of yelping! His +whole frame thrilled and his mind reverted to the scenes of his +youth--to the prairies in the far-off West, where, over and over again, +he had heard these sounds, and his faithful Winchester repeater had +stood him in good service. Again the yelping--this time nearer. Yes! it +was undoubtedly a wolf; and yet there was an intonation in that yelping +not altogether wolfish--something Mr. Anderson had never heard before, +and which he was consequently at a loss to define. Again it rang +out--much nearer this time--much more trying to the nerves, and the cold +sweat of fear burst out all over him. Again--close under the wall of the +house--a moaning, snarling, drawn-out cry that ended in a whine so +piercing that Mr. Anderson's knees shook. One of the children, Violet +Evelyn he thought, stirred in her bed and muttered: "Santa Claus! Santa +Claus!" and Mr. Anderson, with a desperate effort, staggered on under +his load and opened their door. The clock in the hall beneath began to +strike twelve. Santa Claus, striving hard to appear jolly and genial, +entered the room, and a huge grey, shadowy figure entered with him. A +slipper thrown by Willie whizzed through the air, and, narrowly missing +Santa Claus, fell to the ground with a clatter. There was then a deathly +silence, and Violet and Horace, raising their heads, saw two strange +figures standing in the centre of the room staring at one another--the +one figure they at once identified by the costume. He was Santa +Claus--but not the genial, rosy-cheeked Santa Claus their father had +depicted. On the contrary, it was a Santa Claus with a very white face +and frightened eyes--a Santa Claus that shook as if the snow and ice had +given him the ague. But the other figure--what was it? Something very +tall, far taller than their father, nude and grey, something like a man +with the head of a wolf--a wolf with white pointed teeth and horrid, +light eyes. Then they understood why it was that Santa Claus trembled; +and Willie stood by the side of his bed, white and silent. It is +impossible to say how long this state of things would have lasted, or +what would eventually have happened, had not Mrs. Anderson, anxious to +see how Santa Claus was faring, and rather wondering why he was gone so +long, resolved herself to visit the children's room. As the light from +her candle appeared on the threshold of the room the thing with the +wolf's head vanished. + +"Why, whatever were you all doing?" she began. Then Santa Claus and the +children all spoke at once--whilst the sack of presents tumbled unheeded +on the floor. Every available candle was soon lighted, and mother and +father and Willie, Violet and Horace all spent the remainder of that +night in close company. On the following day it was proposed, and +carried unanimously, that the house should be put up for sale. This was +done at the earliest opportunity, and fortunately for the Andersons +suitable tenants were soon found. Before leaving, however, Mr. Anderson +made another and more exhaustive search of the grounds, and discovered, +in a cave in the hills immediately behind the house, a number of bones. +Amongst them was the skull of a wolf, and lying close beside it a human +skeleton, with only the skull missing. Mr. Anderson burnt the bones, +hoping that by so doing he would rid the house of its unwelcome visitor; +and, as his tenants so far have not complained, he believes that the +hauntings have actually ceased. + +A lady whom I met at Tavistock some years ago told me that she had seen +a phantasm, which she believed to be that of a werwolf, in the Valley of +the Doones, Exmoor. She was walking home alone, late one evening, when +she saw on the path directly in front of her the tall grey figure of a +man with a wolf's head. Advancing stealthily forward, this creature was +preparing to spring on a large rabbit that was crouching on the ground, +apparently too terror-stricken to move, when the abrupt appearance of a +stag bursting through the bushes in a wild state of stampede caused it +to vanish. Prior to this occurrence, my informant had never seen a +ghost, nor had she, indeed, believed in them; but now, she assures me, +she is quite convinced as to their existence, and is of the opinion that +the sub-human phenomenon she had witnessed was the spirit of one of +those werwolves referred to by Gervase of Tilbury and Richard +Verstegan--werwolves who were still earthbound owing to their +incorrigible ferocity. + +This opinion I can readily endorse, adding only that, considering the +number of werwolves there must once have been in England, it is a matter +of some surprise to me that phantasms are not more frequently seen. + +Here is another account of this type of haunting narrated to me some +summers ago by a Mr. Warren, who at the time he saw the phenomenon was +staying in the Hebrides, which part of the British Isles is probably +richer than any other in spooks of all sorts. + +"I was about fifteen years of age at the time," Mr. Warren said, "and +had for several years been residing with my grandfather, who was an +elder in the Kirk of Scotland. He was much interested in geology, and +literally filled the house with fossils from the pits and caves round +where we dwelt. One morning he came home in a great state of excitement, +and made me go with him to look at some ancient remains he had found at +the bottom of a dried-up tarn. 'Look!' he cried, bending down and +pointing at them, 'here is a human skeleton with a wolf's head. What do +you make of it?' I told him I did not know, but supposed it must be some +kind of monstrosity. 'It's a werwolf!' he rejoined, 'that's what it is. +A werwolf! This island was once overrun with satyrs and werwolves! Help +me carry it to the house.' I did as he bid me, and we placed it on the +table in the back kitchen. That evening I was left alone in the house, +my grandfather and the other members of the household having gone to the +kirk. For some time I amused myself reading, and then, fancying I heard +a noise in the back premises, I went into the kitchen. There was no one +about, and becoming convinced that it could only have been a rat that +had disturbed me, I sat on the table alongside the alleged remains of +the werwolf, and waited to see if the noises would recommence. I was +thus waiting in a listless sort of way, my back bent, my elbows on my +knees, looking at the floor and thinking of nothing in particular, when +there came a loud rat, tat, tat of knuckles on the window-pane. I +immediately turned in the direction of the noise and encountered, to my +alarm, a dark face looking in at me. At first dim and indistinct, it +became more and more complete, until it developed into a very perfectly +defined head of a wolf terminating in the neck of a human being. Though +greatly shocked, my first act was to look in every direction for a +possible reflection--but in vain. There was no light either without or +within, other than that from the setting sun--nothing that could in any +way have produced an illusion. I looked at the face and marked each +feature intently. It was unmistakably a wolf's face, the jaws slightly +distended; the lips wreathed in a savage snarl; the teeth sharp and +white; the eyes light green; the ears pointed. The expression of the +face was diabolically malignant, and as it gazed straight at me my +horror was as intense as my wonder. This it seemed to notice, for a +look of savage exultation crept into its eyes, and it raised one hand--a +slender hand, like that of a woman, though with prodigiously long and +curved finger-nails--menacingly, as if about to dash in the window-pane. +Remembering what my grandfather had told me about evil spirits, I +crossed myself; but as this had no effect, and I really feared the thing +would get at me, I ran out of the kitchen and shut and locked the door, +remaining in the hall till the family returned. My grandfather was much +upset when I told him what had happened, and attributed my failure to +make the spirit depart to my want of faith. Had he been there, he +assured me, he would soon have got rid of it; but he nevertheless made +me help him remove the bones from the kitchen, and we reinterred them in +the very spot where we had found them, and where, for aught I know to +the contrary, they still lie." + +The peasant class in all parts of the British Isles are so sensitive to +ridicule, and so suspicious of being "got at," that it is very difficult +to extract any information from them with regard to the superphysical. +At first they invariably deny their belief in spirits, and it is only by +dint of the utmost persuasion unaccompanied by any air of +patronage--which the Celtic peasant detests--that one is finally able to +loosen their tongues as to uncanny occurrences, hauntings, and rumours +of hauntings, in their neighbourhood. In eliciting information of this +nature, I have, I think, by reason of my tactful manner, often succeeded +where others have failed. + +In a village at the foot of Ben MacDhui a shepherd of the name of Colin +Graeme informed me that he remembered hearing his grandfather, who died +at the age of ninety, speak of an old man called Tam McPherson whom +he--the grandfather--had known intimately as a boy. This old man, so +Colin's grandfather said, had perfect recollections of a man in the +village called Saunderson being suspected of being a werwolf. He used to +describe Saunderson as "a mon with evil, leerie eyes, and eyebrows that +met in a point over his nose"; and went on to say that Saunderson lived +in a cave in the mountains where his forefathers, also suspected of +being werwolves, had lived before him, and that when on +his--Saunderson's--death this cave was visited by some of the villagers, +a quantity of queer bones--some human and some belonging to wolves--were +discovered lying in corners, partially covered with stones and loose +earth. + +I have heard similar stories in Wales, and have been conducted to one or +two spots, one near Iremadac and the other on the Epynt Hills, where, +local tradition still has it, werwolves once flourished. + +According to legend St. Patrick turned Vereticus, a Welsh king, into a +wolf, whilst the werwolf daughter of a Welsh prince was said to have +destroyed her father's enemies during her nocturnal metamorphoses. In +Ireland, too, are many legends of werwolves; and it is said of at least +some half-dozen of the old families that at some period--as the result +of a curse--each member of the clan was doomed to be a wolf for seven +years. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE WERWOLF IN FRANCE + + +In no country has the werwolf flourished as in France, where it is known +as the _loup garou_; where it has existed in all parts, in every age, +and where it is even yet to be found in the more remote districts. Hence +one could fill a dozen volumes with the stories, many of them well +authenticated, of French werwolves. As far back as the sixth century we +hear of them infesting the woods and valleys of Brittany and Burgundy, +the Landes, and the mountainous regions of the Cote d'Or and the +Cevennes. + +Occasionally a werwolf would break into a convent and make its meal off +the defenceless nuns; occasionally it would select for its repast some +nice fat abbot waddling unsuspectingly home to his monastery. + +Not all these werwolves were evilly disposed people; many, on the +contrary, were exceedingly virtuous, and owed their metamorphosis to +the vengeance of witch or wizard. When this was the case their piety +sometimes prevailed to such an extent that not even metamorphosis into +wolfish form could render it ineffective; and there are instances where +werwolves of this type have not only refrained from taking human life, +but have actually gone out of their way to protect it. Of such +instances, well authenticated, probably none would be more remarkable +than those I am about to narrate. + + +THE CASE OF THE ABBOT GILBERT, OF THE ARC MONASTERY, ON THE BANKS OF THE +LOIRE + +Gilbert had been to a village fair, where the good vintage and hot sun +combined had proved so trying that on his way home, through a dense and +lonely forest, he had gone to sleep and been thrown from his horse. In +falling he had bruised and cut himself so prodigiously that the blood +from his wounds attracted to the spot a number of big wild cats. Taken +at a strong disadvantage, and without any weapons to defend himself, +Gilbert would soon have fallen a victim to the ferocity of these savage +creatures had it not been for the opportune arrival of a werwolf. A +desperate battle at once ensued, in which the werwolf eventually gained +the victory, though not without being severely lacerated. + +Despite Gilbert's protestations, for he was loath to be seen in such +strange company, the werwolf accompanied him back to the monastery, +where, upon hearing the Abbot's story, it was enthusiastically welcomed +and its wounds attended to. At dawn it was restored to its natural +shape, and the monks, one and all, were startled out of their senses to +find themselves in the presence of a stern and awesome dignitary of the +Church, who immediately began to lecture the Abbot for his unseemly +conduct the previous day, ordering him to undergo such penance as +eventually, robbing him of half his size and all his self-importance, +led to his resignation. + + +THE CASE OF ROLAND BERTIN + +Andre Bonivon, the hero of the other incident, was eminently a man of +war. He commanded a schooner called the "Bonaventure," which was engaged +in harassing the Huguenot settlements along the shores of the Gulf of +Lions, during the reign of Louis XIV. On one of his marauding +expeditions Bonivon sailed up an estuary of the Rhone rather further +than he had intended, and having no pilot on board, ran ashore in the +darkness. A thunderstorm came on; a general panic ensued; and Bonivon +soon found himself struggling in a whirlpool. Powerful swimmer though he +was, he would most certainly have been drowned had not some one come to +his assistance, and, freeing him from the heavy clothes which weighed +him down, dragged him on dry land. The moment Bonivon got on _terra +firma_, sailor-like, he extended his hand to grip that of his rescuer, +when, to his dismay and terror, instead of a hand he grasped a huge +hairy paw. + +Convinced that he was in the presence of the Devil, who doubtless highly +approved of the thousand and one atrocities he had perpetrated on the +helpless Huguenots, he threw himself on his knees and implored the +forgiveness of Heaven. + +His rescuer waited awhile in grim silence, and then, lifting him gently +to his feet, led him some considerable distance inland till they arrived +at a house on the outskirts of a small town. + +Here Bonivon's conductor halted, and, opening the door, signed to the +captain to enter. All within was dark and silent, and the air was +tainted with a sickly, pungent odour that filled Bonivon with the +gravest apprehensions. Dragging him along, Bonivon's guide took him into +a room, and leaving him there for some seconds, reappeared carrying a +lantern. Bonivon now saw for the first time the face of his +conductor--it was that of a werwolf. With a shriek of terror Bonivon +turned to run, but, catching his foot on a mat, fell sprawling on the +floor. + +Here he remained sobbing and shaking with fear till he was once more +taken by the werwolf and set gently on his feet. + +To Bonivon's surprise a tray full of eatables was standing on the table, +and the werwolf, motioning to him to sit down, signed to him to eat. + +Being ravenously hungry, Bonivon "fell to," and, despite his fears--for +being by nature alive to, and, by reason of his calling, forced to guard +against the treachery of his fellow creatures, he more than half +suspected some subtle design underlying this act of kindness--demolished +every particle of food. The meal thus concluded, Bonivon's benefactor +retired, locking the door after him. + +No sooner had the sound of his steps in the stone hall ceased than +Bonivon ran to the window, hoping thereby to make his escape. But the +iron bars were too firmly fixed--no matter how hard he pulled, tugged +and wrenched, they remained as immovable as ever. Then his heart began +to palpitate, his hair to bristle up, and his knees to totter; his +thoughts were full of speculations as to how he would be killed and what +it would feel like to be eaten alive. His conscience, too, rising up in +judgment against him, added its own paroxysms of dismay, paroxysms which +were still further augmented by the finding of the dead body of a woman, +nude and horribly mutilated, lying doubled up and partly concealed by a +curtain. Such a discovery could not fail to fill his heart with +unspeakable horror; for he concluded that he himself, unless saved by a +miracle--a favour he could hardly hope for, considering his past +conduct--would undergo the same fate before morning. At a loss to know +what else to do, he sat upon the corner of the table, resting his chin +on the palms of his hands, and engaged in anticipations of the most +frightful nature. + +Shortly after dawn he heard the sound of footsteps approaching the room; +the door slowly began to open: a little wider and a little wider, and +then, when Bonivon's heart was on the point of bursting, it suddenly +swung open wide, and the cold, grey dawn falling on the threshold +revealed not a werwolf, but--a human being: a man in the unmistakable +garb of a Huguenot minister! + +The reaction was so great that Bonivon rolled off the table and went +into paroxysms of ungovernable laughter. + +At length, when he had sobered down, the Huguenot, laying a hand on his +shoulder, said: "Do you know now where you are? Do you recognize this +room? No! Well, I will explain. You are in the house of Roland Bertin, +and the body lying over yonder is that of my wife, whom your crew +barbarously murdered yesterday when they sacked this village. They took +me with them, and it was your intention to have me tortured and then +drowned as soon as you got to sea. Do you know me now?" + +Bonivon nodded--he could not have spoken to save his life. + +"Bien!" the minister went on. "I am a werwolf--I was bewitched some +years ago by the woman Grenier, Mere Grenier, who lives in the forest at +the back of our village. As soon as it was dark I metamorphosed; then +the ship ran ashore, and every one leaped overboard. I saw you drowning. +I saved you." + +The captain again made a fruitless effort to speak, and the Huguenot +continued:-- + +"Why did I save you?--you, who had been instrumental in murdering my +wife and ruining my home! Why? I do not know! Had I preferred for you a +less pleasant death than drowning, I could have taken you ashore and +killed you. Yet--I did not, because it is not in my nature to destroy +anything. I have never in my life killed an animal, nor, to my +knowledge, an insect; I love all life--animal life and vegetable +life--everything that breathes and grows. Yet I am a Huguenot!--one of +the race you hate and despise and are paid to exterminate. Assassin, I +have spared you. Be not ungenerous. Spare others." + +The captain was moved. Still speechless, he seized the minister's hands +and wrung them. And from that hour to the day of his death--which was +not for many years afterwards--the Huguenots had no truer friend than +Andre Bonivon. + + +WERWOLVES AND WITCHES + +Other instances of werwolves of a benignant nature are to be found in +the "Bisclaveret" in Marie de France's poem, composed in 1200 A.D.; and +in the hero of "William and the Werwolf" (translated from the French +about 1350). + +To inflict the evil property of werwolfery upon those against whom +they--or some other--bore a grudge was, in the Middle Ages, a method of +revenge frequently resorted to by witches; and countless knights and +ladies were thus victimized. Nor were such practices confined to ancient +times; for as late as the eighteenth century a case of this kind of +witchcraft is reported to have happened in the vicinity of Blois. + +In a village some three miles from Blois, on the outskirts of a forest, +dwelt an innkeeper called Antonio Cellini, who, as the name suggests, +was of Italian origin. Antonio had only one child, Beatrice, a very +pretty girl, who at the time of this story was about nineteen years of +age. As might be expected, Beatrice had many admirers; but none were so +passionately attached to her as Herbert Poyer, a handsome youth, and one +Henri Sangfeu, an extremely plain youth. Beatrice--and one can scarcely +blame her for it--preferred Herbert, and with the whole-hearted approval +of her father consented to marry him. Sangfeu was not unnaturally upset; +but, in all probability, he would have eventually resigned himself to +the inevitable, had it not been for a village wag, who in an idle moment +wrote a poem and entitled it + + "_Sansfeu the Ugly; or, Love Unrequited._" + +The poem, which was illustrated with several clever caricatures of the +unfortunate Henri and contained much caustic wit, took like wildfire in +the village; and Henri, in consequence, had a very bad time. Eventually +it was shown to Beatrice, and it was then that the climax was reached. +Although Henri was present at the moment, unable to restrain herself, +she went into peals of laughter at the drawings, saying over and over +again: "How like him--how very like! His nose to a nicety! It is +certainly correct to style him Sansfeu--for no one could call him +Sansnez!" + +Her mirth was infectious; every one joined in; only Henri slunk away, +crimson with rage and mortification. He hated Beatrice now as much as he +had loved her before; and he thirsted only for revenge. + +Some distance from the village and in the heart of the forest lived an +old woman known as Mere Maxim, who was said to be a witch, and, +therefore, shunned by every one. All sorts of unsavoury stories were +told of her, and she was held responsible for several outbreaks of +epidemics--hitherto unknown in the neighbourhood--many accidents, and +more than one death. + +The spot where she lived was carefully avoided. Those who ventured far +in the forest after nightfall either never came back at all or returned +half imbecile with terror, and afterwards poured out to their affrighted +friends incoherent stories of the strange lights and terrible forms they +had encountered, moving about amid the trees. Up to the present Henri +had been just as scared by these tales as the rest of the villagers; but +so intense was his longing for revenge that he at length resolved to +visit Mere Maxim and solicit her assistance. Choosing a morning when the +sun was shining brightly, he screwed up his courage, and after many bad +scares finally succeeded in reaching her dwelling--or, I might say, her +shanty, for by a more appropriate term than the latter such a +queer-looking untidy habitation could not be described. To his +astonishment Mere Maxim was by no means so unprepossessing as he had +imagined. On the contrary, she was more than passably good-looking, with +black hair, rosy cheeks, and exceedingly white teeth. What he did not +altogether like were her eyes--which, though large and well shaped, had +in them an occasional glitter--and her hands, which, though remarkably +white and slender, had very long and curved nails, that to his mind +suggested all sorts of unpleasant ideas. She was becomingly dressed in +brown--brown woolly garments, with a brown fur cap, brown stockings, and +brown shoes ornamented with very bright silver buckles. Altogether she +was decidedly chic; and if a little incongruous in her surroundings, +such incongruity only made her the more alluring; and as far as Henri +was concerned rather added to her charms. + +At all events, he needed no second invitation to seat himself by her +side in the chimney-corner, and his heart thumped as it had never +thumped before when she encouraged him to put his arm round her waist +and kiss her. It was the first time a woman had ever suffered him to +kiss her without violent protestations and avowals of disgust. + +"You are not very handsome, it is true," Mere Maxim remarked, "but you +are fat--and I like fat young men," and she pinched his cheeks playfully +and patted his hands. "Are you sure no one knows you have come to see +me?" she asked. + +"Certain!" Henri replied; "I haven't confided in a soul; I haven't even +so much as dropped a hint that I intended seeing you." + +"That is good!" Mere Maxim said. "Tell no one, otherwise I shall not be +able to help you. Also, on no account let the girl Beatrice think you +bear her animosity. Be civil and friendly to her whenever you meet; then +give her, as a wedding present, this belt and box of bonbons." So +saying, she handed him a beautiful belt composed of the skin of some +wild animal and fastened with a gold buckle, and a box of delicious pink +and white sugarplums. "Do not give her these things till the marriage +eve," she added, "and directly you have given them come and see +me--always observing the greatest secrecy." She then kissed him, and he +went away brimming over with passion for her, and longing feverishly for +the hour to arrive when he could be with her again. + +All day and all night he thought of her--of her gay and sparkling +beauty, of her kisses and caresses, and the delightful coolness of her +thin and supple hands. His mad infatuation for her made him oblivious +to the taunts and jeers of the villagers, who seldom saw him without +making ribald allusion to the poem. + +"There goes Sansfeu! alias Monsieur Grosnez!" they called out. "Why +don't you cut off your nose for a present to mademoiselle? She would +then have no need to buy a kitchen poker. Ha! ha! ha!" But their coarse +wit fell flat. Henri hardly heard it--all his thoughts, his burning +love, his unquenchable passion, were centred in Mere Maxim: in spirit he +was with her, alone with her, in the innermost recesses of the grim, +silent forest. + +The marriage eve came; he handed Beatrice the presents, and ere she had +time to thank him--for the magnificence of the belt rendered her +momentarily speechless--he had flown from the house, and was hurrying as +fast as his legs could carry him to his tryst. The shadows of night were +already on the forest when he entered it; and the silence and solitude +of the place, the indistinct images of the trees, and their dismal +sighing, that seemed to foretell a storm, all combined to disturb his +fancy and raise strange spectres in his imagination. The shrill hooting +of an owl, as it rustled overhead, caused him an unprecedented shock, +and the great rush of blood to his head made him stagger and clutch +hold of the nearest object for support. He had barely recovered from +this alarm when his eyes almost started out of their sockets with fright +as he caught sight of a queer shape gliding silently from tree to tree; +and shortly afterwards he was again terrified--this time by a pale face, +whether of a human being or animal he could not say, peering down at him +from the gnarled and fantastic branches of a gigantic oak. He was now so +frightened that he ran, and queer--indefinably queer footsteps ran after +him, and followed him persistently until he reached the shanty, when he +heard them turn and leap lightly away. + +On this occasion, the occurrence of Henri's second visit, Mere Maxim was +more captivating than ever. She was dressed with wonderful effect all in +white. She wore sparkling jewels at her throat and waist, buckles of +burnished gold on her shoes; her teeth flashed like polished ivory, and +her nails like agates. Henri was enraptured. He fell on his knees before +her, he caught her hands and covered them with kisses. + +"How nice you look to-day, my sweetheart," she said; "and how fat! It +does my heart good to see you. Come in, and sit close to me, and tell me +how you have fared." + +She led him in, and after locking and barring the door, conducted him +to the chimney-corner. And there he lay in her arms. She fondled him; +she pressed her lips on his, and gleefully felt his cheeks and arms. And +after a time, when, intoxicated with the joy of it all, he lay still and +quiet, wishing only to remain like that for eternity, she stooped down, +and, fetching a knot of cord from under the seat, began laughingly to +bind his hands and feet. And at each turn and twist of the rope she +laughed the louder. And when she had finished binding his arms and legs +she made him lie on his back, and lashed him so tightly to the seat +that, had he possessed the strength of six men, he could not have freed +himself. + +Then she sat beside him, and moving aside the clothes that covered his +chest and throat, said:-- + +"By this time Beatrice--pretty Beatrice, vain and sensual Beatrice, the +Beatrice you once loved and admired so much--will have worn the belt, +will have eaten the sweets. She is now a werwolf. Every night at twelve +o'clock she will creep out of bed and glide about the house and village +in search of human prey, some bonny babe, or weak, defenceless woman, +but always some one fat, tender, and juicy--some one like you." And +bending low over him, she bared her teeth, and dug her cruel nails deep +into his flesh. A flame from the wood fire suddenly shot up. It +flickered oddly on the figure of Mere Maxim--so oddly that Henri +received a shock. He realized with an awful thrill that the face into +which he peered was no longer that of a human being; it was--but he +could no longer think--he could only gaze. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +WERWOLVES AND VAMPIRES AND GHOULS + + +Throughout the Middle Ages, and even in the seventeenth century, trials +for lycanthropy were of common occurrence in France. Among the most +famous were those of the Grandillon family in the Jura, in 1598; that of +the tailor of Chalons; of Roulet, in Angers; of Gilles Garnier, in Dole, +in 1573; and of Jean Garnier, at Bordeaux, in 1603. The last case was, +perhaps, the most remarkable of all. Garnier, who was only fourteen +years of age, was employed in looking after cattle. He was a handsome +lad, with dark, flashing eyes and very white teeth. As soon as it was +time for the metamorphosis to take place he used to go into some lonely +spot, and then, in the guise of a wolf, return, and run to earth +isolated women and children. One of his favourite haunts was a thicket +close to a pool of water. Here he used to lie and watch for hours at a +time. Once he surprised two girls bathing. One escaped, and fled home +naked, but the other he flung on the ground, and having shaken her into +submission, devoured a portion of her one day, and the rest of her the +next. He confessed to having eaten over fifty children. Nor did he +always confine himself to attacking the solitary few and defenceless; +for on several occasions, when hard pressed by hunger, he assailed a +whole crowd, and was once severely handled by a pack of young girls who +successfully drove him off with sharply pointed stakes. Far from wishing +to conceal his guilt, Jean Garnier was most eager to tell everything, +and to a court thronged with eager, attentive people, he related in the +most graphic manner possible his sanguinary experiences. One old woman, +he said, whom he found alone in a cottage, showed extraordinary agility +in trying to escape. She raced round tables, clambered over chairs, +crawled under a bed, and finally hid in a cupboard and held the door so +fast that he had to exert all his force to open it. "And then," he +added, "in spite of all my trouble she proved to be as tough as +leather----" and he made a grimace that provoked much laughter. + +He complained bitterly of one child. "It made such a dreadful noise," +he said, "when I lifted it out of its crib, and when I got ready for my +first bite it shrieked so loud it almost deafened me." + +The name Grenier, like that of Garnier, was closely associated with +lycanthropy, and in Blois, where there were more instances of +lycanthropy than in any other part of France, every one called Grenier +or Garnier was set down as a werwolf. + +Amongst the Vaudois lycanthropy was also widely prevalent, and many of +these werwolves were brought to trial and executed. + + +THE CASE OF SERGEANT BERTRAND + +The case of Sergeant Bertrand, which is the last authenticated case of +this kind, occurred in 1847, when, on the 10th of July, an investigation +was held before a military council presided over by Colonel Manselon. +For some months the cemeteries in and around Paris had been the scenes +of frightful violations, the culprits (or culprit), in some +extraordinary manner, eluding every attempt made to ensnare them. At one +time the custodians of the cemeteries were suspected, then the local +police, and for a brief space suspicion fell even on the relations of +the dead. The first burial-place to be so mysteriously visited was the +Cemetery of Pere Lachaise. Here, at night, those in charge declared +they saw a strange form, partly human and partly animal, glide about +from tomb to tomb. Try how they would they could not catch it--it always +vanished--vanished just like a phantom directly they came up to it; and +the dogs when urged to seize it would only bark and howl, and show +indications of the most abject terror. + +Always when morning broke the ravages of this unsavoury visitant were +only too plainly visible--graves had been dug up, coffins burst open, +and the contents nibbled, and gnawed, and scattered all over the ground. +Expert medical opinion was sought, but with no fresh result. The +doctors, too, were agreed that the mutilations of the dead were produced +by the bites of what certainly seemed to be human teeth. + +The sensation caused by this announcement was without parallel; and one +and all, old and young, rich and poor, were wanting to know whatever +sort of being it could be that possessed so foul an appetite. The watch +was doubled; all to no purpose. A young soldier was arrested, but on +declaring he had merely entered the cemetery to meet a friend, and +exhibiting no evidences of guilt, was let go. + +At length the violation ceased in Pere Lachaise and broke out elsewhere. +A little girl, greatly beloved by her relatives and friends, died, and +a big concourse of people attended the funeral. On the following +morning, to the intense indignation of every one, the grave was +discovered dug up, the coffin forced open, and the body half eaten. In +its wild fury at such an unheard-of atrocity the public called loudly +for the culprit. The father of the dead girl was first of all arrested, +but his innocence being quickly established, he was set free. Every +means was then taken to guard against any recurrence, but in spite of +all precautions the same thing happened again shortly afterwards; and +happened repeatedly. The fact that the cemetery was surrounded by very +high walls, and that iron gates, which were always kept shut, formed the +only legitimate entrance, added to the mystery, and made it seem +impossible that any creature of solid flesh and blood could be +responsible for the outrages. + +Having observed that at one place, in particular, the wall, though +nearly ten feet high, showed signs of having been frequently scaled, an +old army officer set a trap there, consisting of a wire connected with +an explosive, which was so arranged that no one could climb over the +wall without treading on the wire and causing an explosion. + +A strong posse of detectives kept watch, and at midnight a loud report +was heard. The detectives were not, however, as quick as their quarry. +They saw a man, or what they took to be a man, and fired at him, but he +was gone like a flash of lightning, scaling the wall with the agility of +a monkey. Finding a trail of blood, however, and pieces of torn uniform +accompanying the bloodstains, they concluded that the enemy was wounded, +and that the marauder was, moreover, a soldier. + +Still, it is doubtful whether his identity would have been proved, had +not one of the grave-diggers of the cemetery chanced to overhear some +sappers of the 74th Regiment remark that on the preceding night one of +their comrades--a sergeant--had been conveyed to the military hospital +of Val de Grace badly wounded. The matter was at once inquired into, and +the wounded soldier, Sergeant Bertrand, was found to be the author of +the long series of hideous violations. Bertrand freely confessed his +guilt, declaring that he was driven to it against his own will by some +external force he could not define, and which allowed him no peace. He +had, he said, in one night exhumed and bitten as many as fifteen bodies. +He employed no implements, but tore up the soil after the manner of a +wild beast, paying no heed to the bruising and laceration of his hands +so long as he could get at the dead. He could not describe what his +sensations were like when he was thus occupied; he only knew that he +was not himself but some ravenous, ferocious animal. He added, that +after these nocturnal expeditions he invariably fell into a profound +sleep, often before he could get home, and that always, during that +sleep, he was conscious of undergoing peculiar metamorphosis. When +interrogated, he informed the court of inquiry that, as a child, he +preferred the company of all kinds of animals to that of his fellow +creatures, and that in order to get in close touch with his four-footed +friends he used to frequent the most solitary and out-of-the-way +places--moors, woods, and deserts. He said that it was immediately after +one of these excursions that he first experienced the sensation of +undergoing some great change in his sleep, and that the following +evening, when passing close to a cemetery where the grave-diggers were +covering a body that had just been interred, yielding to a sudden +impulse, he crept in and watched them. A sharp shower of rain +interrupting their labours, they went away, leaving their task +unfinished. "At the sight of the coffin," Bertrand said, "horrible +desires seized me; my head throbbed, my heart palpitated, and had it not +been for the timely arrival of friends I should have then and there +yielded to my inclinations. From that time forth I was never +free--these terrible cravings invariably came on directly after sunset." + +Medical men who examined Bertram unanimously gave it as their opinion +that he was sane, and could only account for his extraordinary nocturnal +actions by the supposition that he must be the victim of some strange +monomania. His companions, with whom he was most popular, all testified +to his amiability and lovable disposition. In the end he was sentenced +to a year's imprisonment, and after his release was never again heard +of. There can, I think, be little doubt, from what he himself said, that +he was in reality a werwolf. His preference for the society of animals +and love of isolated regions; his sudden fallings asleep and sensations +of undergoing metamorphosis, though that metamorphosis was spiritual and +metaphysical only, which is very often the case, all help to +substantiate that belief. + + +VAMPIRISM AND LYCANTHROPY + +It has been asserted that Bertrand was a vampire; but there are +absolutely no grounds for associating him with vampirism. A vampire is +an Elemental that under certain conditions inhabits a dead body, whether +human or otherwise; and, thus incarcerated, comes out of a grave at +night to suck the blood of a living person. It never touches the dead. + +A werwolf has already been defined. It has an existence entirely +separate from the vampire. The werwolf feeds on both the living and +dead, which it bites and mangles after the nature of all beasts of prey. + +Vampirism is infectious; every one who has been sucked by a vampire, on +physical dissolution, becomes a vampire, and remains one until his +corpse is destroyed in a certain prescribed manner. Lycanthropy is not +infectious. + +There are many well-authenticated cases of vampirism in France and +Germany. In a newspaper published in the reign of Louis XV there +appeared an announcement to the effect that Arnold Paul, a native of +Madveiga, being crushed to death by a wagon and buried, had since become +a vampire, and that he had been previously bitten by one. The +authorities being informed of the terror his visits were occasioning, +and several people having died with all the symptoms of vampirism, his +grave was opened; and although he had been dead forty days his body was +like that of a very full-blooded, living man. + +Following the mode of exorcism traditionally observed on such occasions, +a stake was driven into the corpse, whereupon it uttered a frightful +cry--half human and half animal; after which its head was cut off, and +trunk and head burned. Four other bodies which had died from the +consequences of the bites, and which were found in the same perfectly +healthy condition, were served in a similar manner; and it was hoped +these vigorous measures would end the mischief. But no such thing; cases +of deaths from the same cause--_i.e._, loss of blood--still continued, +and five years afterwards became so rife that the authorities were +compelled to take the matter up for the second time. On this occasion +the graves of many people, of all ages and both sexes, were opened, and +the bodies of all those suspected of plaguing the living by their +nocturnal visits were found in the vampire state--full almost to +overflowing with blood, and free from every symptom of death. On their +being served in the same manner as the corpse of Arnold Paul the +epidemic of vampirism ceased, and no more cases of it have since been +reported as occurring in that district. A rumour of these proceedings +reaching the ears of Louis XV, he at once ordered his Minister at Vienna +to report upon them. This was done. The documents forwarded to the King +(and which are still in existence) give a detailed account of all the +occurrences to which I have referred. They bear the date of June 7, +1732, and are signed and witnessed by three surgeons and several other +persons. + +The facts, which are indubitable, point to no other satisfactory +explanation saving that of vampirism--an explanation that finds ample +corroboration in thousands of like cases reported, at one time or +another, in every country in Eastern Europe. + + +GHOULISM AND LYCANTHROPY + +Sergeant Bertrand has also been declared a ghoul. Ghoulism bears a +somewhat closer resemblance than vampirism to lycanthropy. A ghoul is an +Elemental that visits any place where human or animal remains have been +interred. It digs them up and bites them, showing a keen liking for +brains, which it sucks in the same manner as a vampire sucks blood. + +Ghouls either remain in spirit form or steal the bodies of living +beings--living beings only--either human or animal. They can only do +this when the spirit of the living person, during sleep (either natural +or induced hypnotically), is separated from the material body; or, in +other words, when the spirit is projected. The ghoul then pounces on the +physical body, and, often refusing to restore it to its rightful owner, +the latter is compelled to roam about as a phantasm for just so long a +time as the ghoul chooses to inhabit the body it has stolen. + + +THE CASE OF CONSTANCE ARMANDE, GHOUL + +_A propos_ of ghouls, the following incident was related to me as having +occurred recently in Brittany. A young girl named Constance Armande, in +a good station of life, much against the wishes of her family, took up +spiritualism and constantly attended seances. At these seances she +witnessed all sorts of phenomena--some in all probability produced by +mere trickery on the part of the medium or a confederate, whilst +others were, without doubt, the manifestations of _bona fide_ +spirits--earthbound phantasms of the lowest and most undesirable +order--murderers, lunatics, Vice Elementals, and ghouls. It is most +unwise to risk coming in contact with such spirits, for when they have +once made your acquaintance they will attach themselves to you, and are +got rid of only with the greatest difficulty. They were most unremitting +in their persecution of Constance Armande; they followed her home, and +were always rapping on the walls of her room and disturbing and annoying +her. In short, she got no peace, either asleep or awake. In the night +she would often wake up screaming, and in an agony of mind rush into her +parents' room and implore their protection, declaring she had dreamed in +the most vivid manner possible that frightful-looking creatures, too +awful for her to describe, were trying to prevent her awaking in order +to keep her with them always. She told a spiritualist, and he informed +her that such dreams were not in reality dreams at all, but +projections--that she had, at seances, acquired the power of projection; +and, having no control over that power, she projected herself +unconsciously, the projection almost always taking place in her sleep. + +A medical expert was also consulted, and in accordance with his advice +Constance Armande went to the seaside and resorted to every kind of +pleasure--balls, concerts, and theatres. But the annoyances still +continued, and she was seldom permitted to rest a whole night without +being disturbed in a most harrowing manner. + +Being a really beautiful girl, she had countless admirers, and +eventually she became engaged to Alphonse Mabane, the only son of a very +wealthy widow. + +Shortly before the day fixed for their marriage Madame Mabane was seized +with a fit of apoplexy and died. Every one, especially Constance +Armande, was overwhelmed with grief, whilst preparations were made for a +most impressive funeral. + +On the afternoon of the day preceding that on which the funeral was to +take place Constance, complaining of a bad headache, went to lie down +on her bed, and two hours later strange footsteps were heard coming out +of her room and bounding down the stairs. Wondering who it could be, +Madame Armande ran to look, and was astonished beyond measure to see +Constance--but a Constance she hardly knew--a Constance with the glitter +of a ferocious beast in her eyes, and a grim, savage expression in the +corners of her mouth. She did not appear to notice her mother, but +passed her by with a light, stealthy tread, utterly unlike her usual +walk, crossed the hall, and went out at the front door. Madame Armande +was too startled to try and intercept her, or even to make any remark, +and returned to the drawing-room greatly agitated. As hour after hour +passed and Constance did not come home, her alarm increased, and she +mentioned the incident to her husband, who caused immediate inquiries to +be made. Just about the hour the family usually retired to rest there +came a violent ring at the front-door bell. It was Alphonse Mabane, pale +and ghastly. + +"Have you found her?" Monsieur and Madame Armande cried, catching hold +of him in their agitation, and dragging him into the hall. + +Alphonse nodded. "Let me sit down a moment first," he gasped. "It will +give me time to collect my senses. My nerves are all to pieces!" + +He sank into a chair, and, burying his face in his hands, shook +convulsively. Monsieur and Madame Armande stood and watched him in +agonized silence. After some minutes--to the Armandes it seemed an +eternity--spent in this fashion, Alphonse raised his head. "Your +servant," he said, "came to my house at nine o'clock and asked if +Mademoiselle Constance was with me. I said 'No,' that I had not seen her +all day, and was much alarmed when I was informed that she had left home +early in the afternoon and had not yet returned. I said I would join in +the search for her, and was in my bedroom putting on my overcoat, when +there came a tap at my door, and Jacques, my valet, with a face as white +as a sheet, begged me to go with him upstairs. He led me to the door of +my mother's room, where she lay in her coffin, not yet screwed down. +'Hark!' he whispered, touching me on the sleeve, 'do you hear that?' + +"I listened, and from the interior of the room came a curious noise like +munching--a steady gnaw, gnaw, gnaw. 'I heard it just now,' he +whispered, 'when I was going to shut the landing window--and other +sounds, too. Hush!' + +"I held my breath, and heard distinctly the swishing and rustling of a +dress. + +"'Have you been in?' I asked. + +"He shook his head. 'I daren't,' he whispered. 'I wouldn't go in by +myself if you were to offer me a million pounds,' and he trembled so +violently that he had to lean against me for support. + +"A great terror then seized me, and bidding Jacques follow, I crept +downstairs and summoned the rest of the servants. Armed with sticks and +lights, we then went in a body to my mother's room, and throwing open +the door, rushed in. + +"The lid of the coffin was off, the corpse was lying huddled up on the +floor, and crouching over it was Constance. For God's sake don't ask me +to describe more--the sounds we heard explained everything. When she saw +us she emitted a series of savage snarls, sprang at one of the maids, +scratched her in the face, and before we could stop her, flew downstairs +and out into the street. As soon as our shocked senses had sufficiently +recovered we started off in pursuit, but have not been able to find the +slightest trace of her." + +At the conclusion of Monsieur Mabane's story the search was continued. +The police were summoned, and a general hue and cry raised, with the +result that Constance was eventually found in a cemetery digging +frantically at a newly made grave. + +At last brought to bay in the chase that ensued, fortunately for her +and for all concerned, she plunged into a river, was swept away by the +current, and drowned. + +This case of Constance Armande seems to me to be clearly a case of +ghoulism. What the spiritualist had told her was correct--she had +projected herself unconsciously, and the hideous things she imagined +were phantoms in a dream were Elementals--ghouls--her projected spirit +encountered on the superphysical plane. + +After sundry efforts to steal her body when she was thus separated from +it, one of them had at length succeeded, and, incarcerated in her +beautiful frame, had hastened to satisfy its craving for human carrion. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +WERWOLVES IN GERMANY + + +No country in the world is richer in stories of everything appertaining +to the supernatural than Germany. The Rhine is the favourite river of +nymphs and sirens, to whose irresistible and fatal fascinations so many +men have fallen victims. Along its shores are countless haunted castles, +in its woods innumerable terrifying phantoms. + +The werwolf, however, seems to have confined itself almost entirely to +the Harz Mountains, where it was formerly most common and more dreaded +than any other visitant from the Unknown. But of these werwolves many of +the best authenticated cases have been told so often, that it is +difficult for me to alight on any that is not already well known. +Perhaps the following, though as striking as any, may be new to at least +a few of my readers. + + +THE CASE OF HERR HELLEN AND THE WERWOLVES OF THE HARZ MOUNTAINS + +Two gentlemen, named respectively Hellen and Schiller, were on a walking +tour in the Harz Mountains, in the early summer of the year 1840, when +Schiller, slipping down, sprained his ankle and was unable to go on. +They were some miles from any village, in the centre of an extensive +forest, and it was beginning to get dark. + +"Leave me here," cried the injured man to his friend, "while you see if +you can discover any habitation. I have been told these woods are full +of charcoal-burners' and wood-cutters' huts, so that if you walk +straight ahead for a mile or two, you are very likely to come across +one. Do go, there's a good fellow, and if you are too tired to return +yourself, send some one to carry me." + +Hellen did not like leaving his comrade in such a dreary spot, alone and +helpless, but as Schiller was persistent he at length yielded, and +stepping briskly out, advanced along the track that had brought them +hither. Once or twice he halted, fancying he heard voices, and several +times his heart pulsated wildly at what he took to be the cry of a +wolf--for neither Schiller nor he had no weapons excepting +sheath-knives. At last he came to an open spot hedged in on all sides +by gloomy pines, the shadows from which were beginning to fall thick and +fast athwart the vivid greensward. It was one of those places--they are +to be found in pretty nearly every country--studiously avoided by local +woodsmen as the haunt of all manner of evil influences. Hellen +recognized it as such the moment he saw it, but as it lay right across +his path, and time was pressing, he had no alternative but to keep +boldly on. He was half-way across the spot when he was startled by a +groan, and looking in the direction of the sound, he saw a man seated on +the ground endeavouring to bandage his hand. Wondering why he had not +observed him before, but thankful to meet some one at last, Hellen went +up to him and asked what was the matter. + +"I've broken my wrist," the man replied. "I was gathering sticks for my +fire to-morrow when I heard the howl of a wolf, and in my anxiety to +escape a conflict with the brute I climbed this tree. As I descended one +of the branches gave way, and I fell down with all my weight on my right +arm. Will you see if you can bind it for me? I'm a bit awkward with my +left hand." + +"I will do my best," Hellen said, and kneeling beside the man, he took +off the bandages and wrapped them round again. "There," he exclaimed, +"I think that is better--at least it is the best I can do." + +The stranger was now most profuse in his thanks, and when Hellen +informed him of Schiller's condition, at once cried out, "You must both +come to my cottage; it is only a short distance from here. Let us hasten +thither now, and my daughter, who is very strong, shall go back with you +and help you carry your friend. We are not rich, but we can make you +both fairly comfortable, and all we have shall be at your disposal. But +I wonder if you know what you have incurred by coming to this spot at +this hour?" + +"Why, no," Hellen said, laughing. "What?" + +"The gratification of two wishes--the first two wishes you make! Of +course, you will say it is all humbug, but, believe me, very queer +things do happen in this forest. I have experienced them myself." + +"Well!" Hellen replied, laughing more heartily than before, "if I wish +anything at all it is that my wife were here to see how beautifully I +have bandaged your wrist." + +"Where is your wife?" the stranger inquired. + +"At Frankfort, most likely taking a final peep at the children in bed +before retiring to rest herself!" Hellen said, still laughing. + +"Then you have children!" the stranger ejaculated, evidently +interested. + +"Yes, three--all girls--and such bonny girls, too. Marcella, Christina, +and Fredericka. I wish I had them here for you to see." + +"I should much like to see them, certainly," the stranger said. "And now +you have told me so much of interest about yourself, let me tell you +something of my own history in exchange. My name is Wilfred Gaverstein. +I am an artist by profession, and have come to live here during the +summer months in order to paint nature--nature as it really is--in all +its varying moods. Nature is my only god--I adore it. I don't believe in +souls. I love the trees and flowers and shrubs, the rivulets, the +fountains, the birds and insects." + +"Everything but the wolves!" Hellen remarked jocularly. Hardly, however, +had he spoken these words before he had reason to alter his tone. "Great +heavens! do you hear that?" he cried. "There is no mistake about it this +time. It is a wolf, or may I never live to hear one again." + +"You are right, friend," Wilfred said. "It is a wolf, and not very far +away, either. Come, we must be quick," and thrusting his arm through +that of Hellen, he hurried him along. After some minutes' fast walking +they came in sight of a neatly thatched whitewashed cottage, at the +entrance to which two women and several children were collected. "That's +my home," Wilfred said. + +"And that's my wife!" Hellen cried, rubbing his eyes to make sure he was +not dreaming. "God in heaven, what's the meaning of it all? My wife and +children--all three of them! Am I mad?" + +"It is merely the answer to your wishes," Wilfred rejoined calmly. "See, +they recognize you and are waving." + +As one in a sleep Hellen now staggered forward, and was soon in the +midst of his family, who, rushing up to him, implored him to explain +what had happened, and how on earth they came to be there. + +"I am just as much at sea as you are," Hellen said, feeling them each in +turn to make sure it was really they. "It's an insoluble mystery to me." + +"And to us, too," they all cried. "A few minutes ago we were in our beds +in Frankfort, and then suddenly we found ourselves here--here in this +dreadful looking forest. Oh, take us away, take us home, do!" + +Hellen was in despair. It was all like a hideous nightmare to him. What +was he to do? + +"You must be my guests for to-night, at all events," Wilfred said; "and +in the morning we will discuss what is to be done. Fortunately we have +enough room to accommodate you all. There is food in abundance. Let me +introduce you to my daughter Marguerite," and the next moment Hellen +found himself shaking hands with a girl of about twenty years of age. +She was clad in what appeared to be a travelling dress, deeply bordered +with white fur, and wore a most becoming cap of white ermine. Her feet +were shod in long, pointed, and very elegant buckskin shoes, adorned +with bright silver buckles. Her hair, which was yellow and glossy, was +parted down the middle, and waved in a most becoming fashion low over +the forehead and ears; and her features--at least so Hellen +thought--were very beautiful. Her mouth, though a trifle large, had very +daintily cut lips, and was furnished with unusually white and even +teeth. But there was a peculiar furtive expression in her eyes, which +were of a very pretty shape and colour, that aroused Hellen's curiosity, +and made him scrutinize her carefully. Her hands were noticeably long +and slender, with tapering fingers and long, almond-shaped, rosy nails, +that glittered each time they caught the rays of the fast fading +sunlight. Hellen's first impression of her was that she was marvellously +beautiful, but that there was a something about her that he did not +understand--a something he had never seen in anyone before, a something +that in an ugly woman might have put him on his guard, but in this face +of such surpassing beauty a something he seemed only too ready to +ignore. Hellen was a good, and up to the present, certainly, a faithful +husband, but he was only a man after all, and the more he looked at the +girl the more he admired her. + +At a word from Wilfred, Marguerite smilingly led the way indoors, and +showed the guests two bedrooms, small but exquisitely clean. There was a +double bed in one, and two single ones in the other. The bed-linen was +of the very finest material, and white as snow. + +"I think," Wilfred remarked, "two of the girls can squeeze in one +bed--they are neither of them very big--though it does my heart good to +see them so bonny." + +"And mine, too," Marguerite joined in, patting the three children on the +cheeks in turn, and drawing them to her and caressing them. + +Mrs. Hellen, still dazed, and apparently hardly realizing what was +happening, stammered out her thanks, and the party then descended to the +kitchen to partake of a substantial supper that was speedily prepared +for them. + +"Had you not better go and look for your friend now?" Wilfred observed, +just as Hellen was about to seat himself beside his wife and children. +"Marguerite will go with you, and on your return the three of you can +have your meal in here after the children have gone to bed." + +Hellen readily assented, and kissing his wife and little ones, who +tearfully implored him not to be gone long, set out, accompanied by +Marguerite. + +At each step they took, Marguerite's beauty became more irresistible. +The soft rays of the moon falling directly on her features enhanced +their loveliness, and Hellen could not keep his eyes off her. The +ominous cry of a night bird startled her; she edged timidly up to him; +and he had to exert all his self-control, so eager was he to clasp her +to him. In a strained, unnatural manner he kept up a flow of small-talk, +eliciting the information that she was an art student, and that she had +studied in Paris and Antwerp, had exhibited in Munich and Turin, and was +contemplating visiting London the following spring. They talked on in +this strain until Hellen, remembering their mission, exclaimed:-- + +"We must be very close to where I left Schiller. I will call to him." + +He did so--not once, but many times; and the reverberation of his voice +rang out loud and clear in the silence of the vast, moon-kissed forest. +But there was no response, nothing but the rustling of branches and the +shivering of leaves. + +"What's that?" Marguerite suddenly cried, clutching hold of Hellen's +arm. "There! right in front of us, lying on the ground. There!" and she +indicated the object with her gleaming finger-tip. + +"It looks remarkably like Schiller," Hellen said. "Can he be asleep?" + +Quickening their pace, they speedily arrived at the spot. It was +Schiller, or rather what had once been Schiller, for there was now very +little left of him but the face and hands and feet; the rest had only +too obviously been eaten. The spectacle was so shocking that for some +minutes Hellen was too overcome to speak. + +"It must have been wolves!" he said at length. "I fancied I heard them +several times. Would to God I had never left him! What a death!" + +"Horrible!" Marguerite whispered, and she turned her head away to avoid +so harrowing a sight. + +"Well," Hellen observed in a voice broken with emotion, "it's no use +staying here. We can't be of any service to him now. I will gather the +remains together in the morning, and with the assistance of your father +see that they are decently interred. Come! let us be going." And +offering Marguerite his arm, they began to retrace their steps. + +For some time Hellen was too occupied with thoughts of his friend's +cruel death to think of anything else, but the close proximity of +Marguerite gradually made itself felt, and by the time they had reached +the open clearing--the spot where he had encountered Wilfred--his +passion completely overpowered him. Throwing discretion to the winds, +and oblivious of wife, children, home, honour, everything save +Marguerite--the lustre of her eyes and the dainty curving of her +lips--he slipped his arm round her waist, and pressing her close to him, +smothered her in kisses. + +"How dare you, sir!" she panted, slowly shaking herself free. "Aren't +you ashamed of such behaviour? What would your wife say, if she knew?" + +"I couldn't help it," Hellen pleaded. "I'm not myself to-night. Your +beauty has bewitched me, and I would risk anything to have you in my +arms." He spoke so earnestly and looked at her so appealingly that she +smiled. + +"I know I am beautiful," she said, and the intonation of her voice +thrilled him to the very marrow of his bones. "Dozens of men have told +me so. Consequently, since there seems to have been some excuse for +you, I forgive you, only----," but before she could say another word, +Hellen had again seized her, and this time he did not loosen his hold +till from sheer exhaustion he could kiss her no more. + +"It's no use!" he panted. "I can't help it. I love you as I never loved +a woman before, and if you were to ask me to do so I would go to Hell +with you this very minute." + +"It is dangerous to express such sentiments here," Marguerite said. +"Don't you know this spot is full of supernatural influences, and that +the first two things you wish for will be granted?" + +"I have already wished," Hellen said. "I wished when I was here with +your father." + +"Then wish again," Marguerite replied; "I assure you your wishes will be +fulfilled." And again she looked at him in a way that sent all the blood +in his body surging wildly to his head, and roused his passion in hot +and furious rebellion against his reason. + +"I wish, then," he cried, seizing hold of her hands and pressing them to +his lips--"I wish every obstacle removed that prevents my having you +always with me--that is wish number one." + +"And wish number two?" the girl interrogated, her warm, scented breath +fanning his cheeks and nostrils. "Won't you wish that you may be mine +for ever? Always mine, mine to eternity!" + +"I will!" Hellen cried. "May I be yours always--yours to do what you +like with--in this life and the next." + +"And now you shall have your reward," Marguerite exclaimed, clapping her +hands gleefully. "I will kiss you of my own free will," and throwing her +arms round his neck, she drew his head down to hers, and kissed him, +kissed him not once but many times. + + * * * * * + +An hour later they left the spot and slowly made their way to the +cottage. As they neared it, loud screams for help rent the air, and +Hellen, to his horror, heard his wife and children--he could recognize +their individual voices--shrieking to him to save them. + +In an instant he was himself again. All his old affection for home and +family was restored, and with a loud answering shout he started to rush +to their assistance. But Marguerite willed otherwise. With a dexterous +movement of her feet she got in his way and tripped him, and before he +had time to realize what was happening, she had flung herself on the top +of him and pinioned him down. + +"No!" she said playfully, "you shall not go! You are mine, mine always, +remember, and if I choose to keep you here with me, here you must +remain." + +He strove to push her off, but he strove in vain; for the slender, +rounded limbs he had admired so much possessed sinews of steel, and he +was speedily reduced to a state of utter impotence. + +The shrieks from the cottage were gradually lapsing into groans and +gurgles, all horribly suggestive of what was taking place, but it was +not until every sound had ceased that Marguerite permitted Hellen to +rise. + +"You may go now," she said with a mischievous smile, kissing him gaily +on the forehead and giving his cheeks a gentle slap. "Go--and see what a +lucky man you are, and how speedily your first wish has been gratified." + +Sick with apprehension, Hellen flew to the cottage. His worst +forebodings were realized. Stretched on the floor of their respective +rooms, with big, gaping wounds in their chests and throats, lay his wife +and children; whilst cross-legged, on a chest in the kitchen, his dark +saturnine face suffused with glee, squatted Wilfred. + +"Fiend!" shouted Hellen. "I understand it all now. I have been dealing +with the Spirits of the Harz Mountains. But be you the Devil himself +you shan't escape me," and snatching an axe from the wall, he aimed a +terrific blow at Wilfred's head. + +The weapon passed right through the form of Wilfred, and Hellen, losing +his balance, fell heavily to the ground. At this moment Marguerite +entered. + +"Fool!" she cried; "fool, to think any weapon can harm either Wilfred or +me. We are phantasms--phantasms beyond the power of either Heaven or +Hell. Come here!" + +Impelled by a force he could not resist, Hellen obeyed--and as he gazed +into her eyes all his blind infatuation for her came back. + +"We must part now," she said; "but only for a while--for remember, you +belong to me. Here is a token"--and she thrust into his hand a wisp of +her long, golden hair. "Sleep on it and dream of me. Do not look so sad. +I shall come for you without fail, and by this sign you shall know when +I am coming. When this mark begins to heal," she said, as, with the nail +on the forefinger of the right hand, she scratched his forehead, "get +ready!" + +There was then a loud crash--the room and everything in it swam before +Hellen's eyes, the floor rose and fell, and sinking backwards he +remembered no more. + + * * * * * + +When he recovered he was lying in the centre of the haunted plot. There +was nothing to be seen around him except the trees--dark lofty pines +that, swaying to and fro in the chill night breeze, shook their sombre +heads at him. A great sigh of relief broke from him--his experiences of +course had only been a dream. He was trying to collect his thoughts, +when he discovered that he was holding something tightly clasped in one +of his hands. Unable to think what it could be, he rose, and held it in +the full light of the moon. He then saw that it was a tuft of white +fur--the fur of some animal. Much puzzled, he put it in his pocket, and +suddenly recollecting his friend, set out for the place where he had +left him. "I shall soon know," he said to himself, "whether I have been +asleep all this time--God grant it may be so!" His heart beat fearfully +as he pressed forward, and he shouted out "Schiller" several times. But +there was no reply, and presently he came upon the remains, just as he +had seen them when accompanied by Marguerite. Convinced now that all +that had taken place was grim reality, he went back along the route +Schiller and he had taken the preceding day, and in due time reached the +village. To the landlord of the inn where they had stayed he related +what had happened. "I am truly sorry for you," the landlord said; "your +experience has indeed been a terrible one. Every one here knows the +forest is haunted in that particular spot, and we all give it as wide a +berth as possible. But you have been most unfortunate, for Wilfred and +Marguerite, who are werwolves, only visit these parts periodically. I +last heard of them being seen when I was about ten years of age, and +they then ate a pedlar called Schwann and his wife." + +As soon as Schiller's remains had been brought to the village and +interred in the cemetery, Hellen, armed to the teeth and accompanied by +several of the biggest and strongest hounds he could hire--for he could +get none of the villagers to go with him--spent a whole day searching +for Wilfred's cottage. But although he was convinced he had found the +exact spot where it had stood, there were now no traces of it to be +seen. + +At length he returned to the village, and on the following morning set +out for Frankfort. On his arrival home he was immediately apprised of +the fact that a terrible tragedy had occurred in his house. His wife and +children had been found dead in their beds, with their throats cut and +dreadful wounds in their chests, and the police had not been able to +find the slightest clue to the murderers. With a terrible sinking at the +heart Hellen asked for particulars, and learned, as he knew only too +well he would learn, that the date of the tragedy was identical with +that of his adventure in the forest. + +He tried hard to persuade himself that the coincidence was a mere +coincidence; but--he knew better. Besides, there was the scratch!--the +scratch on his forehead. + +Moreover, the scratch remained. It remained fresh and raw till a few +days prior to his death, when it began to heal. And on the day he died +it had completely healed. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A LYCANTHROPOUS BROOK IN THE HARZ MOUNTAINS; OR, THE CASE OF THE +COUNTESS HILDA VON BREBER + + +Another case of lycanthropy in Germany, connected with the Harz +Mountains, occurred somewhere about the beginning of the last century. + +Count Von Breber, chief of the police of Magdeburg, whilst away from +home on a holiday with his young and beautiful wife, the Countess Hilda, +happened to pass a night in the village of Grautz, in the centre of the +Harz Mountains. + +In the course of a conversation with the innkeeper, the Countess +remarked: "On our way here this morning we crossed a brook, and +experienced the greatest difficulty in persuading our dogs to go into +the water. It is most unusual, as they are generally only too ready for +a dip. Can you in any way account for it?" + +"Were there two very tall poplars, one on either side of the brook?" the +innkeeper asked; "and did you notice a peculiar--one cannot describe it +as altogether unpleasant--smell there?" + +"We did!" the Count and Countess exclaimed in chorus. + +"Then it was the spot locally known as Wolf Hollow," the innkeeper said. +"No one ventures there after dark, as it has a very evil reputation." + +"Stuff and nonsense!" the Count snapped. + +"That is as your honour pleases," the innkeeper said humbly. "We village +folk believe it to be haunted; but, of course, if the subject appears +ridiculous to you, I will take care I do not refer to it again." + +"Please do!" the Countess cried. "I love anything to do with the +supernatural. Tell us all about it." + +The innkeeper gave a little nervous cough, and glancing uneasily at the +Count, whose face looked more than usually stern in the fading sunlight, +observed: "They do say, madam, that whoever drinks the water of that +stream----" + +"Yes, yes?" the Countess cried eagerly. + +"Suffers a grave misfortune." + +"Of what nature?" the Countess demanded; but before the innkeeper could +answer, the Count cut in:-- + +"I forbid you to say another word. The Countess has drunk the water +there, and your cock-and-bull stories will frighten her into fits. +Confess it is all made up for the benefit of travellers like ourselves." + +"Yes, your honour!" the innkeeper stammered, his knees shaking; "I +confess it is mere talk, but we all be--be--lieve it." + +"That will do--go!" the Count cried; and the innkeeper, terrified out of +his wits, flew out of the room. + +Some minutes later mine host received a peremptory summons to appear +before the Count, who was alone and scowling horribly, in the best +parlour. He had barely got inside the room before the Count burst out +wrathfully:-- + +"I've sent for you, sir, in order to impress upon you the fact that if +either you or your minions mention one word about that brook to the +Countess, or to her servants--mark that--I will have the breath flogged +out of your body and your tongue snipped. Do you hear?" + +"Y--yes, your honour," the innkeeper cried. "I ful--fully +un--understand, and if her ladyship asks me any--anything abou--out the +br--br--brook, I will lie." + +"Which won't trouble you much, eh?" + +"N--n--o, your honour! I mean y--yes, your honour! It will be a burden +on my con--conscience, but I will do anything to pl--please your +honour." + +The interview then terminated, and the innkeeper, bathed in perspiration +and wishing his lot in life anything but what it was, hastened to +prepare dinner. + +"I hope nothing dreadful will happen to me; I feel that something will," +the Countess said, as she let down her long beautiful hair that night. +"Carl, why did you let me drink the water?" + +"The water be ----!" the Count growled. "Didn't you hear what the +innkeeper said?--that the story was mere invention! If you believe all +the idle tales you hear, you will soon be in an asylum. Hilda, I'm +ashamed of you!" + +"And I'm ashamed of myself," the Countess cried, "so there!" and she +flung her arms round his neck and kissed him. + +The following morning they left the inn, and, retracing their steps, +journeyed homewards. The Count looked at his wife somewhat critically; +she was very pale, and there were dark rims under her eyes. + +"I do believe, Hilda," he observed with an assumed gaiety, "you are +still worrying about that water!" + +"I am," she replied; "I had such queer dreams." + +He asked her to narrate them, but she refused; and as her sleep now +became constantly disturbed, and she was getting thin and worried, the +Count determined that as soon as he reached home he would call in a +doctor. The latter, examining the Countess, attributed the cause of her +indisposition to dyspepsia, and ordered her a diet of milk food. But she +did not get better, and now insisted upon sleeping alone, choosing a +bedroom situated in a secluded part of the house, where there was +absolute silence. + +The Count remonstrated. "You might at least let me occupy the room next +to you!" he said. + +"No," she replied; "I should hear you if you did. I am sensible now of +the very slightest sounds, and besides disturbing me, they are a source +of the greatest annoyance. I feel I shall never get well again unless I +can have complete rest and quiet. Do let me!" and she fixed her big blue +eyes on him so earnestly, that he vowed he would see that all her +wishes, no matter how fanciful, were gratified. + +"I hope she won't go mad!" he said to himself; "her behaviour is odd, to +say the least of it. Odd!--wholly inexplicable." + +It was rather too bad that just now, when his mind was harassed with +misgivings at home, he should also be bothered with disturbances outside +his own home. But so it was. Events of an unprecedented nature were +taking place in the town, and it fell to his lot to cope with them. +Night after night children--mostly of the poorer class--disappeared, and +despite frantic yet careful and thorough searches, no clue as to what +had befallen them had, so far, been discovered. The Count doubled the +men on night duty, but in spite of these and other extraordinary +precautions the disappearances continued, and the affair--already of the +utmost gravity--promised to be one that would prove disastrous, not +merely to the heads of families, but to the head of the police himself. +So long as the missing ones had been of the lower orders only, the Count +had not had much to fear--the murmurings of their parents could easily +be held in check--but now that a few of the children of the rich had +been spirited away, there was every likelihood of the matter reaching +the ears of the Court. One evening, when the Count had hardly recovered +his equanimity after a stormy interview with Herr Meichen, the banker, +whose three-year-old daughter had vanished, and a still more distressing +scene with Otto Schmidt, the lawyer, whose six-year-old daughter had +disappeared, his patience was called upon to undergo a still further +trial in consequence of a visit from General Carl Rittenberg, a person +of the greatest importance, not only in the town, but in the whole +province. Purple in the face with suppressed fury, the General burst +into the room where the head of the police sat. + +"Count!" he cried, striking the table with his fist, "this is beyond a +joke. My child--my only child--Elizabeth, whom my wife and I +passionately love, has been stolen. She was walking by my side in +Frederick Street this afternoon, and as it suddenly became foggy, I left +her a moment to hail a vehicle to take us home. I wasn't gone from her +more than half a minute at the most, but when I returned she had gone. I +searched everywhere, shouting her name; and passers by, compassionate +strangers, joined me in my search; but though we have looked high and +low not a trace of her have we been able to discover. I have not told +her mother yet. God help me--I dare not! I dare not even show my face at +home without her--my wife will never forgive me----"; and so great was +his emotion that he buried his face in his hands, and his great body +heaved and shook. Then he started to his feet, his eyes bulging and +lurid. "Curse you!" he shrieked; "curse you, Count! it's all your fault! +Day after day you've sat here, when you ought to have been hunting up +these rascally police of yours. You've no right to rest one second--not +one second, do you hear?--till the mystery surrounding these poor lost +children has been cleared up, and, living or dead--God forbid it should +prove to be the latter!--they are restored to their parents. Now, mark +my words, Count, unless my child Elizabeth is found, I'll make your name +a byword throughout the length and breadth of the country--I'll----"; +but words failed him, and, shaking his fist, he staggered out of the +room. + +The Count was much perturbed. The General was one of the few people in +the town who really had it in their power to do him harm--the one man +above all others with whom he had hitherto made it his business to keep +in. He had not the least doubt but that the General meant all he said, +and he recognized only too well that his one and only hope of salvation +lay in the recovery of Elizabeth. But, God in heaven, where could he +look for her? Sick at heart, he marshalled every policeman in the force, +and within an hour every street in Magdeburg was being subjected to a +most rigorous search. The Count was just quitting his office, resolved +to join in the hunt himself, when a shabbily dressed woman brushed past +the custodian at the door, and racing up to him, flung herself at his +feet. + +"What the devil does she want?" the Count demanded savagely. "Who is +she?" + +"Martha Brochel, your honour, a poor half-witted creature, who was one +of the first in the town to lose a child," the door-porter replied; "and +the shock of it has driven her mad!" + +"Mad! mad! Yes! that is just what I am--mad!" the woman broke out. +"Everything is in darkness. It is always night! There are no houses, no +chimneys, no lanterns, only trees--big, black trees that rustle in the +wind, and shake their heads mockingly. And then something hideous comes! +What is it? Take it away! Take it away! Give her back to me!" And as +Martha's voice rose to a shriek, she threw her hands over her head, and, +clenching them, growled and snarled like a wild animal. + +"Put her outside!" the Count said with an impatient gesture; "and take +good care she does not get in here again." + +"No! Don't turn me away! Don't! don't!" Martha screamed; "I forgot what +it was I wanted to tell you--but I remember now. I've seen it!--seen the +thing that stole my child. There is light--light again! Oh! hear me!" + +"Where have you seen it, Martha?" the porter inquired; and looking at +the Count, he said respectfully: "It is just possible, your honour, +this woman might be of use to us, and that she has actually seen the +person who stole her child." + +"Rubbish! What right has she to have children?" the Count snapped, and +he spurned the supplicant with his boot. + +The moment she was in the street, however, the head of the police was +after her. Keeping close behind her, he resolutely dogged her steps. The +evening was now far advanced, and the fog so dense that the Count, +though he knew the city, was soon at a total loss as to his whereabouts. +But on and on the woman went, now deviating to the right, now to the +left; sometimes pausing as if listening, then tearing on again at such a +rate that the Count was obliged to run to keep up with her. Suddenly she +uttered a shrill cry: + +"There it is! There it is! The thing that took my child!" and the figure +of what certainly appeared to be a woman, muffled, and carrying a sack +on her shoulder, glided across the road just in front of them and +disappeared in the impenetrable darkness. Martha sped after her, and the +Count, his hopes raised high, followed in hot pursuit. He failed to +recognize the ground they were traversing, and presently they came to a +high wall, over which Martha scrambled with the agility of an acrobat. +The Count, in attempting to imitate her, damaged his knee and tore his +clothes, but he also landed safely on the other side. Then on they went, +Martha with unabated energy, the Count horribly exhausted, and beginning +to think of turning back, when they were abruptly brought to a +standstill. The walls of some building loomed right ahead of them. The +object of their pursuit, again visible, darted through a doorway; whilst +Martha, with a loud cry of triumph, sprang in after her; but before the +Count could cross the threshold the door was slammed and locked in his +face. Then he heard a chorus of the most appalling sounds--sounds so +strange and unearthly that his blood turned to ice and his hair rose +straight on end. Rushing footsteps mingled with peculiar soft +patterings; agonized human screams coupled with the growls and snappings +of an animal; a heavy thud; gurgles; and then silence. + +The Count's courage revived: he hurled himself against the door; it gave +with a crash, and the next moment he was inside. But what a sight met +his eyes! The place, which somehow or the other seemed oddly familiar to +him, was a veritable shambles--floor, walls, and furniture were sodden +with blood. In every corner were mangled human remains; whilst stretched +on the ground, opposite the doorway, lay the body of Martha, her face +unrecognizable and her breast and stomach ripped right open. This was +terrible enough, but more terrible by far was the author of it all, who, +having cast aside wraps, now stood fully revealed in the yellow glow of +a lantern. What the Count saw was a monstrosity--a thing with a woman's +breast, a woman's hair, golden and curly, but the face and feet were +those of a wolf; whilst the hands, white and slender, were armed with +long, glittering nails, cruelly sharp and dripping with blood. + +To the Count's astonishment the creature did not attack him, but +uttering a low plaintive cry, veered round and endeavoured to escape. +But escape was the very last thing Van Breber would permit. Whatever the +thing was--beast or devil--it had caused him endless trouble, and if +allowed to get away now, would go on with its escapades, and so bring +about his ruin. No! he must kill it. Kill it even at the risk of his own +life. With a shout of wrath he plunged his sword up to its hilt in the +thing's back. + +It fell to the floor and the Count bent over it curiously. Something was +happening--something strange and terrifying; but he could not look--he +was forced to shut his eyes. When he opened them he no longer saw the +hairy visage of a wolf--he was gazing fondly into the dying eyes of his +beautiful and much-loved wife. With a rapidity like lightning, he +recognized his surroundings. He was in a long disused summer-house that +stood in a remote corner of his own grounds! + +"God help me and you, too!" the Countess Hilda whispered, clasping him +fondly in her arms. "It was the water!--the water I drank in the Harz +Mountains! I have been bewitched----"; and kissing him feverishly on the +lips, she sank back--dead. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +WERWOLVES IN AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE BALKAN PENINSULA + + +THE CASE OF THE FAMILY OF KLOSKA AND THE LYCANTHROPOUS FLOWER + +In the mountainous regions of Austria-Hungary and the Balkan Peninsula +are certain flowers credited with the property of converting into +werwolves whoever plucks and wears them. Needless to say, these flowers +are very rare, but I have heard of their having been found, +comparatively recently, both in the Transylvanian Alps and the Balkans. +A story _a propos_ of one of these discoveries was told me last summer. + +Ivan and Olga were the children of Otto and Vera Kloska--the former a +storekeeper of Kerovitch, a village on the Roumanian side of the +Transylvanian Alps. One morning they were out with their mother, +watching her wash clothes in a brook at the back of their house, when, +getting tired of their occupation, they wandered into a thicket. + +"Let's make a chaplet of flowers," Olga said, plucking a daisy. "You +gather the flowers and I'll weave them together." + +"It's not much of a game," Ivan grumbled, "but I can't think of anything +more exciting just now, so I'll play it. But let's both make wreaths and +see which makes the best." + +To this Olga agreed, and they were soon busily hunting amidst the grass +and undergrowth, and scrambling into all sorts of possible and +impossible places. + +Presently Ivan heard a scream, followed by a heavy thud, and running in +the direction of the noise, narrowly avoided falling into a pit, the +sides of which were partly overgrown with weeds and brambles. + +"It's all right," Olga shouted; "I'm not hurt. I landed on soft ground. +It's not very deep, and there's such a queer flower here--I don't know +what it is; I've never seen one like it before." + +Ivan's curiosity thus aroused, he carefully examined the sides of the +pit, and, selecting the shallowest spot, lowered himself slowly over and +then dropped. It was nothing of a distance, seven or eight feet at the +most, and he alighted without mishap on a clump of rank, luxuriant +grass. "See! here it is," his sister cried, pointing to a large, very +vivid white flower, shaped something like a sunflower, but soft and +pulpy, and full of a sweet, nauseating odour. "It's too big to put in a +wreath, so I'll wear it in my buttonhole." + +"Better not," Ivan said, snatching it from her; "I don't like it. It's a +nasty-looking thing. I believe it's a sort of fungus." + +Olga then began to cry, and as Ivan was desirous of keeping the peace, +he gave her back the flower. She was a prepossessing child, with black +hair and large dark eyes, pretty teeth and plump, sunburnt cheeks. Nor +was she altogether unaware of her attractions, for even at so early an +age she had a goodly share of the inordinate vanity common to her sex, +and liked nothing better than appearing out-of-doors in a new frock +plentifully besprinkled with rosettes and ribbons. The flower, she told +herself, would look well on her scarlet bodice, and would be a good +set-off to her black hair and olive complexion. All this was, of course, +beyond the comprehension of Ivan, who regarded his sister's weakness +with the most supreme contempt, and for his own part was never so happy +as when skylarking with other boys and getting into every conceivable +kind of mischief. Yet for all that he was in the main sensible, almost +beyond his years, and extremely fond, and--though he would not admit +it--proud of Olga. + +She fixed the flower in her dress, and imitating to the best of her +knowledge the carriage of royalty, strutted up and down, saying "Am I +not grand? Don't I look nice? Ivan--salute me!" + +And Ivan was preparing to salute her in the proper military style, +taught him by a great friend of his in the village, a soldier in the +carabineers for whom he had an intense admiration, when his jaw suddenly +fell and his eyes bulged. + +"Whatever is the matter with you?" Olga asked. + +"There's nothing the matter with me," Ivan cried, shrinking away from +her; "but there is with you. Don't! don't make such faces--they frighten +me," and turning round, he ran to the place where he had made his +descent and tried to climb up. + +Some minutes later the mother of the children, hearing piercing shrieks +for help, flew to the pit, and, missing her footing, slipped over the +brink, and falling some ten or more feet, broke one of her legs and +otherwise bruised herself. For some seconds she was unconscious, and the +first sight that met her eyes on coming to was Ivan kneeling on the +ground, feebly endeavouring to hold at bay a gaunt grey wolf that had +already bitten him about the legs and thigh, and was now trying hard to +fix its wicked white fangs into his throat. + +"Help me, mother!" Ivan gasped; "I'm getting exhausted. It's Olga." + +"Olga!" the mother screamed, making frantic efforts to come to his +assistance. "Olga! what do you mean?" + +"It's all owing to a flower--a white flower," Ivan panted; "Olga would +pluck it, and no sooner had she fixed it on her dress than she turned +into a wolf! Quick, quick! I can't hold it off any longer." + +Thus adjured the wretched woman made a terrific effort to rise, and +failing in this, clenched her teeth, and, lying down, rolled over and +over till she arrived at the spot where the struggle was taking place. +By this time, however, the wolf had broken through Ivan's guard, and he +was now on his back with his right arm in the grip of his ferocious +enemy. + +The mother had not a knife, but she had a long steel skewer she used for +sticking into a tree as a means of fastening one end of her washing +line. She wore it hanging to her girdle, and it was quite by a miracle +it had not run into her when she fell. + +"Take care, mother," Ivan cried, as she raised it ready to strike; +"remember, it is Olga." + +This indeed was an ugly fact that the woman in her anxiety to save the +boy had forgotten. What should she do? To merely wound the animal would +be to make it ten times more savage, in which case it would almost +inevitably destroy them both. To kill it would mean killing Olga. Which +did she love the most, the boy or the girl? Never was a mother placed in +such a dilemma. And she had no time to deliberate, not even a second. +God help her, she chose. And like ninety-nine out of a hundred mothers +would have done, she chose the boy; he--he at all costs must be saved. +She struck, struck with all the pent-up energy of despair, and in her +blind, mad zeal she struck again. + +The first blow, penetrating the werwolf's eye, sank deep into its brain, +but the second blow missed--missed, and falling aslant, alighted on the +form beneath. + +An hour later a villager on his way home, hearing extraordinary sounds +of mirth, went to the side of the pit and peeped over. + +"Vera Kloska!" he screamed; "Heaven have mercy on us, what have you +there?" + +"He! he! he!" came the answer. "He! he! he! My children! Don't they look +funny? Olga has such a pretty white flower in her buttonhole, and Ivan a +red stain on his forehead. They are deaf--they won't reply when I speak +to them. See if you can make them hear." + +But the villager shook his head. "They'll never hear again in this +world, mad soul," he muttered. "You've murdered them." + + * * * * * + +Besides this white flower there is a yellow one, of the same shape and +size as a snapdragon; and a red one, something similar to an ox-eyed +daisy, both of which have the power of metamorphosing the plucker and +wearer into a werwolf. Both have the same peculiar vividness of colour, +the same thick, sticky sap, and the same sickly, faint odour. They are +both natives of Austria-Hungary and the Balkan Peninsula, and are +occasionally to be met with in damp, marshy places. + +Certain flowers (lilies-of-the-valley, marigolds, and azaleas), as also +diamonds, are said to attract werwolves, thus proving a source of danger +to those who wear them. And _a propos_ of this magnetic property of +diamonds the following anecdote comes to me from the Tyrol:-- + + +A WERWOLF IN INNSBRUCK + +Madame Mildau was one of the prettiest women in Innsbruck. She had +golden hair, large violet eyes, a smile that would melt a Loyola, and +diamonds that set every woman's mouth watering. With such inducements to +seduction, how could Madame Mildau help delighting in balls and fetes, +and in promenading constantly before the public? She revelled in a +universal admiration--she aimed at a monopoly--and she lived wholly and +solely to exact homage. To be deprived of any single opportunity of +displaying her charms and consequent triumphs would indeed have been a +hardship, and to nothing short of a very serious indisposition would +Madame Mildau have sacrificed her pleasure. + +Now it so happened that three of the most brilliant entertainments of +the season fell on the same night, and Madame Mildau, with all the +unreason of her sex, desired to attend each one of them. + +"I have accepted these three invitations," she informed her husband, +"and to these three balls I mean to go. I shall apportion the time +equally between them. You forget," she added, "that the success of these +entertainments really depends on me. Crowds go only to see me, and I +should never forgive myself if I disappointed them." + +But her husband, with the perversity characteristic of gout and middle +age, combined, no doubt, with a not unnatural modicum of jealousy, +maintained that one such fete should be sufficient amusement for one +night. She might take her choice of one; he would on no account permit +her to attend all three. Much to his surprise and delight Madame Mildau +made no scene, but graciously submitted after a few mild protestations. +A little later her husband remarked encouragingly:-- + +"I congratulate you, Julia, on your philosophy and self-restraint. In +yielding to my wishes you have pleased me immeasurably, and I should +like to show my gratification in some substantial manner. As it is some +months since I gave you a present, I have resolved to make you one now. +You may choose what you like." + +"I have chosen," Madame Mildau replied calmly. + +"What, already!" her husband cried. "You sly creature. You have been +keeping this up your sleeve. What is it?" + +"A diamond tiara," was the cool reply. "The one you said you could not +afford last Christmas." + +"Mon Dieu!" her husband gasped. "I shall be ruined." + +"You will be ruined if you do not give it to me," Madame Mildau replied, +"for in that case I should leave you. I couldn't live with a liar." + +Her husband wrung his hands. He implored her to choose something else, +but it was of no avail, and within two hours Madame Mildau had visited +the jeweller and the tiara was hers. + +The eventful day came at last, and Madame Mildau, escorted by her +husband, attended one of the most popular balls of the season. She did +not wear her tiara. There had been several highway jewellery robberies +in the neighbourhood of late, and she pleased her husband immensely by +leaving her diamonds carefully locked up at home. + +"You are prudence itself," he said, gazing at her in admiration. "And as +a reward you shall dance all the evening whilst I look on and admire +you." + +But soon Madame Mildau could dance no longer. She had a very bad +headache, and begged her husband to take her home. M. Mildau was very +sympathetic. He was very sorry for his wife, and suggested that she +should take some brandy. She readily agreed that a little brandy might +do her good, and they took some together in their bedroom, after which +madame's husband remembered little more. He had a vague notion that his +wife was rolling his neck-handkerchief round his forehead in the form of +a Turkish turban, and patting him on the cheeks and smilingly wishing +him a thousand pleasant dreams, and then--all was a blank. He might as +well have been dead. With madame it was otherwise. The headache was, of +course, a ruse. The brandy she had given her husband had been well +drugged, and no sooner had she made sure it had taken effect than she +snapped her daintily manicured finger-tips in the air, and retiring to +her dressing-room, changed the dress she was wearing for one ten times +more costly and beautiful--a dress of rose-coloured gauze, upon which a +drapery of lace was suspended by agraffes of diamonds. A wreath of pale +roses, that seemed to have been bathed in the dew of the morning, the +better to harmonize with the delicate complexion of her lovely face, +nestled in her hair, and above it, more magnificent than anything yet +seen in Innsbruck, and setting off to perfection the dazzling lustre of +her yellow curls, the tiara of diamonds. + +After a final survey of herself in the glass, she slipped on her cloak, +and stole softly out to join her intimate friend, the Countess Linitz, +who was also going to the ball. All things so far had worked wonderfully +well; not even a servant suspected her. In order to avoid trusting her +secret to anyone in the house, she had employed a stranger to hire an +elegant carriage, which was in waiting for her at a discreet distance +from the front door. The ball at which Madame Mildau soon arrived with +her friend was much more to her liking than the one to which she had +been previously escorted by her husband. The music was more harmonious, +the conversation more amiable, the dresses more elaborate, and, what +was more important than all, Madame Mildau's success was even more +instantaneous and complete. The whole room--host, guests, musicians, +even waiters--one and all were literally dumbfounded at the +extraordinary beauty of her face and costume, to say nothing of her +jewels. Such an entrancing spectacle was without parallel in a ballroom +in Innsbruck; and when she left, before the entertainment was over, all +the life, the light, the gaiety went with her. + +But it was at the third ball, to which the same equipage surreptitiously +bore her, that Madame Mildau's enjoyment and triumphs reached their +zenith; and it was only towards the close of that entertainment--when +she felt, by that revelation of instinct which never deceives women on +similar occasions, that it was time to depart; that the brilliancy of +her eyes, no less than the beauty of her dress, was fading; that her +lips, parched with fatigue, had lost that humid red which rendered them +so pretty and inviting, and that the dust had taken the beautiful gloss +off her hair--that she experienced, for the first time, a sentiment of +uneasiness in reviewing the rashness of her conduct. How was it +possible, she asked herself, to prevent a casual acquaintance--her +friends she could warn--letting out in conversation before her husband +that she had been to these balls. And supposing he thus got to know of +her deceit, what then? + +This idea--the idea of being found out--with all its consequences, rose +before her. Her exhausted imagination could find nothing to oppose it, +nothing to relieve the feeling of depression which took possession of +her, and she almost felt remorse when she threw herself into her +carriage. It was a very dark night, cold and windy, and she was only too +thankful to nestle close into the soft cushions at her back, and bury +her face in the warm fur of her costly wrap. For some minutes she +remained absorbed in thought; but it was not long before the monotonous +rumble, rumble of the carriage produced a sensation of drowsiness, from +which she was rudely awakened by the sound of a cough. Glancing in the +direction from whence it came, to her utmost dismay and astonishment she +saw, seated in the opposite corner of the vehicle, a young man of good, +if somewhat peculiar appearance, and extremely well dressed. Madame +Mildau instantly took in all the disadvantages of her situation, and, +overwhelmed by the imprudence of her conduct, exclaimed in a tone in +which dignity and terror struggled for mastery, "Sir, what audacity!" + +"Yes, indeed, what audacity!" the stranger replied, affecting to be +shocked. "What pride! What a love of display!" and he rolled his big +eyes at her and bared his teeth. + +"But, sir," Madame Mildau cried in horror, concluding that the unknown +was a madman, "this is _my_ carriage. I beg you will depart--I beseech +you--I command you. I will summon my servants." + +"That will be a vain waste of valuable breath," replied the young man +coolly. "You may call your servants--but there is only one, and he is +mine. He will not answer you." + +"Where am I, then? How infamous!" exclaimed Madame Mildau, and she burst +into tears. "Oh, how cruelly punished I am!" + +"It is true, madame, you will be punished for having been agreeable, +gay, and brilliant to-night without the consent of your husband; but at +present he knows nothing about it, for at this moment he reposes in the +sleep of the just, confident that you are enjoying the same repose close +to him. As to yourself, madame, why this fear? You will have nothing to +dread, I assure you, from my indiscretion; but, as you may be aware, +there is no fault, however small, that has not its expiation. Nay, do +not weep. Am I so ugly? Why should you dread me so, madame? I am a great +admirer of your charms, desirous to know you better. Nay, have no +suspicions as to my morality--I am no profligate. I came to the ball +to-night for quite another purpose." + +"Sir, I understand you. You are employed by my husband. A spy! +Detestable!" + +"Stop, madame," the stranger said, laying his hand gently on hers. +"Debase not the dignity of man by imagining for one instant that there +is anyone who would lend himself so readily to act the odious part you +impute to me. I am no spy." + +"In Heaven's name, then," Madame Mildau exclaimed, "what brings you +here? What do you want? Who are you?" + +"One at a time, madame," the young man ejaculated. "To begin with, it +was those diamonds of yours--those rings on your soft and delicate +fingers, those bracelets on your slender rounded wrists, that necklace +and pendant on your snowy breast, and over and above all that splendid +tiara on your matchless hair. It was the sight of all those bright and +gleaming stars that attracted me, just as the light of a candle attracts +a moth. I could not resist them." + +"Then you--you are a robber!" stammered the lady, ready to faint with +terror. + +"Wrong again!" the young man said; "I admire your jewels, it is true, +but I am no thief." + +"Then, in mercy's name, what are you?" demanded the lady. + +"Well!" the stranger replied, speaking with a slight snarl, "I am a man +now, but I shall soon change." + +"A man and will soon change?" Madame Mildau cried; "oh, you're mad, +mad--and I'm shut up in here with a lunatic! Help! help!" + +"Calmly, calmly," the stranger exclaimed, lifting her hands to his lips +and kissing them. "I'm perfectly sane, and at present perfectly +harmless. Now tell me, madame--and mind, be candid with me--why don't +you love your husband?" + +"How do you know I don't?" Madame Mildau faltered. + +"Tut, tut!" the young man said. "Anyone could see that with half an eye. +Besides, consider your conduct to-night! Answer my questions." + +"Well, you see!" Madame Mildau stammered, having come to the conclusion +that even if the man were not mad it would be highly impolitic to +provoke him, "I'm so much younger than he is. I'm only twenty-three, +whereas he is forty-five. Besides, he detests all amusements, and I love +them--especially dances. He is too fat to----" + +"Are you sure he is fat? Will you swear he is fat?" the stranger asked, +grasping her hands so tightly that she screamed. + +"I swear it!" she said, "he is quite the fattest man I know." + +"And tender! But no, he can't be very tender!" + +"What questions to ask!" Madame Mildau said. "How do I know whether he +is tender! Besides, what does it concern you?" + +"It concerns me much," the young man retorted; "and you, too, madame. +You asked me just now a question concerning myself. Your curiosity shall +be satisfied. I am a werwolf. My servant on the box who took the place +of your employe is a werwolf. In an hour the metamorphosis will take +place. You are out here in the Wood of Arlan alone with us." + +"In the Wood of Arlan!" + +"Yes, madame, in the Wood of Arlan, which is, as you know, one of the +wildest and least frequented spots in this part of the Tyrol. We are +both ravenously hungry, and--well, you can judge the rest!" + +Madame Mildau, who regarded werwolves in the same category as satyrs and +mermaids, was once more convinced that she had to deal with a lunatic, +but thinking it wisest to humour him, she said, "I shouldn't advise you +to eat me. I'm not at all nice. I'm dreadfully tough." + +"You're not that," the young man said, "but I'm not at all sure that +the paint and powder on your cheeks might not prove injurious. Anyhow, I +have decided to spare you on one condition!" + +"Yes! and that is?" Madame Mildau exclaimed, clapping her hands +joyfully. + +"That you let me have your husband instead. Give me the keys of your +house, and my man and I will fetch him. Did you leave him sound asleep?" + +"Yes!" Madame Mildau faltered. + +"In other words you drugged him! I knew it! I can read it in your eyes. +Well--so much the better. Your foresight has proved quite providential. +We will bind you securely and leave you here whilst we are gone, and +when we return with your husband you shall be freed, and my man shall +drive you home. The key?" + +Madame Mildau gave it him. With the aid of his servant--a huge man, well +over six feet and with the chest and limbs of a Hercules--the stranger +then proceeded to gag and bind Madame Mildau hand and foot, and lifting +her gently on to the road, fastened her securely to the trunk of a tree. + +"Au revoir!" he exclaimed, kissing her lightly on the forehead. "We +shan't be long! These horses go like the wind." + +The next moment he was gone. For some seconds Madame Mildau struggled +desperately to free herself; then, recognizing the futility of her +efforts, resigned herself to her fate. At last she heard the clatter of +horses' hoofs and the rumble of wheels, and in a few minutes she was +once again free. + +"Quick!" the stranger said, leading her by the arm, "there's not a +moment to lose. The transmutation has already begun. In a few seconds we +shall both be wolves and your fate will be sealed. We've got your +husband, and, fortunately for you, he is as you described him, nice and +plump. If you want to take a final peep at him, do so at once; it's your +last chance." + +But Madame Mildau had no such desire. She moved aside as her husband, +clad in his pyjamas and still sleeping soundly, was lifted out of the +vehicle and placed on the ground, and then, hurriedly brushing past him, +was about to enter the carriage, when the young man interposed. + +"On the box, madame. We could not find you a coachman--you must drive +yourself; and as you value your life, drive like the----" + +But madame did not wait for further instructions. Springing lightly on +the box, she picked up the reins, and with a crack of the whip the +horses were off. A minute later, and the wild howl of wolves, followed +by a piercing human scream, rang out in the still morning air. + +"That's my husband! I recognize his voice," Madame Mildau sighed. "Ah, +well! thank God, the man wasn't a robber. My diamonds are safe." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE WERWOLF IN SPAIN + + +Werwolves are, perhaps, rather less common in Spain than in any other +part of Europe. They are there almost entirely confined to the +mountainous regions (more particularly to the Sierra de Guadarrama, the +Cantabrian, and the Pyrenees), and are usually of the male species. +Generally speaking the property of lycanthropy in Spain appears to be +hereditary; and, as one would naturally expect in a country so +pronouncedly Roman Catholic, to rid the lycanthropist of his unenviable +property it is the custom to resort to exorcism. Though they are +extremely rare, both flowers and streams possessing the power of +transmitting the property of werwolfery are to be found in the +Cantabrian mountains and the Pyrenees. + +And in Spain, as in Austria-Hungary, precious stones--particularly +rubies--not infrequently, and often with disastrous results, attract +the werwolf. + +The following case of a Spanish werwolf may be taken as typical:-- + +In the month of September, 1853, a young man, one Paul Nicholas, arrived +from Paris at Pamplona, and took up his abode at l'Hotel Hervada. + +He was rich, idle, sleek; and the sole object of his stay at Pamplona +was the pursuit of some little adventure wherewith he might be +temporarily employed, and whereof perchance he might afterwards boast. +Well, in the hotel there had arrived, a day or two before Monsieur +Nicholas, a young and beautiful lady, the effect of whose personal +attractions was intensified by certain mysterious circumstances. No one +knew her; she had no one with her--not even a servant to be bribed--and +although eminently fitted to shine in society, she went neither to the +opera nor the dance. As may be readily understood, she was soon the sole +topic of conversation in the hotel. Every one talked of her rare beauty, +elegance, and musical genius, and immediately after dinner, when she +retired to her room, many of the guests would steal upstairs after her, +and, stationing themselves outside her door, would remain there for +hours to listen to her singing. + +Paul Nicholas's head was completely turned. To have such a neighbour, +with the face and voice of an angel, and yet not to know her! It was +enough to drive him wild. At last, to every one's surprise, the +mysterious lady, apparently so exclusive, permitted the advances of a +very commonplace, middle-aged gentleman with hardly a hair on his head +and a paunch that was voted quite disgusting. + +The friendship between the two ripened fast. In defiance of all +conventionality, the lady took to sitting out late at night with her +elderly admirer, and, with an absolute disregard of decorum, accompanied +him on long excursions. Finally, she went away with him altogether. On +the occasion of this latter event every one in the hotel heaved a sigh +of relief, saving Paul. + +Paul was disconsolate. He stayed on, hovering about the places she had +most frequented, and hoping to see in every fresh arrival at the hotel +his adored one come back. His pitiable condition gained no sympathy. + +"Silly fellow!" was the general comment. "He is desperately in love! And +with such a creature! What an idiot!" + +But Paul's patience was at length rewarded, his devotion apparently +justified, for the lady returned, unaccompanied; and so great was the +charm of her personality that within two days of her reappearance she +had completely won back the hearts of her fellow-guests. Again every +one raved of her. + +Meanwhile, Paul Nicholas became more enamoured than ever. He bought a +guitar, and composed love lyrics--which he sang outside her door, from +morning till night, with all that wealth of tenderness so uniquely +expressible in a human voice--but it was all in vain. For the lady, +whose name had at last leaked out--it was Isabelle de Nurrez--had +yielded to the attentions of another stout, middle-aged gentleman, with +whom in due course she departed. + +This was too much even for her most ardent admirers. Every guest in the +hotel protested, and petitioned that she might not be readmitted. + +But mine host shook his head with scant apology. "I cannot help it," he +said. "The lady pays more for her rooms than all the rest of you put +together, so why should I turn her out? After all, if she likes to have +many sweethearts, why shouldn't she? It is her own concern, neither +yours nor mine. It harms no one!" + +And some of the guests, seeing logic in their landlord's views, +remained; others went. As for Paul, he was immeasurably shocked at the +bad taste of his adored one; but he stayed on, and within a few days, as +he had fondly hoped, the fickle creature returned--and, as before, +returned alone. It was then that he resolved on writing to her. With a +crow-quill almost as fine as the long silky eyelashes of Isabella, on a +sheet of paper whose border of Cupids, grapes, vases, and roses left +little--too little--space for writing, he indited his letter, which, +when completed, he sealed with a seal of azure blue wax, bearing the +device of a dove ready for flight. And so scented was this epistle that +it perfumed the entire hotel in its transit by means of a servant (well +paid for the purpose) to mademoiselle's room. Again--this time for an +endless amount of trouble and expense--Paul was rewarded. When next he +met mademoiselle, and an opportune moment arrived, she looked at him, +and as her lovely eyes scanned his manly, if somewhat portly figure, she +smiled--smiled a smile of satisfaction which meant much. Paul Nicholas +was in ecstasies. He hardly knew how to contain himself; he sighed, +radiated, and wriggled about to such an extent that the attention of +every one in the place was directed to him; whereupon Mlle de Nurrez +turned very red and frowned. Paul's expectations now sank to zero; for +the rest of the day he was almost too miserable to live. But Mlle de +Nurrez, no doubt perceiving him to be truly penitent for having so +embarrassed her, forgave him, and on his way to dinner he received a +note in her own pretty handwriting giving him permission to make her +acquaintance without any further introduction. The way thus paved, +Monsieur Paul Nicholas, overjoyed, lost no time in seeking out the lady. +She was singing a wild sweet song as he entered her sitting-room, and +her back, turned to the door, gave him an opportunity of observing, as +she leant over her guitar, the most exquisite shoulders and the +prettiest-shaped head in the world. With graceful confusion she rose to +greet him, and her long eyelashes fell over eyes black and brilliant as +those that awakened the furore of two continents--the eyes of Lola +Montez. She was dressed in white; her rich dark hair was held in place +with combs of gold; her girdle was of gold, and so also were the massive +bracelets on her arms, which--so perfect was their symmetry--might well +have been fashioned by a sculptor. + +Monsieur Paul Nicholas, with the air of a prince, escorted her to the +dining-room; and over champagne, coffee, and liqueurs their friendship +grew apace. Some hours later, when ensconced together in a cosy retreat +on the terrace, and the fast disappearing lights in the hotel windows +warned them it would soon be prudent to retire, Mlle de Nurrez exclaimed +with a sigh:-- + +"You have told me so much about yourself, whilst I--I have told you +nothing in return. Alas! I have a history. My parents are dead--my +mother died when I was a baby, and my father, who was a very wealthy +man--having accumulated his money in the business of a cork merchant +which he carried on for years in Portugal--died just six months ago. He +was on a voyage for his health in the Mediterranean, when he formed an +acquaintance with a young Hindu, Prince Dajarah who soon acquired +unbounded influence over him. My father died on this voyage, and--God +forgive my suspicions!--but his death was strange and sudden. On opening +his will, it was found that all his property was left to me--but only on +the condition that I married Prince Dajarah." + +"Marry a black man! Mon Dieu, how terrible!" Paul Nicholas cried. + +"You are right. It was terrible!" Mlle de Nurrez went on. "And if I +refused to marry Prince Dajarah, he, according to the will, would +inherit everything. Well, Prince Dajarah was persistent; he declared +that it was my duty to marry him, to fulfil my father's dying wish. It +was in vain that I implored his mercy--that I told him I could never +return his affections. And at last, finding that upon Prince Dajarah +neither remonstrance nor reproach had any effect, I fled to a town some +ten miles distant from this hotel, taking with me what money and +jewellery I possessed. + +"Alas! he soon discovered my whereabouts, and with the sole object of +continuing his persecution of me, speedily established himself in the +house--which, unfortunately for me, happened to be vacant--next to mine. +My money is nearly exhausted, I have no resources, and unless some one +intervenes, some one brave and fearless, some one who really loves me, I +shall undoubtedly be forced into a marriage with this odious wretch. +Heavens, the bare idea of it is poisonous! You remember the two men who +paid such marked attentions to me a short time ago?" + +Paul Nicholas nodded. His emotion was such he could not speak. + +"They both imagined they were in love with me. They swore they would +confront the black tyrant and kill him; but when they were put to the +test--when I took them and pointed him out to them--they went white as a +sheet, and--fled." + +"Why torture me thus?" Paul Nicholas cried. "Tell me--only tell me what +it is you want me to do!" + +"Do you love me?" + +"More than my life." + +"More than your soul?" + +"More than my soul." + +"Will you save me from a fate more horrible than death?" + +"If I go to Hell for you--yes!" Paul said, gazing on a face lovely as a +dream. + +"You must come with me to his house to-morrow then! You must come armed. +You must kill him." + +"Kill him!" Paul cried, turning pale. + +"Well?" + +"But it will be murder--assassination." + +"Murder, to kill him--a tyrant--a black man! Bah! Are you too a coward?" +And she sprang to her feet, the veins swelling on her white brow, her +cheeks colouring, her eyes flashing fire, as if she, at least, knew not +the meaning of fear. "Sooner than let such a wretch inherit my father's +wealth," she cried out, "I will kill him myself--kill him, or perish in +the attempt." + +Paul Nicholas encountered the earnest gaze of her large, bright eyes, +the pleading of her beautiful mouth, and the sweetness of her breath +fanned his nostrils. A terrific wave of passion swept over him. He loved +as he had never loved before--as he had never deemed it possible to +love: and in his mad worship of the woman he believed to be as pure as +she was fair, he forgot that the devil hides safest where he is least +suspected. Seizing her small white hands in his, he swore upon them to +do her will; and he would have gone on making all sorts of wild, +impassioned speeches had not Mlle de Nurrez reminded him that it was +past locking-up time. + +She crossed the main hall of the hotel with him, and as she turned to +bid him good night prior to ascending to her quarters, her eyes met +his--met his in one long, lingering glance that he assured himself could +only have meant love. + +Next morning the guests in the hotel received another shock. Mlle de +Nurrez had gone off again--this time with Monsieur Paul Nicholas--that +good-looking, well-to-do young man, at whom all the matrons with +marriageable daughters had in vain cast longing eyes. + +Now, although Paul Nicholas had little knowledge of geography, he could +not help remarking, as he journeyed with Mlle Nurrez, that their route +was in an exactly opposite direction to that leading to the town which +his companion had named to him as her place of residence. He pointed out +his difficulty, but Mlle de Nurrez only laughed. + +"Wait!" she said. "Wait and see. We shall get there all right. You must +trust to my wit." + +Paul Nicholas made no further comment. He was already in the seventh +heaven--that was enough for him; and leaning back, he continued gazing +at her profile. + +The afternoon passed away, the sun sank, and night and its shadows moved +solemnly on them. Gradually the roadside trees became distinguishable +only as deeper masses of shadow, and Paul Nicholas could only tell they +were trees by the peculiar sodden odour that, from time to time, +sluggishly flowed in at the open window of the carriage. Of necessity, +they were proceeding slowly--the road was for the most part uphill, and +the horses, though tough and hardy natives of the mountains, had begun +to show signs of flagging. They did not pass by a soul, and even the +sighs of astonished cattle, whose ruminating slumbers they had routed, +at last became events of the greatest rarity. At each yard they advanced +the wildness of the country increased, and although the landscape was +hidden, its influence was felt. Paul Nicholas knew, as well as if he had +seen them, that he was in the presence of grotesque, isolated boulders, +wide patches of bare, desolate soil, gaunt trees, and profound +straggling fissures. + +Being so long confined in a limited space, although in that space was a +paradise, he felt the exquisite agony of cramp, and when, after sundry +attempts to stretch himself, he at length found a position that afforded +him temporary relief, it was only to become aware of a more refined +species of torture. The springs of the carriage rising and falling +regularly, produced a rhythmical beat, which began to painfully absorb +his attention, and to slowly merge into a senseless echo of one of his +observations to Mlle de Nurrez. And when he was becoming reconciled to +this inferno, another forced itself upon him. How quiet the driver was! +Was there any driver? He couldn't see any. Possibly, nay, probably--why +not?--the driver was lying gagged and bound on the roadside, and a +bandit, one of the notorious Spanish bandits, against whom his friends +in Paris had so emphatically warned him, was on the box driving him to +his obscure lair in the heart of the mountains. Or was the original +driver himself a bandit, and the beautiful girl reclining on the +cushions a bandit's daughter? He dozed, and on coming to his waking +senses again, discovered that the darkness had slightly lifted. He could +see the distant horizon, defined by inky woods, outlined on a lighter +sky. A few stars, scattered here and there in this tableau, whilst +emphasizing the vastness of the space overhead--a vastness that was +positively annihilating--at the same time conveyed a sense of solitude +and loneliness, in perfect harmony with the trees, and rocks, and +gorges. The effect was only transitory, for with a suddenness almost +reminding one of stage mechanism, the moon burst through its temporary +covering of clouds, and in a moment the whole country-side was illumined +with a soft white glow. It was a warm night, and the breeze that rolled +down from the mountain peaks, so remote and passionless, was charged to +overflowing with resinous odours, mingled with which, and just strong +enough to be recognizable, was the faint, pungent smell of decay. A +couple of hares, looking somewhat ashamed of themselves, sprang into +upright positions, and with frightened whisks of their tails disappeared +into a clump of ferns. With a startled hiss a big snake drew back under +cover of a boulder, and a hawk, balked of its prey by the sudden +brilliant metamorphosis, uttered an indignant croak. But none of these +protests against the moon's innocent behaviour were heeded by Paul +Nicholas, whose whole attention was riveted on a large sombre building +standing close by the side of the road. At the first glimpse of the +place, so huge, grim, and silent, he was seized with a sensation of +absolute terror. Nothing mortal could surely inhabit such a house. The +dark, frowning walls and vacant, eye-like windows threw back a thousand +shadows, and suggested as many eerie fancies--fancies that were +corroborated by a few rank sedges and two or three white trunks of +decayed trees that rose up on either side of the building; but of +life--human life--there was not the barest suspicion. + +"What a nightmare of a house!" Paul Nicholas exclaimed, gazing with a +shudder upon the remodelled and inverted images of the grey sedge, the +ghastly tree-stems, and the vacant, eye-like windows in a black and +lurid tarn that lay in unruffled lustre along the edge of the wood. + +"It's where he lives!" Mlle de Nurrez whispered. + +"What! do you mean to say that it is to this house you have brought me?" +Paul shrieked. "To this awful, deserted ghostly mansion! Why have you +lied to me?" + +"I was afraid you wouldn't care to come if I described the place too +accurately," Mlle de Nurrez said. "Forgive me--and pity me, too, for it +is here that Prince Dajarah would have me spend my life." + +Paul trembled. + +"For God's sake, don't desert me!" Mlle de Nurrez exclaimed, laying her +hand softly on his shoulder. "Think of the terrible fate that will +befall me! Think of your promises, your vows!" + +But Paul Nicholas did not respond all at once. His brain was in a +whirl. He had been deceived, cruelly deceived! And with what motive? Was +Mlle de Nurrez's explanation genuine? Could there be anything genuine +about a girl who told an untruth? Once a liar always a liar! Did not +that maxim hold good? Was it not one he had heard repeatedly from +childhood? What should he do? What could he do? He was here, alone with +this woman and her coachman, in one of the wildest and most outlandish +regions of Spain. God alone knew where! To attempt to return would be +hopeless--sheer imbecility; he would most certainly get lost on the +mountains, and perish from hunger and thirst, or fall over some +precipice, or into the jaws of a bear; or, at all events, come to some +kind of an untimely end. No! there was no alternative, he must remain +and trust in Mlle de Nurrez. But the house was appalling; he did not +like looking at it, and the bare thought of its interior froze his +blood. Then he awoke to the fact that she was still addressing him, that +her soft hands were lying on his, that her beautiful eyes were gazing +entreatingly at him, that her full ripe lips were within a few inches of +his own. The moon lent her its glamour, and his old love reasserting +itself with quick, tempestuous force, he drew her into his arms and +kissed her repeatedly. Some minutes later and they had crossed the +threshold of the mansion. All was as he had pictured it--grim and +hushed, and bathed in moonbeams. + +The coachman led the way, and with muffled, stealthy footstep conducted +them across dark halls and along intricate passages, up long and winding +staircases--all bare and cold; through vast gloomy rooms, the walls and +floors of which were of black oak, the former richly carved, and in +places hung with ancient tapestry, displaying the most grotesque and +startling devices. The windows, long, narrow, and pointed, with +trellised panes, were at so great a height from the ground that the +light was limited, and whilst certain spots were illuminated, many of +the remoter angles and recesses were left in total darkness. Monsieur +Paul Nicholas did not attempt to explore. At each step he took he fully +anticipated a something, too dreadful to imagine, would spring out on +him. The rustling of drapery and the rattling of phantasmagoric armorial +trophies, in response to the vibration of their footsteps, made his hair +stand on end, and he was reduced to a state of the most abject terror +long before they arrived at their destination. + +At last he was ushered into a small, bare, dimly lighted room. From the +centre of the ceiling was suspended an oil lamp, and immediately under +it was a marble table. Walls and floor were composed of rough uncovered +granite. The atmosphere was fetid, and tainted with the same peculiar, +pungent odour noticeable outside. + +"This is the room," Mlle de Nurrez said. "Prince Dajarah will be here in +a minute. Have you your pistol ready?" + +"Yes, see!" and Paul Nicholas pulled it out from his coat-pocket and +showed it her. + +"Have you any other weapons?" she asked, examining it curiously. + +"Yes, a sheath-knife," Paul Nicholas replied a trifle nervously. + +"Let me look at it," Mlle de Nurrez exclaimed. "I have a weakness for +knives--a rather uncommon trait in a woman, isn't it?" + +He handed it to her, and she fingered the blade cautiously. Then with a +sudden movement she leaped away from him. + +"Fool!" she cried. "Do you think I could ever love a man as fat as you? +The story I told you was a lie from beginning to end. I don't remember +either of my parents--my mother ran away from home when I was two, and +my father died the following year. I married entirely of my own free +will--married the man I loved, and he--happened to be a werwolf!" + +"A werwolf!" Paul Nicholas shrieked. "God help me! I thought there were +no such things!" + +"Not in France, perhaps," Mlle de Nurrez said derisively; "but in Spain, +in the Pyrenees, many! At certain times of the year my husband won't +touch animal food, and if I didn't procure him human flesh he would die +of starvation, or in sheer despair eat me. Here he is." + +And as she spoke the door opened, and on the threshold stood a +singularly handsome young man clad in the gay uniform of a Carlist +general. + +"Capital!" he exclaimed, as his eyes fell on Paul. "Magnificent! He is +quite as fat as the other two. How clever of you, darling!" and throwing +his arms round her, he embraced her tenderly. A few seconds later and he +suddenly thrust her from him. + +"Quick! quick!" he cried. "Run away, darling! run away instantly. I can +feel myself changing!" and he pushed her gently to the door. + +Mlle de Nurrez took one glance at Paul as she left the room. "Poor +fool!" she said, half pityingly, half mockingly. "Poor fat fool! Though +you may no longer believe in women you will certainly believe in +werwolves--now." And as the door slammed after her, the wildest of +shrieks from within demonstrated that, for once in her life, Mlle de +Nurrez had spoken the truth. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE WERWOLF IN BELGIUM AND THE NETHERLANDS + + +Belgium abounds in stories of werwolves, all more or less of the same +type. As in France, the werwolf, in Belgium, is not restricted to one +sex, but is, in an equal proportion, common to both. + +By far the greater number of werwolfery cases in this country are to be +met with amongst the sand-dunes on the sea coast. They also occur in the +district of the Sambre; but I have never heard of any lycanthropous +streams or pools in Belgium, nor yet of any wolf-producing flowers, such +as are, at times, found in the Balkan Peninsula. + +Though the property of lycanthropy here as elsewhere has been acquired +through the invocation of spirits--the ceremony being much the same as +that described in an earlier chapter--nearly all the cases of werwolfery +in Belgium are hereditary. + +In Belgium, as in other Roman Catholic countries, great faith is +attached to exorcism, and for the expulsion of every sort of "evil +spirit" various methods of exorcism are employed. For example, a werwolf +is sprinkled with a compound either of 1/2 ounce of sulphur, 4 drachms +of asafoetida, 1/4 ounce of castoreum; or of 3/4 ounce of hypericum in +3 ounces of vinegar; or with a solution of carbolic acid further diluted +with a pint of clear spring water. The sprinkling must be done over the +head and shoulders, and the werwolf must at the same time be addressed +in his Christian name. But as to the success or non-success of these +various methods of exorcism I cannot make any positive statement. I have +neither sufficient evidence to affirm their efficacy nor to deny it. Rye +and mistletoe are considered safeguards against werwolves, as is also a +sprig from a mountain ash. This latter tree, by the way, attracts evil +spirits in some countries--Ireland, India, Spain, for instance--and +repels them in others. It was held in high esteem, as a preservative +against phantasms and witches, by the Druids, and it may to this day be +seen growing, more frequently than any other, in the neighbourhood of +Druidical circles, both in Great Britain and on the Continent. + +In many parts of Belgium the peasantry would not consider their house +safe unless a mountain ash were growing within a few feet of it. + + +A CASE OF WERWOLVES IN THE ARDENNES + +A case of werwolfery is reported to have happened, not so long ago, in +the Ardennes. A young man, named Bernard Vernand, was returning home one +night from his work in the fields, when his dog suddenly began to bark +savagely, whilst its hair stood on end. The next moment there was a +crackle in the hedge by the roadside, and three trampish-looking men +slouched out. They looked at Vernand, and, remarking that it was +beautiful weather, followed closely at his heels. + +Vernand noticed that the eyebrows of all three met in a point over their +noses, a peculiarity which gave them a very singular and unpleasant +appearance. When he quickened his pace, they quickened theirs; whilst +his dog still continued to bark and show every indication of excessive +fear. In this way they all four proceeded till they came to a very dark +spot in the road, where the trees nearly met overhead. The sound of +their footsteps then suddenly ceased, and Vernand, peeping stealthily +round, perceived to his horror lurid eyes--that were not the eyes of +human beings--glaring after him. His dog took to its heels and fled, +and, ignominious though he felt it to be, Vernand followed suit. The +next moment there was a chorus of piercing whines, and a loud pattering +of heavy feet announced the fact that he was pursued. + +Fortunately Vernand was a fast runner--he had carried off many prizes in +races at the village fair--and now that he was running for his life, he +went like the wind. + +But his pursuers were fleet of foot, too, and, despite his pace, they +gradually gained on him. Happily for Vernand, he retained a certain +amount of presence of mind, and possessing rather more wit than many of +the peasants, he suddenly bethought him of a possible avenue of escape. +In a conversation with the pastor of the village some months before, the +latter had told him how an old woman had once escaped from a wode[215:1] +by climbing up a mountain ash. And if, reasoned Vernand, the ash is a +protection against one form of evil spirits, why not against another? He +recollected that there was an ash-tree close at hand, and diverting his +course, he instantly headed for it. Not a moment too soon. As he swarmed +up the slender trunk, his pursuers--three monstrous werwolves--came to a +dead halt at the foot of the tree. However, after giving vent to the +disappointment of losing their supper in a series of prodigious howls, +they veered round and bounded off, doubtless in pursuit of a less +knowing prey. + + +A SIMILAR CASE NEAR WATERLOO + +A similar case once happened to a young man when returning from Quatre +Bras to Waterloo. He was attacked by three werwolves and saved himself +by leaping into a rye-field. + + +A CASE ON THE SAND-DUNES + +The following story of werwolfery is of traditional authenticity only:-- + +Von Grumboldt, a young man of good appearance, and his sweetheart, Nina +Gosset, were out walking together one evening on the sand-dunes near +Nina's home, when Von Grumboldt uttered an exclamation of astonishment, +and bending down, picked up something which he excitedly showed to Nina. +It was a girdle composed of dark, plaited hair fastened with a plain +gold buckle. To the young man's surprise Nina shrank away from it. + +"Oh!" she cried, "don't touch it! I don't know why--but it gives me such +a horrid impression. I'm sure there is an unpleasant history attached to +it." + +"Pooh!" Von Grumboldt said laughingly; "that's only your fancy. I think +it would look remarkably well round your waist," and he made pretence +to encircle her with it. + +Nina, turning very white, fainted, and Von Grumboldt, who was really +very much in love with her, was greatly alarmed. He ran to a brook, +fetched some water, and sprinkled her forehead with it. To his intense +relief his sweetheart soon came to. As soon as she could speak she +implored him, as he valued her life, on no account to touch her with the +girdle. To this request Von Grumboldt readily assented, and whistling to +his dog--a big collie--in spite of Nina's protests and the animal's +frantic struggles, he playfully fastened the belt round the creature's +body. Then turning to Nina he began: "Doesn't Nippo (that was the +collie's name) look fine----" and suddenly left off. The expression in +Nina's eyes made his blood run cold. + +"For Heaven's sake," he cried, "what is it? What's the matter?" + +White as death again, Nina pointed a finger, and Von Grumboldt, looking +in the direction she indicated, saw--not Nippo, but an awful-looking +thing in Nippo's place--a big black object, partly dog and partly some +other animal, that grew and grew until, within a few seconds, it had +grown to at least thrice Nippo's size. With a hideous howl it rushed at +Von Grumboldt. The latter, though a strong athletic young man, was +speedily overcome, and being dashed to the ground, would soon have been +torn to pieces had not Nina, recovering from a temporary helplessness, +come to the rescue. + +Catching hold of the girdle round the creature's body, she unclasped the +buckle, and in a trice the evil thing had vanished; and there was Nippo, +his own self, standing before them. + +"It is a werwolf belt!" Nina exclaimed, throwing it away from her. "You +see, I was right; it is devilish, and no doubt belongs to some one near +here who practises Black Magic--Mad Valerie, perhaps. This cross that I +wear round my neck, which is made of yew, no doubt warned me of this +danger and so saved me from an awful fate. You smile!--but I am certain +of it. The yew-tree is just as efficacious in the case of evil spirits +as the ash!" + +"What shall we do with the beastly thing?" Von Grumboldt asked. "It +doesn't seem right to leave it here, in case some one else, with less +sense than you, should find it and a dreadful catastrophe result." + +"We must burn it," Nina said. "That's the only way of getting rid of the +evil influence. Let us do so at once." + +Von Grumboldt was nothing loath, and in a few minutes all that remained +of the lycanthropous girdle was a tiny heap of ashes. + +To burn the object to which the lycanthropous property is attached is +the only recognized method of destroying that property. I have had many +proofs, too, of the efficacy of burning in the case of superphysical +influences other than lycanthropy; such, for example, as haunted +furniture, trees, and buildings; and I am quite sure the one and only +way to get rid of an occult presence attached to any particular object +is to burn that object. + +I have been told of "burning" having been successfully practised in the +following cases:-- + + _Case No. 1._--A barrow in the North of England that had long + been haunted by a Barrowian order of Elemental. (The barrow + was excavated, and when the remains therein had been burnt, + the hauntings ceased.) + + _Case No. 2._--A cave in Wales haunted by the phantasm of a + horse, though, whether the real spirit of the horse or merely + an Elemental I cannot say. (On the soil in the cave being + excavated, and the several skeletons, presumably of + prehistoric animals, found being burnt, there were no longer + any disturbances.) + + _Case No. 3._--A house in London containing an oak chest, + attached to which was the phantasm of an old woman, who used + to disturb the inmates of the place nightly. (On the chest + being burnt she was seen no more.) + + _Case No. 4._--A tree in Ireland, haunted every night by a + Vagrarian. (Immediately after the tree had been burnt the + manifestations ceased.) + +Burial is a great mistake. As long as a single bone remains, the spirit +of the dead person may still be attracted to it, and consequently remain +earthbound; but when the corpse is cremated, and the ashes scattered +abroad, then the spirit is set free. And, for this reason alone, I +advocate cremation as the best method possible of dealing with a corpse. + +Before concluding this chapter on the werwolf in Belgium, let me add +that werwolfery was not the only form of lycanthropy in that country. +According to Grimm, in his "Deutsche Sagen," two warlocks who were +executed in the year 1810 at Liege for having, under the form of +werwolves, killed and eaten several children, had as their colleague a +boy of twelve years of age. The boy, in the form of a raven, consumed +those portions of the prey which the warlocks left. + + +WERWOLVES IN THE NETHERLANDS + +Cases of werwolves are of less frequent occurrence in Holland than in +either France or Belgium. Also, they are almost entirely restricted to +the male sex. + +Exorcism here is seldom practised, the working of a spell being the +usual means employed for getting rid of the evil property. The procedure +in working the spell is as follows:-- + +First of all, a night when the moon is in the full is selected. Then at +twelve o'clock the werwolf is seized, securely bound, and taken to an +isolated spot. Here, a circle of about seven feet in diameter is +carefully inscribed on the ground, and in the exact centre of it the +werwolf is placed, and so fastened that he cannot possibly get away. +Then three girls--always girls--come forward armed with ash twigs with +which they flog him most unmercifully, calling out as they do so:-- + + "Greywolf ugly, greywolf old, + Do at once as you are told. + Leave this man and fly away-- + Right away, far away, + Where 'tis night and never day." + +They keep on repeating these words and whipping him; and it is not until +the face, back, and limbs of the werwolf are covered with blood that +they desist. + +The oldest person present then comes forward and gives the werwolf a +hearty kick, saying as he (or she) does so:-- + + "Go, fly, away to the sky; + Devil of greywolf, thee we defy. + Out, out, with a howl and yell, + 'Twill carry thee faster and surer to hell." + +Every one present then dips a cup or mug in a concoction of sulphur, +tar, vinegar, and castoreum, just removed from boiling-point, and, +forming a circle round the werwolf, they souse him all over with this +unpleasant and painfully hot mixture, calling out as they do so:-- + + "Away, away, shoo, shoo, shoo! + Do you think we care a jot for you? + We'll whip thee again, with a crack, crack, crack! + Scourge thee and beat thee till thou art black; + Fool of a greywolf, we have thee at last, + Back to thy hell home, out of him fast-- + Fast, fast, fast! + Our patience won't last. + We'll scratch thee, we'll prick thee, + We'll prod thee, we'll scald thee. + Fast, fast, out of him, fast!" + +They keep on shouting these words over and over again till the liquid +has given out and the clock strikes one; when, with a final blow or kick +at the prostrate werwolf, they run away. + +The evil spirit is then said to leave the man, who quickly recovers his +proper shape, and with a loud cry of joy rushes after his friends and +relations. + +When the Spaniards invaded Holland they resorted to a surer, if a +somewhat more drastic, mode of getting rid of lycanthropy--they burned +the subject possessed of it. + +One of the best known cases of a werwolf in the Netherlands is as +follows:-- + +A young man, whilst on his way to a shooting match at Rousse, was +suddenly startled by hearing loud screams for help proceeding from a +field a few yards distant. To jump a dike and scramble over a low wall +was but the work of a few seconds, and in less time than it takes to +tell, the young man, whose name was Van Renner, found himself face to +face with a huge grey wolf. Quick as thought, he fitted an arrow to his +bow, and shot. The missile struck the wolf in the side, and with a howl +of pain the wounded creature turned tail and fled for his life. + +All might now have ended like some delightful romance, for the rescued +one proved to be an exceedingly attractive maiden, with bright yellow +hair and big blue eyes; but unfortunately--or perhaps fortunately, who +knows?--the girl had a husband, and Van Renner a wife; and so, instead +of the incident being the prelude to a love affair, it was merely an +occasion for grateful acknowledgment--and--farewell. On his return home +that evening Van Renner was met with an urgent request to visit his +friend, the Burgomaster. He hastened to obey the summons, and found the +Burgomaster in bed, suffering agonies of pain from a wound which he had +received in his side some hours previously. + +"I can't die without telling you," he whispered, clutching Van Renner by +the hand. "God help me, I'm a werwolf! I've always been one. It's in my +family--it's hereditary. It was your arrow that has wounded me fatally." + +Van Renner was too aghast to speak. He was really fond of the +Burgomaster, and to think of him a werwolf--well! it was too dreadful to +contemplate. The dying man gazed eagerly, hungrily, piteously into his +friend's face. + +"Don't say you hate me," he cried. "There is little hope for me, if any, +in the next world; and in all probability I shall either go direct to +hell or remain earthbound; but, for God's sake, let me die in the +knowledge that I leave behind me at least one friend!" + +Van Renner tried hard to speak; he made every effort to speak; his lungs +swelled, his tongue wobbled, the muscles of his lips twitched; but not a +syllable could he utter--and the Burgomaster died. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[215:1] A phantom horseman, that goes hunting on certain nights in the +year, accompanied by phantom dogs. The author has witnessed the +phenomenon himself. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE WERWOLVES AND MARAS OF DENMARK + + +Since so much has already been written upon the subject of werwolves in +Denmark, it is my intention only to touch upon it briefly. It is, I +believe, generally acknowledged that, at one time, werwolves were to be +met with almost daily in Denmark, and that they were almost always of +the male sex; but I can find no records of any particular form of +exorcism practised by the Danes with the object of getting rid of the +werwolf, nor of any spell used by them for the same purpose; neither +does there appear to be, amongst their traditions, any reference to a +lycanthropous flower or stream. Opinions differ as to whether werwolves +are yet to be found in Denmark, but, from all I have heard, I am +inclined to think that they still exist in the more remote districts of +that country. + +The following case may be regarded as illustrative of a typical Danish +werwolf:-- + + +THE CASE OF PETER ANDERSEN, WERWOLF + +Peter Andersen, who was a werwolf by descent, his ancestors having been +werwolves for countless generations, fell in love with a beautiful young +girl named Elisa, and without telling her he was a werwolf, for fear +that she would give him up, married her. + +Shortly after his marriage, he was returning home one evening with Elisa +from a neighbouring fair, where there had been much merrymaking, when, +suddenly feeling that the metamorphosis was coming on, he got down from +the cart in which they were driving, and said to his wife, very +earnestly, "If anything comes towards you, do not be afraid, and do not +hurt it; merely strike it with your apron." He then ran off at a great +rate into the fields, leaving Elisa very much surprised and impressed. A +few minutes afterwards she heard the howl of a wild animal, and, while +she was holding in the horse and endeavouring to pacify it, a huge grey +wolf suddenly leaped into the road and sprang at her. + +Recollecting what her husband had told her, with wonderful presence of +mind she whipped off her apron and struck the wolf in the face with it. +The animal tore at the apron, and biting a piece out of it, turned tail +and ran away. Some time afterwards Andersen returned, and holding out to +Elisa the missing piece of her apron, asked if she guessed how he came +by it. + +"Good God, man!" Elisa cried, the pupils of her eyes dilating with +terror, "it was you! I know it by the expression in your face. Heaven +preserve me! You're a werwolf!" + +"I was a werwolf," Peter said, "but thanks to your brave action in +throwing the apron in my face, I am one no longer. I know I did wrong in +not telling you of my misfortune before we were married, but I dreaded +the idea of losing you. Forgive me, forgive me, I implore you!" and +Elisa, after some slight hesitation, granted his request. + +This method of getting rid of the lycanthropous spirit seems to have +been (and still to be) the one most in vogue in Denmark. + +Another well-known story, of a similar kind, is to the effect that while +a party of haymakers were at work in a field, a man, who, like Andersen, +had kept the fact of his being a werwolf from his family, feeling that +he was about to be transmuted, gave his son injunctions that if an +animal approached him he was on no account to hurt it, but merely to +throw his hat at it. The boy promising to obey, the father hastily left +the field. Some minutes later a grey wolf appeared, swimming a stream. +It rushed at the boy, who, mad with terror, forgot his father's +instructions, and struck at it with a pitchfork. + +The prongs of the fork, entering the wolf's side, pierced its heart; and +transmutation again taking place, to the horror of all present there lay +on the ground, not the body of a beast, but the corpse of the boy's +father. + +In Denmark it is said that if a woman stretches between four sticks the +membrane of a newly born foal, and creeps through it naked, she will +bring forth children without pain, but all the boys will be werwolves +and the girls maras. + +As is the case with the werwolf of other countries, the Danish werwolf +retains its human form by day; but after sunset, unlike the werwolf of +any other nationality, it sometimes adopts the shape of a dog on three +legs before it finally metamorphoses into a wolf. + +In addition to these methods (alluded to above) of expelling a +lycanthropous spirit in Denmark, there may be added that of addressing +the obsessed person as a werwolf and reproaching him roundly. But as I +have no proof of the effectiveness of this crude mode of exorcism, I +cannot commit myself to any verdict with regard to it. + + +MARAS + +The mara, to which I have briefly alluded in a foregoing chapter, is to +be met with in Denmark almost as often as the werwolf; and the +superphysical property, characteristic of the mara no less than of the +werwolf, justifies me in a somewhat detailed description of the former +here. + +A mara is popularly understood to be a woman by day and at night a +spirit that torments human beings and horses by sitting astride them and +causing them nightmare. + +In the main I agree with this definition; though I am inclined to think +that the mara is, in reality, less hoydenish and more subtle and complex +than public opinion would have us believe. In all probability maras are +women who have either inherited or, by the practice of Black Magic, +acquired the faculty of a certain species of projection--differing from +the projection which is common to both sexes in the following points, +viz., that it can always be accomplished (during certain hours) at will; +that it is invariably practised with the sole desire to do ill; that the +projected spirit is fully conscious of all that is happening around it; +and that it possesses most--if not all--of the faculties, motives, and +nervous susceptibilities of the physical body. + +Whatever may be the character of the mara by day, she is essentially +mischievous by night--owing, no doubt, to the fact that this faculty of +projection has come to her through the occult powers inimical to man. + +From the complexity of their nature, maras present the same difficulty +of classification as werwolves--both are human, both are Elemental, and +consequently both are an anomaly. + +The belief in maras is still prevalent in all parts of Scandinavia, +including Jutland, whence comes the following case which I quote for the +purpose of comparison. + + +A CASE OF A MARA IN JUTLAND + +Some reapers in a field, near a village in Jutland, came one evening +upon a naked woman lying under a hedge, apparently asleep. Much +surprised, they regarded her closely, and at length coming to the +conclusion that her sleep was not natural, they summoned a shepherd who +was generally regarded as very intelligent. On seeing the woman the +shepherd at once said, "She is not a real person, though she looks like +one. She is a mara, and has stripped for the purpose of riding some one +to-night." At this there was loud laughter, and the reapers said, "Tell +us another, Eric. A mara indeed! If this isn't a woman, our mothers are +not women, for she is just as much of flesh and blood as they are." +"All right," the shepherd replied, "wait and see." And bending over her, +he whispered something in her ear, whereupon a queer little animal about +two inches long came out of the grass, and running up her body, +disappeared in her mouth. Then Eric pushed her, and she rolled over +three times, then sprang to her feet, and with a wild startled cry +leaped a high bush and disappeared. Nor could they, when they ran to the +other side of the bush, find any traces of her. + +Another recorded case is the following: + + +THE MARA OF VILVORDE + +Christine Jansen had two lovers--Nielsen and Osdeven. Nielsen, who was a +very good-looking young man, began to suffer from nightmare. He had the +most appalling dreams of being strangled and suffocated, and they at +last grew so frightful, and proved such a strain on his nerves, that he +was forced to consult a doctor. The doctor attributed the cause to +indigestion, and prescribed a special diet for him. But it was all of no +avail; the bad dreams still continued, and Nielsen's health became more +and more impaired. + +At length, when he was almost worn out, having spent the greater part of +many nights reading instead of sleeping, in order to avoid the +frightful visions, he happened to mention his insufferable condition to +Osdeven. Far from ridiculing his rival, Osdeven, with great earnestness, +encouraged him to relate everything that had happened to him in his +sleep; and when Nielsen had done so, exclaimed, "I'll tell you what it +is--these dreams you have are not ordinary nightmares; they are due to a +mara--I know their type well." + +"To a mara!" Nielsen cried; "how ridiculous! Why not say to a +mise--or--grim? It would be equally sensible; they are all idle +superstitions." + +"So you say now," Osdeven rejoined, "but wait! When you get into bed +to-night, lie on your back, and in your right hand hold a sharp knife on +your breast, the point upwards. Remain in this attitude from between +eleven o'clock till two, and see what happens." + +Nielsen laughed, but all the same decided to do as Osdeven suggested. +Night came, and, knife in hand, he lay in his bed. + +Minutes passed, and nothing happening, he was beginning to think what a +fool he was for wasting his time thus, when suddenly he perceived +bending over him the luminous figure of a beautiful nude woman, whom, to +his utter astonishment, he identified as Christine Jansen--Christine +Jansen in all but expression. The expression in the eyes he now looked +into was not human--it was hellish. The figure got on the bed and was +in the act of sitting astride him, when it came in contact with the +knife. Then it uttered a frightful scream of baffled rage and pain, and +vanished. + +Nielsen, shaking with terror and dreading another visitation, struck a +light. The point of his knife was dripping with blood. + +An hour later, overcome with weariness, he fell asleep, and for the +first time for weeks his slumber was sound and undisturbed. Awaking in +the morning much refreshed, he would have attributed his experience to +imagination or to a dream, had it not been for the spots of blood on the +bedclothes and the stains on his knife, and this evidence, as to the +reality of what had happened, was strengthened by his discovery of +certain circumstances in connexion with Miss Jansen, towards whom his +sentiments had now undergone a complete change. + +Curious to learn if anything had befallen her, he made cautious +inquiries, and was informed that owing to a sudden indisposition--the +nature of which was carefully hidden from him--she had been ordered +abroad, where, in all probability, she would remain indefinitely. + +Nielsen now had no more nightmare, and he and Osdeven, becoming firm +friends, agreed that the next time they fell in love they would take +good care it was not with a mara. + +Another method of getting rid of maras was to sprinkle the air with +sand, at the same time uttering a brief incantation. For example, in a +village on the borders of Schleswig-Holstein, a woman who suffered +agonies from nightmare consulted a man locally reported to be well +versed in occult matters. + +"Make your mind easy," said this man, after she had described her dreams +to him; "I will soon put an end to your disturbances. It is a mara that +is tormenting you. Don't be frightened if she suddenly manifests herself +when I sprinkle this sand, for there will be nothing very alarming in +her appearance, and she won't be able to harm you." He then proceeded to +scatter several handfuls about the room, repeating as he did so a brief +incantation. + +He was still occupied thus, when, without a moment's warning, the figure +of a very tall, naked woman appeared crouching on the bed. With a yell +of rage she leaped on to the floor, her eyes flashing, and her lips +twitching convulsively; and raising her hands as if she would like to +scratch the incantator's face to pieces, she rushed furiously at him. + +Far from being intimidated, however, he quite coolly dashed a handful of +sand in her eyes, whereupon she instantly disappeared. "Now," he said, +turning to the lady, who was half dead with terror, "you won't have the +nightmare again"--which prophecy proved to be correct. + +These instances will, I think, suffice to show the similarity between +werwolves and maras. Both anomalies are dependent on properties of an +entirely baneful nature; and both properties are either hereditary, +having been established in families through the intercourse of those +families in ages past with the superphysical Powers inimical to man; or +are capable of being acquired through the practice of Black Magic. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +WERWOLVES IN NORWAY AND SWEDEN + + +As in Denmark, werwolves were once so numerous in Norway and Sweden, +that these countries naturally came to be regarded as the true home of +lycanthropy. + +With the advent of the tourist, however, and the consequent springing up +of fresh villages, together with the gradual increase of native +population, Norway and Sweden have slowly undergone a metamorphosis, +with the result that it is now only in the most remote districts, such +as the northern portion of the Kiolen Mountains and the borders of +Lapland, that werwolves are to be found. + +Here, amid the primitive solitude of vast pine forests, flow +lycanthropous rivers; here, too, grow lycanthropous shrubs and flowers. + +Werwolfery in Norway and Sweden is not confined to one sex; it is common +to both; and in these countries various forms of spells, both for +invoking and expelling lycanthropous spirits, are current. + +As far as I can gather, a Norwegian or Swedish peasant, when he wishes +to become a werwolf, kneels by the side of a lycanthropous stream at +midnight, having chosen a night when the moon is in the full, and +incants some such words as these:-- + + "'Tis night! 'tis night! and the moon shines white + Over pine and snow-capped hill; + The shadows stray through burn and brae + And dance in the sparkling rill. + + "'Tis night! 'tis night! and the devil's light + Casts glimmering beams around. + The maras dance, the nisses prance + On the flower-enamelled ground. + + "'Tis night! 'tis night! and the werwolf's might + Makes man and nature shiver. + Yet its fierce grey head and stealthy tread + Are nought to thee, oh river! + River, river, river. + + "Oh water strong, that swirls along, + I prithee a werwolf make me. + Of all things dear, my soul, I swear, + In death shall not forsake thee." + +The supplicant then strikes the banks of the river three times with his +forehead; then dips his head into the river thrice, at each dip gulping +down a mouthful of the water. This concludes the ceremony--he has +become a werwolf, and twenty-four hours later will undergo the first +metamorphosis. + +Lycanthropous water is said, by those who dwell near to it, to differ +from other water in subtle details only--details that would, in all +probability, escape the notice of all who were not connoisseurs of the +superphysical. A strange, faint odour, comparable with nothing, +distinguishes lycanthropous water; there is a lurid sparkle in it, +strongly suggestive of some peculiar, individual life; the noise it +makes, as it rushes along, so closely resembles the muttering and +whispering of human voices as to be often mistaken for them; whilst at +night it sometimes utters piercing screams, and howls, and groans, in +such a manner as to terrify all who pass near it. Dogs and horses, in +particular, are susceptible to its influence, and they exhibit the +greatest signs of terror at the mere sound of it. + +Another means of becoming a werwolf, resorted to by the Swedish and +Norwegian peasant, consists in the plucking and wearing of a +lycanthropous flower after sunset, and on a night when the moon is in +the full. Lycanthropous flowers, no less than lycanthropous water, +possess properties peculiar to themselves; properties which are, +probably, only discernible to those who are well acquainted with them. +Their scent is described as faint and subtly suggestive of death, whilst +their sap is rather offensively white and sticky. In appearance they are +much the same as other flowers, and are usually white and yellow. + +Yet another method of acquiring the property of lycanthropy consists in +making: first, a magic circle on the ground, at twelve o'clock, on a +night when the moon is in the full (there is no strict rule as to the +magnitude of the circle, though one of about seven feet in diameter +would seem to be the size most commonly adopted); then, in the centre of +the circle, a wood fire, heating thereon an iron vessel containing one +pint of clear spring water, and any seven of the following ingredients: +hemlock (1/2 ounce to 1 ounce), aloe (30 grains), opium (2 to 4-1/2 +drachms), mandrake (1 ounce to 1-1/2 ounces), solanum (1/2 ounce), poppy +seed (1/2 ounce to 1 ounce), asafoetida (3/4 ounce to 1 ounce), and +parsley (2 to 3 ounces). + +Whilst the mixture is heating, the experimenter prostrates himself in +front of the fire and prays to the Great Spirit of the Unknown to confer +on him the property of metamorphosing, nocturnally, into a werwolf. His +prayers take no one particular form, but are quite extempore; though he +usually adds to them some such recognised incantation as:-- + + "Come, spirit so powerful! come, spirit so dread, + From the home of the werwolf, the home of the dead. + Come, give me thy blessing! come, lend me thine ear! + Oh spirit of darkness! oh spirit so drear! + + "Come, mighty phantom! come, great Unknown! + Come from thy dwelling so gloomy and lone. + Come, I beseech thee; depart from thy lair, + And body and soul shall be thine, I declare. + + "Haste, haste, haste, horrid spirit, haste! + Speed, speed, speed, scaring spirit, speed! + Fast, fast, fast, fateful spirit, fast!" + +He then makes the following formal declaration:-- + +"I (here insert name) offer to thee, Great Spirit of the Unknown, this +night (here insert date), my body and soul, on condition that thou +grantest me, from this night to the hour of my death, the power of +metamorphosing, nocturnally, into a wolf. I beg, I pray, I implore +thee--thee, unparalleled Phantom of Darkness, to make me a werwolf--a +werwolf!"--and striking the ground three times with his forehead, he +gets up. As soon as the concoction in the vessel is boiling, he dips a +cup into it, and sprinkles the contents on the ground, repeating the +action until he has sprinkled the whole interior of the circle. + +Then he kneels on the ground close to the fire, and in a loud voice +cries out, "Come, oh come!" and, if he is fortunate, a phantom suddenly +manifests itself over the fire. Sometimes the phantom is indefinite--a +cylindrical, luminous, pillar-like thing, about seven feet in height, +having no discernible features; sometimes it assumes a definite shape, +and appears either as a monstrous hooded figure with a death's head, or +as a sub-human, sub-animal type of Elemental. + +Whatever form the Unknown adopts, it is invariably terrifying. It never +speaks, but indicates its assent by stretching out an arm, or what +serves as an arm, and then disappears. It never remains visible for more +than half a minute. As soon as it vanishes the supplicant, who is always +half mad with terror, springs from the ground and rushes home--or +anywhere to get again within reach of human beings. By the morning, +however, all his fears have departed; and at sunset he creeps off into +the forest, or into some equally secluded spot, to experience, for the +first time, the extraordinary sensations of metamorphosing into a wolf, +or, perhaps, a semi-wolf, _i.e._, a creature half man and half wolf; for +the degree of metamorphosis varies according to locality. The hour of +metamorphosis also varies according to locality--though it is at sunset +that the change most usually takes place, the transmutation back to man +generally occurring at dawn. + +When a werwolf, in human shape at the time, is killed, he sometimes +(not always) metamorphoses into a wolf, and if in wolf's form at the +time he is killed he sometimes (not always) metamorphoses into a human +being--here again the nature of the transmutation depending on locality. + +In certain of the forests of Sweden dwell old women called Vargamors, +who are closely allied to werwolves, and exercise complete control over +all the wolves in the neighbourhood, keeping the latter well supplied in +food. As an illustration of the Vargamor I have chosen the following +story:-- + + +LISO OF SOROA + +Liso was thoroughly spoilt. Every one had told her how beautiful she was +from the day she had first learned to walk, and, consequently, it was +only natural that when she grew up she cared for no one but herself, and +for nothing so much as gazing at herself in the looking-glass and +expatiating on the loveliness of her own reflection. As a girl at home +she was allowed to do precisely what she liked--neither father nor +mother, relatives (with one exception) nor friends ever thwarted her; +and when she married it was the same: her husband bowed down to her, and +was always ready to indulge her every wish and whim. + +She had three children, two boys and a girl, whom she occasionally +condescended to notice; but only when there was nothing else at hand to +entertain her. + +The one person of whom Liso stood in awe was her aunt, a rich old lady +with distinct views of her own, and a vigorous method of expressing +them. Now, one of the old lady's peculiar ideas--at least peculiar in +Liso's estimation--was that woman was made to be man's helpmate, and +that married women should think of their husbands first, their children +next, and themselves last--an order of consideration which Liso thought +was exactly the reverse of what it should be. + +Had her aunt been poor, it is quite certain that Liso would have had +nothing whatsoever to do with her. But circumstances alter cases. This +aunt was rich, and, moreover, had no one more nearly related to her than +Liso. + +One day, in the depth of winter, Liso received a letter from her aunt +containing a pressing invitation to start off at once on a visit to the +latter at Skatea, a small town some twelve miles from Soroa. "Bring your +children," so the letter ran, "I should so love to see them, and stay +the night." Liso was greatly annoyed. She had just arranged a meeting +with one of her numerous lovers, and this invitation upset everything. +However, as it was of vital importance to her to keep in with her aunt, +she at once decided to put off her previous engagement and take her +children to see their rich old relative. + +Hoping that her lover might perhaps join her on the road and thus +convert a boring journey into a pleasant pastime, Liso, in spite of her +husband's entreaties, refused to take a servant, and insisted upon +driving herself. As she had anticipated, her lover met her on the +outskirts of the town, but, to her chagrin, was unable to accompany her +any part of the way to Skatea. He was most profuse in his apologies, +adding, "I wish you weren't going; I hear the road you will be +traversing is infested with bears and wolves." + +"Thank you!" she exclaimed mockingly, "I am not afraid, if you are. I +can quite understand now why you cannot come. Good-bye!" And with a +haughty inclination of her head she drove off, without deigning to +notice the young man's outstretched hand. Liso was now in a very bad +temper; and, having no other means of venting it, savagely silenced the +children whenever they attempted to speak. + +The vehicle in which the party travelled was a light sledge, drawn by +one horse only--a beast of matchless beauty and size, which, under +ordinary circumstances, could cover twelve miles in an almost +inconceivably short space of time. But now, owing to a heavy fall of +snow, the track, though well beaten, was heavy, and the piled-up snow +on each side so deep that to turn back, without the risk of sticking +fast, was an impossibility. + +The first half of the journey passed without accident, and they were +skirting the borders of a pine forest when Liso suddenly became +conscious of a suspicious noise behind her. Looking round, she saw, to +her horror, a troop of gaunt grey wolves issue from the forest and +commence running after the sledge. She instantly slashed the horse with +her whip, and the next moment the chase began in grim earnest. But, +gallop as fast as it would, the horse could not outpace the wolves, whom +hunger had made fleet as the wind, and it was not many minutes before +two of the biggest of them appeared on either side of the vehicle. +Though their intention was, in all probability, only to attack the +horse, yet the safety both of Liso and the children depended on the +preservation of the animal. + +It was indeed a beautiful creature, and the danger only enhanced its +value; it seemed, in fact, almost entitled to claim for its preservation +an extraordinary sacrifice. And Liso did not hesitate. It was one life +against three--the world would excuse her, if God did not. + +"You, Charles," she said hoarsely, "you are the eldest; it is your duty +to go first"--and before Charles had time to realize what was +happening, she had gripped him round the waist, and with strength +generated by the crisis hurled him into the snow. She did not see where +he fell--the sledge was moving far too fast for that; but she heard the +sound of the concussion, and then frantic screaming, accompanied by +howls of triumph and joyful yapping. There was a momentary lull--only +momentary--and then the patting footsteps recommenced. + +Nearer and nearer they came, until she could hear a deep and regular +pant, pant, pant, drowned every now and then by prolonged howls and +piercing, nerve-racking whines. Once again two murder-breathing forms +are racing along at the side of the sledge, biting and snapping at the +horse's legs with their gleaming, foam-flecked jaws. + +"George," Liso shouted, "you must go now. You are a boy, and boys and +men should always die to save their sisters." But George, though +younger, was not so easy to dispose of as Charles. Charles had been +taken unawares, but George guessed what was coming and was on his guard. + +"No, no," he cried, clinging on to the sledge with both his chubby +hands. "The wolves will eat me! Take sissy." + +"Wretch!" shrieked Liso, boxing his ears furiously. "Selfish little +wretch! So this is the result of all the kindness I have lavished on +you. Let go at once"--and tearing at his baby wrists with all her +might, she succeeded in loosening them, and the next instant he was in +the road. + +Then there was a repetition of what had happened before--a few wild +screeches, savage howls of triumph, and snarls and grunts that suggested +much. Then--comparative quiet, and then--patterings. Mad with fear, Liso +stood up and lashed the horse. God of mercy! there was now only one more +life between hers and the fate that, of all fates in the world, seemed +to her just then to be the most dreadful. With the thick and gloomy +forest before and behind her, and the nearer and nearer trampling of her +ravenous pursuers, she almost collapsed from sheer anguish; but the +thought of all her beauty perishing in such an ignominious and painful +fashion braced her up. Perhaps, too--at least, let us hope +so--underlying it all, though so much in the background, there was a +genuine longing to save the little mite--her exact counterpart, so +people said--that nestled its sunny head in the folds of her soft and +costly sealskin coat. + +She did not venture to look behind her, only in front--at the seemingly +never-ending white track; at the dense mass of trees--trees that shook +their heads mockingly at her as the wind rustled through them; at the +great splash of red right across the sky, so horribly remindful of +blood that she shuddered. Night birds hoot; wild cats glare down at her; +and shadows of every kind glide noiselessly out from behind the great +trunks, and await her approach with inexplicable flickerings and +flutterings. + +All at once two rough paws are laid on her shoulders, and the wide-open, +bloody jaws of an enormous wolf hang over her head. It is the most +ferocious beast of the troop, which, having partly missed its leap at +the sledge, is dragged along with it, in vain seeking with its hinder +legs for a resting-place to enable it to get wholly on to the frail +vehicle. Liso looks down at the little girl beside her and their eyes +meet. + +"Not me! not me!" the tiny one cried, clutching hold of her wrist in its +anxiety. "I have been good, have I not? You will not throw me into the +snow like the others?" Liso's lips tightened. The weight of the body of +the wolf drew her gradually backwards--another minute and she would be +out of the sledge. Her life was of assuredly more value than that of the +child. Besides, one so young would not feel the horrors of death so +acutely as she would, who was grown up. Anything rather than such a +devilish ending. Providence willed it--Providence must bear the +responsibility. And, steeling her soul to pity, she snatches up her +daughter and throws her into the gleaming jaws of the wolf, which, +springing off the sledge, hastily departs with its prey into the forest, +where it is followed by hosts of other wolves. Exhausted, stunned, +senseless--for her escape has been extremely narrow--Liso drops the +reins, and, sinking back into the luxurious cushions of the vehicle, +gives a great sigh of relief and shuts her eyes. + +Meantime the trees grow thinner, and an isolated house, to which a +side-road leads, appears at no great distance off. The horse, left to +itself, follows this new path; it enters through an open gate, and, +panting and foaming, comes to a dead halt before a ponderous oak door +studded with huge iron nails. Presently Liso recovers. She finds herself +seated before a roaring fire; and a woman with a white face, dark, +piercing eyes, and a beak-like nose, is bending over her. The woman +presents such an extraordinary spectacle that Liso is oblivious of +everything else, and gazes at her with a cold sensation of fear creeping +down her spine. + +"You've had a narrow escape," the woman presently exclaims in peculiarly +hoarse tones. "And the danger is not over yet! Listen!" To Liso's terror +an inferno of howls and whines sounds from the yard outside, and she +sees, gleaming in at her through the window-panes, scores of wild, hairy +faces with pale, lurid eyes. "They are there!" the woman remarks, a +saturnine smile in her eyes and playing round her lips. "There--all +ready to rend and tear you to pieces as they did your children--your +three pretty, loving children. I've only to open the door, and in they +will rush!" + +"But you won't," Liso gasped feebly. "You won't be so cruel. Besides, +they could eat you, too." + +"Oh no, they couldn't," the woman laughed. "I'm a Vargamor. Every one of +these wolves knows me and loves me as a mother. With you it is very +different. Shall I----?" + +"Oh no! for pity's sake spare me!" Liso cried, throwing herself at the +woman's feet and catching hold of her hands. "Spare me, and I will do +anything you want." + +"Well," said the woman, after some consideration, "I will spare you on +one condition, namely, that you live with me and do the housework; I'm +getting too old for it." + +"I suppose I may see my family occasionally?" Liso said. + +"No!" the old woman snapped, "you may not. You must never go out of +sight of this house. Now, what do you say? Recollect, it is either that +or the wolves! Quick," and she hobbled to the door as she spoke. + +"I've chosen!" Liso shrieked. "I'll stay with you. Anything rather than +such an awful death. Tell me what I have to do and I'll begin at once." + +The old woman took her at her word. She speedily set Liso a task, and +from that time onward, kept her so continuously employed, not allowing +her a moment to herself, that her life soon became unbearable. She tried +to escape, but each time she left the house the fierce howling of the +wolves sent her back to it in terror, and she discovered that, night and +day, certain of the beasts were supervising her movements. After she had +been there a week the old woman said to her, "I fear it is useless to +think of keeping you any longer! Times are bad--food is scarce. The +wolves are hungry--I must give you to them." + +But Liso fell on her knees and pleaded so hard that the Vargamor +relented, "Well, well!" she said, "I will spare you, provided you can +procure me a substitute. If you like to sit down and write to some one I +will see that the note is delivered." + +Then Liso, almost beside herself at the thought of the hungry wolves, +sat down and wrote a letter to her husband, telling him she had met with +an accident, and desiring him to come to her at once. She dared not give +him the slightest hint as to what had actually befallen her, as she knew +the old woman would read the letter. + +When she had finished her note, the Vargamor took it, and for the next +twelve hours Liso had a very anxious time. + +"If he doesn't come soon," the old woman at length said to her, with an +evil chuckle, "I shall have to let the wolves in. They are famishing; +and I, too, want something tastier than rabbits and squirrels." + +The minutes passed, and Liso was nearly fainting with suspense, when +there suddenly broke on her ears the distant tramp of horses' feet; and +in a very few moments a droshky dashed up to the door. + +"Call him in here," the Vargamor said, "and run up and hide in your +bedroom. My pets and I will enjoy him all the better by the fire, and +there won't be so much risk of them being hurt." + +Liso, afraid to do otherwise, ran up the rickety ladder leading to her +room, shouting as she did so, "Oscar! Oscar! come in, come in." + +The joyful note in her husband's voice as he replied to her invitation +struck a new chord in Liso's nature--a chord which had been there all +the time, but had got choked and clogged through over-indulgence. Full +of a courage that dared anything in its determination to save him, she +crept cautiously down the stairs, and just as he crossed the threshold, +and the Vargamor was about to summon the wolves, she dashed up to the +old woman and struck her with all her might. Then, seizing her husband, +she dragged him out of the house, and, hustling him into the carriage, +jumped in by his side and told the coachman to drive home with the +utmost speed. + +All this was done in less time than it takes to tell, and once again the +familiar sounds of pattering--patterings on the snow in the wake of the +carriage--fell on Liso's ears, and all the old horrors of the preceding +journey came back to her with full force. + +Slowly, despite the fact that there were two horses now, the wolves +gained on them, and once again the same harrowing question arose in +Liso's mind. Some one must be sacrificed. Which should it be? The +coachman! without doubt the coachman. He was only a poor, uneducated +man, a hireling, and his life was as nothing compared either with that +of her husband or her own. + +But she now remembered that Oscar, though usually a mere straw in her +hands, and ready to do anything she asked him, had one or two +peculiarities--fondness for children and animals, and a great respect +for life--life in every grade. Would he consent to sacrifice the +coachman? And as she glanced at him, a feeling of awe came over her. +What a big, strong man this husband of hers was, and what strength he +had--strength of all kinds, physical as well as mental--if he cared to +exert it. But then he loved, worshipped, and adored her; he would never +treat her with anything but the utmost deference and kindness, no matter +what she said or did. Still, when she got ready to whisper the fatal +suggestion in his ear, her heart failed her. And then the new something +within her--that something that had already spoken and seemed inclined +to be painfully officious--once more asserted itself. The coachman was +married, he had children--four people dependent on him, four hearts that +loved him! With her it was different: no one was actually dependent on +her--there were no children now! Nothing but the memory of them! +Memory--what a hateful thing it was! She had forced them to give her +their lives; would it not be some atonement for her act if she were now +to offer hers? She made the offer--breathed it with a shuddering soul +into her husband's ears--and with a great round oath he rejected it. + +"What! You! Let you be thrown to the wolves?" he roared. "No--sooner +than that, ten thousand times sooner, I will jump out! But I don't think +there is any need. Knowing there were wolves about, I brought arms. If +occasion arises we can easily account for half of them. But we shall +outdistance them yet." + +He spoke the truth. Bit by bit the powerful horses drew away from the +pack, and ere the last trees of the forest were passed, the howlings +were no longer heard and all danger was at an end. + +Then, and not till then, did Oscar learn what had become of the +children. + +He listened to Liso's explanation in silence, and it was not until she +had finished that the surprise came. She was anticipating +commiseration--commiseration for the awful hell she had undergone. She +little guessed the struggle that was taking place beneath her husband's +seemingly calm exterior. The revelation came with an abruptness that +staggered her. "Woman!" he cried, "you are a murderess. Sooner than have +sacrificed your children you should have suffered three deaths +yourself--that is the elementary instinct of all mothers, human and +otherwise. You are below the standard of a beast--of the Vargamor you +slew. Go! go back to those parents who bore you, and tell them I'll have +nought to do with you--that I want a woman for my wife, not a +monstrosity." + +He bade the coachman pull up, and, alighting, told the man to drive Liso +to the home of her parents. + +But Liso did not hear him--she sat huddled up on the seat with her eyes +staring blankly before her. For the first time in her life she was +conscious that she loved! + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +WERWOLVES IN ICELAND, LAPLAND, AND FINLAND + + +The Bersekir of Iceland are credited with the rare property of dual +metamorphosis--that is to say, they are credited with the power of being +able to adopt the individual forms of two animals--the bear and the +wolf. + +For substantiation as to the _bona-fide_ existence of this rare property +of dual metamorphosis one has only to refer to the historical literature +of the country (the authenticity of which is beyond dispute), wherein +many cases of it are recorded. + +The following story, illustrative of dual metamorphosis, was told to me +on fairly good authority. + +A very unprepossessing Bersekir, named Rerir, falling in love with +Signi, the beautiful daughter of a neighbouring Bersekir, proposed to +her and was scornfully rejected. Smarting under the many insults that +had been heaped on him--for Signi had a most cutting tongue--Rerir, who, +like most of the Bersekir, was both a werwolf and a wer-bear, resolved +to be revenged. Assuming the shape of a bear--the animal he deemed the +more formidable--Rerir stole to the house where Signi and her parents +lived, and climbing on the roof, tore away at it with his claws till he +had made a hole big enough to admit him. Dropping through the aperture +he had thus effected, he alighted on the top of some one in bed--one of +the servants of the house--whom he hugged to death before she had time +to utter a cry. He then stole out into the passage and made his way, +cautiously and noiselessly, to the room in which he imagined Signi +slept. Here, however, instead of finding the object of his passions, he +came upon her parents, one of whom--the mother--was awake; and aiming a +blow at the latter's head, he crushed in her skull with one stroke of +his powerful paw. The noise awoke Signi's father, who, taking in the +situation at a glance, also metamorphosed into a bear and straightway +closed with his assailant. A desperate encounter between the two +wer-animals now commenced, and the whole household, aroused from their +slumber, came trooping in. For some time the issue of the combat was +dubious, both adversaries being fairly well matched. But at length +Rerir began to prevail, and Signi's father cried out for some one to +help him. Then Signi, anxious to save her parent's life, seized a knife, +and, aiming a frantic blow, inadvertently struck her father, who +instantly sank on the ground, leaving her at the mercy of his furious +opponent. + +With a loud snarl of triumph, Rerir rushed at the girl, and was bearing +her triumphantly away, when the cook--an old woman who had followed the +fortunes of the Bersekir all her life--had a sudden inspiration. +Standing on a shelf in the corner of the room was a jar containing a +preparation of sulphur, asafoetida, and castoreum, which her mistress +had always given her to understand was a preventive against evil +spirits. Snatching it up, she darted after the wer-bear and flung the +contents of it in its face, just as it was about to descend the stairs +with Signi. In a moment there was a sudden and startling metamorphosis, +and in the place of the bear stood the ugly, misshapen man, Rerir. + +The hunchback now would gladly have departed without attempting further +mischief; for although the household boasted no man apart from its +incapacitated master, there were still three formidable women and some +big dogs to be faced. + +But to let him escape, after the irreparable harm he had done, was the +very last thing Signi would permit; and with an air of stern authority +she commanded the servants to fall on him with any weapons they could +find, whilst she would summon the hounds. + +Now, indeed, the tables were completely turned. Rerir was easily +overpowered and bound securely hand and foot by Signi and her servants, +and after undergoing a brief trial the following morning he was +summarily executed. + +Those Icelanders who possessed the property of metamorphosis into wolves +and bears (they were always of the male sex), more often than not used +it for the purpose of either wreaking vengeance or of executing justice. +The terrible temper--for the rage of the Bersekir has been a byword for +centuries--commonly attributed to Icelanders and Scandinavians in +general, is undoubtedly traceable to the werwolves and wer-bears into +which the Bersekirs metamorphosed. + +It is said that in Iceland there are both lycanthropous streams and +flowers, and that they differ little if at all from those to be met with +in other countries. + + +THE WERWOLVES OF LAPLAND + +In Lapland werwolves are still much to the fore. In many families the +property is hereditary, whilst it is not infrequently sought and +acquired through the practice of Black Magic. Though, perhaps, more +common among males, there are, nevertheless, many instances of it among +females. + +The following case comes from the country bordering on Lake Enara. + +The child of a peasant woman named Martha, just able to trot alone, and +consequently left to wander just where it pleased, came home one morning +with its forehead apparently licked raw, all its fingers more or less +injured, and two of them seemingly sucked and mumbled to a mere pulp. + +On being interrogated as to what had happened, it told a most astounding +tale: A very beautiful lady had picked it up and carried it away to her +house, where she had put it in a room with her three children, who were +all very pretty and daintily dressed. At sunset, however, both the lady +and her children metamorphosed into wolves, and would undoubtedly have +eaten it, had they not satiated their appetites on a portion of a girl +which had been kept over from the preceding day. The newcomer was +intended for their meal on the morrow, and obeying the injunctions of +their mother, the young werwolves had forborne to devour the child, +though they had all tasted it. + +The child's parents were simply dumbfounded--they could scarcely credit +their senses--and made their offspring repeat its narrative over and +over again. And as it stuck to what it had said, they ultimately +concluded that it was true, and that the lady described could be none +other than Madame Tonno, the wife of their landlord and patron--a person +of immense importance in the neighbourhood. + +But what could they do? How could they protect their children from +another raid? + +To accuse the lady, who was rich and influential, of being a werwolf +would be useless. No one would believe them--no one dare believe +them--and they would be severely punished for their indiscretion. Being +poor, they were entirely at her mercy, and if she chose to eat their +children, they could not prevent her, unless they could catch her in the +act. + +One evening the mother was washing clothes before the door of her house, +with her second child, a little girl of four years of age, playing about +close by. The cottage stood in a lonely part of the estate, forming +almost an island in the midst of low boggy ground; and there was no +house nearer than that of M. Tonno. Martha, bending over her wash-tub, +was making every effort to complete her task, when a fearful cry made +her look up, and there was the child, gripped by one shoulder, in the +jaws of a great she-wolf, the arm that was free extended towards her. +Martha was so close that she managed to clutch a bit of the child's +clothing in one hand, whilst with the other she beat the brute with all +her might to make it let go its hold. But all in vain: the relentless +jaws did not show the slightest sign of relaxing, and with a saturnine +glitter in its deep-set eyes it emitted a hoarse burr-burr, and set off +at full speed towards the forest, dragging the mother, who was still +clinging to the garment of her child, with it. + +But they did not long continue thus. The wolf turned into some low-lying +uneven track, and Martha, falling over the jagged trunk of a tree, found +herself lying on the ground with only a little piece of torn clothing +tightly clasped in her hand. Hitherto, comforted by Martha's presence, +the little one had not uttered a sound; but now, feeling itself +deserted, it gave vent to the most heartrending screams--screams that +abruptly disturbed the silence of that lonely spot and pierced to the +depths of Martha's soul. In an instant she rose, and, dashing on, +bounded over stock and stone, tearing herself pitiably, but heeding it +not in her intense anxiety to save her child. But the wolf had now +increased its speed; the undergrowth was thick, the ground heavier, and +soon screams became her only guide. Still on and on she dashed, now +snatching up a little shoe which was clinging to the bushes, now +shrieking with agony as she saw fragments of the child's hair and +clothes on the low jagged boughs obstructing her path. On, on, on, until +the screams grew fainter, then louder, and then ceased altogether. + +Late that night the husband, Max, found his wife lying dead, just +outside the grounds of his patron's chateau. Guessing what had happened, +and having but one thought in his mind--namely, revenge--Max, arming +himself with the branch of a tree, marched boldly up to the house, and +rapped loudly at the door. + +M. Tonno answered this peremptory summons himself, and demanded in an +angry voice what Max meant by daring to announce himself thus. + +Max pointed in the direction of the corpse. "That!" he shrieked; "that +is the reason of my visit. Madame Tonno is a werwolf--she has murdered +both my wife and child, and I am here to demand justice." + +"Come inside," M. Tonno said, the tone of his voice suddenly changing. +"We can discuss the matter indoors in the privacy of my study." And he +conducted Max to a room in the rear of the house. + +But no sooner had Max crossed the threshold than the door was slammed +on him, and he found himself a prisoner. He turned to the window, but +there was no hope there--it was heavily barred. But although a +peasant--and a fool, so he told himself, to have thus deliberately +walked into a trap--Max was not altogether without wits, and he searched +the room thoroughly, eventually discovering a loose board. Tearing it +up, he saw that the space under the floor--that is to say, between the +floor and the foundation of the house--was just deep enough for him to +lie there at full length. Here, then, was a possible avenue of escape. +Setting to work, he succeeded, after much effort, in wrenching up +another board, and then another, and getting into the excavation thus +made, he worked his way along on his stomach, until he came to a +grating, which, to his utmost joy, proved to be loose. It was but the +work of a few minutes to force it out and to dislodge a few bricks, and +Max was once again free. His one idea now was to tell his tale to his +brother peasants and rouse them to immediate action, and with this end +in view he set off running at full speed to the nearest settlement. + +The peasants of Lapland are slow and stolid and take a lot of rousing, +but when once they are roused, few people are so terrible. + +Fortunately for Max, he was not the only sufferer; several other people +in the neighbourhood had lately lost their children, and the story he +told found ready credence. In less than an hour a large body of men and +women, armed with every variety of weapon, from a sword to a pitchfork, +had gathered together, and setting off direct to the chateau, they +surrounded it on all sides, and forcing an entrance, seized M. Tonno and +his werwolf wife and werwolf children, and binding them hand and foot, +led them to the shores of Lake Enara and drowned them. They then went +back to the house and, setting fire to it, burned it to the ground, thus +making certain of destroying any werwolf influence it might still +contain. + +With this wholesale extermination a case that may be taken as a +characteristic type of Lapland lycanthropy in all its grim and sordid +details concludes. + + +FINLAND WERWOLVES + +Finland teems with stories of werwolves--stories ancient and modern, for +the werwolf is said to still flourish in various parts of the country. + +The property is not restricted to one sex; it is equally common to both. +Spells and various forms of exorcism are used, and certain streams are +held to be lycanthropous. + +However, in Finland as in Scandinavia, it is very difficult to procure +information as to werwolves. The common peasant, who alone knows +anything about the anomaly, is withheld by superstition from even +mentioning its name; and if he mentions a werwolf at all, designates him +only as the "old one," or the "grey one," or the "great dog," feeling +that to call this terror by its true name is a sure way to exasperate +it. It is only by strategy one learns from a peasant that when a fine +young ox is found in the morning breathing hard, his hide bathed in +foam, and with every sign of fright and exhaustion, while, perhaps, only +one trifling wound is discovered on the whole body, which swells and +inflames as if poison had been infused, the animal generally dying +before night; and that when, on examination of the corpse, the +intestines are found to be torn as with the claws of a wolf, and the +whole body is in a state of inflammation, it is accounted certain that +the mischief has been caused by a werwolf. + +It is thus a werwolf serves his quarry when he kills for the mere love +of killing, and not for food. + +In Finland, perhaps more than in other countries, werwolves are credited +with demoniacal power, and old women who possess the property of +metamorphosing into wolves are said to be able to paralyse cattle and +children with their eyes, and to have poison in their nails, one wound +from which causes certain death. + +To illustrate the foregoing I have selected an incident which happened +near Diolen, a village on the eastern shore of the Gulf of Finland, at +the distance of about a hundred wersts from the ancient city of Mawa. +Here vegetation is of a more varied and luxuriant kind than is usually +found in the Northern latitude; the oak and the bela, intermingled with +rich plots of grass, grow at the very edge of the sea--a phenomenon +accountable for by the fact that the Baltic is tideless. + +For about half a werst in breadth, the shore continues a level, +luxuriant stretch, when it suddenly rises in three successive cliffs, +each about a hundred feet in height, and placed about the same space of +half a werst, one behind the other, like huge steps leading to the +table-land above. In some places the rocks are completely hidden from +the view by a thick fence of trees, which take root at their base, while +each level is covered by a minute forest of firs, in which grow a +variety of herbs and shrubs, including the English whitethorn, and wild +strawberries. + +It was to gather the latter that Savanich and his seven-year-old son, +Peter, came one afternoon early in summer. They had filled two baskets +and were contemplating returning home with their spoil, when Caspan, the +big sheepdog, uttered a low growl. + +"Hey, Caspan, what is it?" Peter cried. "Footsteps! And such curious +ones!" + +"They are curious," Savanich said, bending down to examine them. "They +are larger and coarser than those of Caspan, longer in shape, and with a +deep indentation of the ball of the foot. They are those of a wolf--an +old one, because of the deepness of the tracks. Old wolves walk heavy. +And here's a wound the brute has got in its paw. See! there is a slight +irregularity on the print of the hind feet, as if from a dislocated +claw. We must be on our guard. Wolves are hungry now: the waters have +driven them up together, and the cattle are not let out yet. The beast +is not far off, either. An old wolf like this will prowl about for days +together, round the same place, till he picks up something." + +"I hope it won't attack us, father," Peter said, catching hold of +Savanich by the hand. "What should you do if it did?" + +But before Savanich could reply, Caspan gave a loud bark and dashed into +the thicket, and the next moment a terrible pandemonium of yells, and +snorts, and sharp howls filled the air. Drawing his knife from its +sheath, and telling Peter to keep close at his heels, Savanich followed +Caspan and speedily came upon the scene of the encounter. Caspan had +hold of a huge grey wolf by the neck, and was hanging on to it like grim +death, in spite of the brute's frantic efforts to free itself. + +There was but little doubt that the brave dog would have, eventually, +paid the penalty for its rashness--for the wolf had mauled it badly, and +it was beginning to show signs of exhaustion through loss of blood--had +not Savanich arrived in the nick of time. A couple of thrusts from his +knife stretched the wolf on the ground, when, to his utmost horror, it +suddenly metamorphosed into a hideous old hag. + +"A werwolf!" Savanich gasped, crossing himself. "Get out of her way, +Peter, quick!" + +But it was too late. Thrusting out a skinny hand, the hag scratched +Peter on the ankle with the long curved, poisonous nail of her +forefinger. Then, with an evil smile on her lips, she turned over on her +back, and expired. And before Peter could be got home he, too, was dead. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE WERWOLF IN RUSSIA AND SIBERIA + + +The ideal home of all things weird and uncanny--is cold, grey, gaunt, +and giant Russia. Nowhere is the werwolf so much in evidence to-day as +in the land of the Czar, where all the primitive conditions favourable +to such anomalies, still exist, and where they have undergone but little +change in the last ten thousand years. + +A thinly-populated country--vast stretches of wild uncultivated land, +full of dense forests, rich in trees most favourable to Elementals, and +watered by deep, silent tarns, and stealthily moving streams,--its very +atmosphere is impregnated with lycanthropy. + +At the base of giant firs and poplars, or poking out their heads +impudently, from amidst brambles and ferns, are werwolf flowers--flowers +with all the characteristics of those found in Hungary and the Balkan +Peninsula, but of a greater variety. There are, for example, in +addition to the white, yellow, and red species, those of a bluish-white +hue, that emit a glow at night like the phosphorescent glow emanating +from decaying animal and vegetable matter; and those of a brilliant +orange, covered with black, protruding spots, suggestive of some +particularly offensive disease, that show a marked preference for damp +places, and are specially to be met with growing in the slime and mud at +the edge of a pool, or in the soft, rotten mould of morasses. + +Werwolves haunt the plains, too--the great barren, undulating deserts +that roll up to the foot of the Urals, Caucasus, Altai, Yablonoi, and +Stanovoi Mountains--and the Tundras along the shores of the Arctic +Ocean--dreary swamps in summer and ice-covered wastes in winter. Here, +at night, they wander over the rough, stony, arid ground, picking their +way surreptitiously through the scant vegetation, and avoiding all +frequented localities; pausing, every now and then, to slake their +thirst in deep sunk wells, or to listen for the sounds of quarry. Hazel +hen, swans, duck, geese, squirrels, hares, elk, reindeer, roes, +fallowdeer, and wild sheep, all are food to the werwolf, though nothing +is so heartily appreciated by it as fat tender children or young and +plump women. + +In its nocturnal ramblings the werwolf often encounters enemies--bears, +wolves, and panthers--with which it struggles for dominion--dominion of +forest, plain and mountain; and when the combat ends to its +disadvantage, its metamorphosed corpse is at once devoured by its +conqueror. + +Of all parts of Russia, the werwolf loves best the Caucasus and Ural +Mountains. They are to Russia what the Harz Mountains were to Germany, +centuries ago--the head-quarters of all manner of psychic phenomena, the +happy hunting ground of phantom and fairy; and over them still lingers, +almost, if not quite, as forcibly as ever, the glamour and mystery +inseparable from the superphysical. + +Times without number have the great black beetling crags of these +mountains been scaled by the furry, sinewy feet of werwolves; times +without number have the shadows of these anomalies fallen on the +moon-kissed, snowy peaks, towering high into the sky, or mingled with +the rank and dewy herbage in the pine-clad valleys, and narrow abysmal +gorges deep down below. + +It was here, in these lone Russian mountains, so legend relates, that +Peter and Paul turned an impious wife and husband, who refused them +shelter, into wolves: but Peter and Paul, apparently, had not the +monopoly of this power; for it was here, too, in a Ural village, that +the Devil is alleged to have metamorphosed half a dozen men into wolves +for not paying him sufficient homage. + +There is no restriction as to the sex of werwolves in Russia and +Siberia--male and female werwolves are about equal in number, though +perhaps there is a slight preponderance in favour of the female. +Vargamors are to be encountered in almost all the less frequented woody +regions, but more especially in those in the immediate vicinity of the +Urals and Caucasus. + +Though many of the werwolves inherit the property, many, too, have +acquired it through direct intercourse with the superphysical; and the +invocation of spirits, whether performed individually or collectively, +is far from uncommon. + +Black Magic is said to be practised in the Urals, Caucasus, Yerkhoiansk, +and Stanovoi Mountains; in the Tundras, the Plains of East Russia, the +Timan Range, the Kola Peninsula, and various parts of Siberia. + +I am told that the usual initiating ceremony consists of drawing a +circle, from seven to nine feet in radius, in the centre of which circle +a wood fire is kindled--the wood selected being black poplar, pine or +larch, never ash. A fumigation in an iron vessel, heated over the fire, +is then made out of a mixture of any four or five of the following +substances: Hemlock (2 to 3 ounces), henbane (1 ounce to 1-1/2 ounces), +saffron (3 ounces), poppy seed (any amount), aloe (3 drachms), opium +(1/4 ounce), asafoetida (2 ounces), solanum (2 to 3 drachms), parsley +(any amount). + +As soon as the vessel is placed over the fire so that it can heat, the +person who would invoke the spirit that can bestow upon him the property +of metamorphosing into a wolf kneels within the circle, and prays a +preliminary impromptu prayer. He then resorts to an incantation, which +runs, so I have been told, as follows:-- + + "Hail, hail, hail, great wolf spirit, hail! + A boon I ask thee, mighty shade. Within this circle I have made, + Make me a werwolf strong and bold, + The terror alike of young and old. + Grant me a figure tall and spare; + The speed of the elk, the claws of the bear; + The poison of snakes, the wit of the fox; + The stealth of the wolf, the strength of the ox; + The jaws of the tiger, the teeth of the shark; + The eyes of a cat that sees in the dark. + Make me climb like a monkey, scent like a dog, + Swim like a fish, and eat like a hog. + Haste, haste, haste, lonely spirit, haste! + Here, wan and drear, magic spell making, + Findest thou me--shaking, quaking. + Softly fan me as I lie, + And thy mystic touch apply-- + Touch apply, and I swear that when I die, + When I die, I will serve thee evermore, + Evermore, in grey wolf land, cold and raw." + +The incantation concluded, the supplicant then kisses the ground three +times, and advancing to the fire, takes off the iron vessel, and +whirling it smoking round his head, cries out:-- + + "Make me a werwolf! make me a man-eater! + Make me a werwolf! make me a woman-eater! + Make me a werwolf! make me a child-eater! + I pine for blood! human blood! + Give it me! give it me to-night! + Great Wolf Spirit! give it me, and + Heart, body, and soul, I am yours." + +The trees then begin to rustle, and the wind to moan, and out of the +sudden darkness that envelops everything glows the tall, cylindrical, +pillar-like phantom of the Unknown, seven or eight feet in height. It +sometimes develops further, and assumes the form of a tall, thin +monstrosity, half human and half animal, grey and nude, with very long +legs and arms, and the feet and claws of a wolf. Its head is shaped like +that of a wolf, but surrounded with the hair of a woman, that falls +about its bare shoulders in yellow ringlets. It has wolf's ears and a +wolf's mouth. Its aquiline nose and pale eyes are fashioned like those +of a human being, but animated with an expression too diabolically +malignant to proceed from anything but the superphysical. + +It seldom if ever speaks, but either utters some extraordinary noise--a +prolonged howl that seems to proceed from the bowels of the earth, a +piercing, harrowing whine, or a low laugh full of hellish glee, any of +which sounds may be taken to express its assent to the favour asked. + +It only remains visible for a minute at the most, and then disappears +with startling abruptness. The supplicant is now a werwolf. He undergoes +his first metamorphosis into wolf form the following evening at sunset, +reassuming his human shape at dawn; and so on, day after day, till his +death, when he may once more metamorphose either from man form to wolf +form, or vice versa, his corpse retaining whichever form has been +assumed at the moment of death. However, with regard to this final +metamorphosis there is no consistency: it may or may not take place. In +the practice of exorcism, for the purpose of eradicating the evil +property of werwolfery, all manner of methods are employed. Sometimes +the werwolf is soundly whipped with ash twigs, and saturated with a +potion such as I described in a previous chapter; sometimes he is made +to lie or sit over, or lie or stand close beside, a vessel containing a +fumigation mixture composed of sulphur, asafoetida, and castoreum, or +hypericum and vinegar; or sometimes, again, he is well whipped and +rubbed all over with the juice of the mistletoe berry. Occasionally a +priest is summoned, and then a formal ceremony takes place. + +An altar is erected. On it are placed lighted candles, a Bible, a +crucifix. The werwolf, in wolf form, bound hand and foot, is then placed +on the ground at the foot of the altar, and fumigated with incense and +sprinkled with holy water. The sign of the cross is made on his +forehead, chest, back, and on the palms of his hands. Various prayers +are read, and the affair concludes when the priest in a loud voice +adjures the evil influence to depart, in the name of God the Father, the +Son, the Holy Ghost, and the Virgin Mary. + +I have never, however, heard of any well-authenticated case testifying +to the efficacy of this or of any other mode of exorcism. As far as I +know, once a werwolf always a werwolf is an inviolable rule. + +Apparently women are more desirous of becoming werwolves than men, more +women than men having acquired the property of werwolfery through their +own act. In the case of women candidates for this evil property, the +inspiring motive is almost always one of revenge, sometimes on a +faithless lover, but more often on another woman; and when once women +metamorphose thus, their craving for human flesh is simply +insatiable--in fact, they are far more cruel and daring, and much more +to be dreaded, than male werwolves. The following story seems to bear +out the truth of this assertion:-- + + +THE CASE OF IVAN OF SHIGANSKA + +Shiganska was--for it no longer exists, having been obliterated about +fifty years ago by a blizzard--a small village on the left bank of the +Petchora, about a hundred miles from its mouth. + +Owing chiefly to the character of the adjacent country, Shiganska was +wanting in every beauty and variety that charms the eye. It was situated +on a stretch of flat land between two mountain ranges, _i.e._, the Ural +on one side and the Taman on the other, and surrounded by a wood so +thick that it was with the greatest difficulty anyone could force a way +into it, supposing they had been sufficiently fortunate to escape +sticking fast in the morasses of soft, rotten mould, that lie hidden in +the least suspicious looking places, on its borders. Here were to be +found lycanthropous blue and white flowers, which those desirous of +becoming werwolves sought from far and wide, some even coming from +Siberia, and some from away down South as far as Astrakan. And the woods +abounded not only in werwolves, but in all sorts of supernatural +horrors--phantoms of the dead, _i.e._ (of murderers and suicides) Vice +Elementals and Vagrarians, vampires and ghouls; no region in Russia +boasted so many, and for this reason it was scrupulously avoided by all +sensible people after sunset. + +Ivan, like most of the male inhabitants of Shiganska, lived by the +chase: the black fox, the sable, the fox with the dark-coloured throat, +the red fox, white fox, squirrel, ermine, and black bear alike fell +victims to his gun; whilst in the Petchora, when the weather permitted +it, he caught, besides many other kinds of fish, a goodly proportion of +salmon, nelma (a kind of salmon trout), bleak, sturgeon, sterlet, tochue, +muksun, omul, and _Salmo Lavaretus_. + +It was a good living, that of the chase, albeit fraught with grave +dangers; and Ivan, thanks to his exceptional powers with the rod as well +as the rifle, was on the high road to prosperity. + +He lived with his mother and two sisters in a pretty house about a koes +from Shiganska, and facing it was a level stretch of reed-grass +terminating in the hemlock-covered banks of the Petchora. A few trees, +chiefly birch and larch, dotted about the reed-grass afforded a +delightful shade from the fierce heat of the short summer sun; and birds +of all sorts, whose singing was a source of the keenest delight to Ivan +and his sisters, made their homes in them. + +Unlike any other hunter in Shiganska, Ivan was fond of poetry and +music; moreover, he had a dreamy disposition, and when his day's work +was done he was content--nay, more than content--to watch the changing +colours in the sky, or see in the glowing embers of the charcoal fire +strange scenes and wildly familiar faces. + +One morning, in the month of April, Ivan set off to the woods, gun in +hand, accompanied by his old and faithful dog, Dolk, in search of big +game. He paused every now and then to look at the ice on the summits of +the distant mountains. The sunlight falling on it imparted to it many +different hues, and made it sparkle like flaming jewels. He stopped +repeatedly to listen to the croaking of the raven, the cawing of the +crows, and the piping of the bullfinches--sounds of which he was never +weary, and never tired of trying to interpret. + +On this occasion, as usual, it was not until long after noon that he +began seriously to think of looking for his quarry, and it was not until +he had searched for some time that he at length came upon the tracks of +a wild reindeer. Loosing Dolk, and tightening the buckles of his +snow-shoes, he set to work to stalk the animal, and eventually sighted +it browsing on a clump of reed-grass that grew on the bank of a mountain +stream. The chase now began in earnest. It was a beautiful animal, and +Ivan strained every effort to get within shooting range by leaping from +rock to rock, and springing over stream after stream. In this manner he +had progressed for more than a koes, when blood from the feet of the +reindeer began to be visible on the fresh frozen snow; from its +faltering pace the poor creature was evidently tired out, and Dolk was +drawing closer and closer to it. In these circumstances Ivan was +counting on the likelihood of his soon being near enough to fire, when +suddenly the joyful barking of the dog changed to a prodigious howl of +agony. With redoubled speed Ivan pushed ahead, and, presently, at a +distance of about two gunshots, he saw two small black objects lying on +the snow covered with blood. + +They were the remains of Dolk, who, having come up with the reindeer and +driven it into a small brook, was keeping it there until Ivan arrived, +when a hungry wolf had leaped down the side of a rock and, seizing him +in his powerful jaws, had bitten him in half. The wolf had evidently +intended to eat Dolk, but, catching sight of Ivan, had made off. + +Ivan was inconsolable. Dolk had hunted with him as a puppy of six months +old, and for eight years the dog had never let him know a hungry day. +Ivan had been offered ten reindeer for him, but he would not have parted +with him for any number, and without Dolk he knew not how to show +himself at home, for both his mother and sisters were devoted to the +faithful animal. + +Determined on vengeance, Ivan followed the wolf's tracks, which led, by +an unfamiliar path, to the mouth of a vast and gloomy cavern. There he +lost sight of them, and he was deliberating what to do next, when a loud +peal of silvery laughter broke on his ears and awoke the silent echoes +of the grim walls around him. Ivan started in open-mouthed astonishment. +Standing before him was a girl more lovely--ten thousand times more +lovely--than any woman he had hitherto seen. To the magic of a beautiful +form in woman--the necromancy of female grace--there was no more ready +and willing subject than Ivan; and here, at last, he had found grace +personified, incarnate, the highest ideal of all his wildest and most +cherished dreams. His most magnificent "castle" had never contained a +princess half as fair as this one. Her figure was rather above the +medium height, supple and slender. Her feet and hands were small, her +wrists well rounded, her fingers long and white, and tipped with pink +and glossy almond-shaped nails--if anything a trifle too long. But it +was her face that so attracted Ivan as to almost hold him +spellbound--the neat and delicately moulded features all in perfect +harmony; the daintily cut lips; the white gleaming teeth; the low +forehead crowned with golden curls; the long, thick-lashed, blue eyes +that looked steadily into his, and seemed to read his very soul. + +Moreover, in her blue eyes there was bewildering depth; a sense of +coldness that was positively benumbing, and which was reminiscent of the +blue petrifying waters of the Ural Lakes; a magnetism that was +paralysing, that held in complete obeisance both mind and limb, and was +comparable to nothing so nearly as the hypnotic influence of the tiger +or snake, but which differed from the latter inasmuch as its +inspirations were just as delightful as those of the tiger and snake are +harrowing and terrifying. + +She was clad from head to foot in fur--white fur--but neither her dress +nor her presence excited any other thoughts in Ivan except those of +intense admiration--admiration which surged through every pore of his +skin. + +"Well!" she demanded, "what brings you here, my good man? There is no +game in this cave." + +"Isn't there?" Ivan stammered, his eyes looking at her adoringly. "All +the same I would cheerfully forgo all the pleasures of the chase to come +here." + +"You are very gallant for a huntsman, sir," the girl replied with a +smile; "but for your own sake I must urge you to go away at once. I live +here with my father--a confirmed recluse who detests the sight of human +beings; were he to discover me talking to one I should get into sad +trouble, and with regard to you I could not say what might happen." + +But Ivan came of a race that paid little heed to any warning when once +their blood was fired; consequently, despite the repeated admonitions of +his beautiful companion--admonitions which her eyes seemed to +contradict--he stayed and stayed, whilst--forgetful of mother and +sisters, home, and even Dolk--he made a passionate avowal of his love. +The afternoon quickly passed, and the sun was beginning to set, when the +girl, whose name he had learned was Breda, almost pushed him out of the +cavern. + +"If you don't go now," she urged, "I may never see you again." + +"And would you care?" he asked. + +"Perhaps," she replied; "perhaps, just a little--a wee, wee bit. You +see, I don't get the opportunity of meeting many people!" + +He caught her by the hand and kissed it passionately; and with the sound +of her light, intoxicating laughter thrilling through his soul, he +descended to the bed of the mountain streamlet, and turned his steps +blithely towards home. + +That was the beginning, but not the end. He courted her--he married her +and she came to live with his mother and sisters, who for his sake tried +to like her and even pretended that they did like her. But in secret +they said to one another, "She has no heart; she is cold as an icicle; +her lips are thin and cruel. She would serve Ivan badly if we were not +here to check her." + +And Breda certainly had her idiosyncrasies. She preferred raw to cooked +meat, and would not sleep in the same room as her husband. She grew very +angry when Ivan expostulated, saying, "You promised you would never +thwart me. If you do not keep your word, I shall despise you, scorn you, +hate you." And Ivan, who loved his wife beyond anything, yielded. + +Some weeks after their marriage, neighbours complained of losing cattle +and horses. They said there was a wolf about, and that its tracks, which +they had followed, always ended under the walls of Ivan's house. They +asked Ivan if he had not heard the brute. But he had heard nothing, he +slept very soundly. Then they inquired of Ivan's sisters and mother, who +also replied in the negative; but there was hesitation in their voices, +and they looked very frightened and ashamed. And then people began to +talk. They looked at Breda curiously, and finally they cut her. One +night, when there was a downfall of snow, and the wind howled down the +chimneys of Ivan's house and blew the snow, with heavy thumps against +the window-panes, Ivan, who could not sleep for the storm, heard the +door of Breda's room open very softly, and light steps steal stealthily +down the passage. Then there came a half-suppressed, half-smothered cry, +a groan, and all was still. Ivan got out of bed and opened his door, but +his wife's voice called to him from the darkness and bade him go back. + +"Do not be alarmed and make a fuss," she said; "I was ill a moment ago, +but am quite well again now. Go back to bed at once, or I shall be very +angry." And Ivan obeyed her. + +In the morning his eldest sister, Beata, was found dead in bed, her +throat, breast, and stomach slit open, as is the custom with wolves, and +her flesh all mangled and eaten. + +Breda took no food that day, and Ivan's mother and other sister, +Malvina, looked at her out of the corner of their eyes and shuddered. +But Ivan said nothing. A week later the same fate befell Malvina. Then +Ivan's mother spoke. She told him that he must assuredly be under some +evil spell, or he would never remain idle whilst his sisters' destroyer +was at large, and she adjured him, by all that he held holy, not to +allow himself a moment's rest till he had had ample vengeance for the +loss of two such valuable lives. + +Roused at last, Ivan, instead of going to bed, sat up, gun in hand, and +watched. He passed many nights thus, and his patience was well nigh +exhausted when, during one of the vigils, he fell asleep, dreaming as +usual of the blue eyes and golden curls of Breda, whose beauty held him +just as much enthralled as ever. From this slumber he was awakened by +loud screams for help. Seizing his gun, and taking a random aim at a +huge white wolf as he went (though without stopping to see the effects +of the shot), he ran to his mother's bedside. She was dead. Her throat +and body were slit; but she was not eaten. + +Wild with grief and thirsting for revenge, Ivan started off in pursuit +of the wolf, and discovered, in the passage, a track of blood which +terminated at his wife's door. Receiving no reply when he asked for +admittance, he entered the room and found Breda lying on the floor, in +her nightdress, the blood streaming from a wound in her shoulder. Ivan +knelt down and examined her. She had been struck by a bullet, and the +bullet fitted the bore of his gun. + +He knew the truth then--the truth he might have known all along, had he +not, in his blind love, thrust it far from him--and, in the sudden +alteration of his feeling, he raised his knife to kill her. But Breda +opened her eyes, and the weapon fell from his hand. + +"You know part of my secret now," she whispered, "but you don't know +everything. I am a werwolf, not by inheritance, but of my own free will. +In order to become one I ate the blue flowers in the wood. I did so to +be avenged on my husband." + +"Your husband!" Ivan cried; "good God! then you were a widow when I met +you?" + +"Yes," Breda said slowly and with apparent effort. "I was forced into my +first marriage by my all too worldly parents, and my husband ill-used +and beat me!" + +"The devil! the cold-hearted, cowardly devil!" Ivan ejaculated, "I would +have killed him." + +"That is what I did," Breda remarked; "I did kill him, and it was in +order to make certain of killing him that I became a werwolf." + +"Did you eat him?" Ivan asked, horribly fascinated. + +"Don't ask questions," Breda said, averting her eyes, "and for God's +sake don't lose any more time. As you love me, screen me from detection; +hide all traces of to-night's handiwork as quickly as possible." + +As usual, Ivan did as she requested him, and giving out that his mother +had died suddenly, from heart failure, he had her interred with as +little publicity as possible. + +Before very long, however, the neighbours began to ask such pointed +questions, that Ivan now lived in a state of chronic suspense. He feared +every moment that the truth would leak out, and that his beautiful young +wife would receive condign punishment. + +At last, finding such a state of apprehension intolerable, he confided +in an old man who was reputed a sage and metaphysician--one who was +extremely well versed in all matters appertaining to the spiritual +world. "There is only one course to pursue," the old man said, "you must +have the evil spirit in her exorcized, and you must have it done +immediately. Otherwise, she will continue her depredations, and your +good neighbours will find her out and kill her. They more than half +suspect her now, and are talking of paying a visit some night, when you +are snug and safe in bed, to the cemetery, to see if the story you told +them about your mother's and sisters' sudden deaths is correct." + +"What kind of exorcism would you use?" Ivan inquired nervously. "You +would not hurt her?" + +"The form of exorcism I should make use of would do her no lasting +harm," the old man said feelingly; "you can rely on me for that." + +"But is exorcism always effectual?" Ivan persisted. + +"When exorcism is ineffectual it is the exception, not the rule," the +old man replied, "and there are very few cases of exorcism being +employed ineffectually upon those who have become werwolves through the +practice of magic, or the medium of flowers or of water." + +"Should my wife refuse to undergo the ceremony, what would you advise +then?" Ivan asked. + +"Strategy and force," the old man said, "anything to prevent her +continuing in her demoniacal ways, and being burned or drowned by an +infuriated mob." + +Thus admonished, Ivan, without delay, broached the matter to Breda. But +she was so angry with him for having dared even to mention exorcism, +that he thought it best to act on the advice of the old occultist and to +catch her unawares. Consequently, one evening, when the moon was in the +full, and she had just changed into wolf form, he stole into her room +accompanied by the old man and two assistants. After a desperate +struggle, Ivan and the three exorcists overpowered her, and bound her so +securely that she could not move. + +They then took her out of doors, to a lonely spot at the back of the +house, and placed her in the centre of an equilateral triangle that had +been carefully marked on the ground, in red chalk. At seven or eight +feet to the west of the triangle they then kindled a wood fire, and +placed over it a vessel containing a fumigation mixture of hypericum, +vinegar, sulphur, cayenne, and mountain ash berries. + +The old man then knelt down, and crossing himself on his forehead and +chest, prayed vigorously, until the preparation in the pot began to give +off strong fumes. He then arose, and both he and his assistants took up +specially prepared switches, cut from a mountain ash, and gripping them +tightly in their hands, approached the recumbent form of the werwolf. +This, however, was more than Ivan could stand--he had objected strongly +enough to the fumigation, which, being nauseous and irritating, had made +his wolf-wife gasp and choke; but when it came to flogging her--well, it +turned him sick and cold. He forgot discretion, prudence, everything, +saving the one great fact--monstrous, incredible, abominable--that the +being he loved, adored, and worshipped was about to be beaten with rods! +With a shout of wrath he rushed at the trio, and snatching their wands +from them, laid them so soundly about their backs that they all three +fled from the ground, shrieking with pain and terror. Then he knelt by +his prostrate wife, and cutting the thongs that bound her, set her free. +She rose on her feet a huge, white wolf. Regarding him steadily for a +moment from out of her gleaming grey eyes, she swung slowly round, and +with one more look, more human than animal, she darted swiftly away, and +was speedily lost in the gloom. + + + + +METHUEN'S POPULAR NOVELS + +AUTUMN 1912 + + +THE BIG FISH + +By H. B. Marriott Watson, Author of 'Alise of Astra.' Crown 8vo, 6s. +[July + +This strange tale of adventure in the mountains of Peru has a certain +basis in fact. 'The Big Fish' is the name by which the lost treasure of +the Incas is known, and the story describes the search for it, which +opens in a London auction room and, after many tragic adventures, ends +in the lonely mountains in a manner which neither of the seekers had +anticipated, but with which both are satisfied. + + +HER SERENE HIGHNESS + +By Philip Laurence Oliphant. Cr. 8vo, 6s. [July + +Disillusioned, and disgusted with Western civilization, the hero of this +story, a man of remarkable force and quality, turns to the ideals of the +East, becomes to all intents an Oriental, and makes for himself a great +position as the white ruler of a black people in Central India. His wife +deserted him in early life under a misunderstanding, goes in search of +him, and finding him at last, throws in her lot with his, and succeeds +in winning him back; but not until through jealousy and other passions, +he is forced to witness the sacrifice of his power and fly for very +life. + + +JUDITH LEE: Some Pages from her Life + +By Richard Marsh, Author of 'A Royal Indiscretion.' With Four +Illustrations. Crown 8vo, 6s. [July + +The world has already been introduced to the famous female detective +Judith Lee in the pages of the Strand Magazine, where her popularity +was very great. The child of parents who were teachers of the oral +system to the deaf and dumb, as soon almost as she learnt to speak she +learnt to read what people were saying by watching their lips. Devoting +her whole life to the improvement of a very singular natural aptitude, +and employing it in the discovery and frustration of crime, she has +become, as we find in this book, a constant source of wonder and +delight, and a very encyclopaedia of adventure. + + +THE OAKUM PICKERS + +By L. S. Gibson, Author of 'The Heart of Desire.' Crown 8vo, 6s. [July + +A story treating of modern social life, and incidentally of the +hardships inflicted by certain phases of the Divorce Laws upon the +innocent partner in an unhappy marriage. The two very dissimilar women +are well delineated and contrasted. Cynthia and Elizabeth, each in her +own way, are so human and sympathetic that the reader can hardly fail to +endorse the quotation on the title-page, 'I do not blame such women, but +for love they pick much oakum.' The men are drawn with no less strength +and sincerity; while Lady Juliet--the brilliant, heartless, little +mondaine who precipitates the tragedy of three lives--is a thumb-nail +sketch of a fascinating, if worthless, type. + + +HAUNTING SHADOWS; or, The House of Terror + +By M. F. Hutchinson. Crown 8vo, 6s. [August + +An English girl, brought up under harsh surroundings, considers that +opportunity suddenly opens the doors of Life. But these doors swing back +to the accompaniment of sinister and terrible things. The very threshold +of the new life is a place of terror. A harsh and inexorable fate forces +her reluctant feet along a difficult way, where it seems as if none of +the joys of existence can lighten the darkness. The story shows with +what results to herself and others Elaine Westcourt became an inmate of +the 'House of Terror.' + + +A WILDERNESS WOOING + +By W. Victor Cook, Author of 'Anton of the Alps.' Crown 8vo, 6s. +[August + +A thrilling story of the early French-Canadian pioneers, and the +romantic adventures of a young heir to an English earldom. The novel, +which is full of excitement and dramatic incident, presents a series of +vivid pictures of the days when the great pathfinder La Salle was +carrying the lilies of France at utmost hazard into the Western wilds. +The love interest is strong, and attractively handled, and even such +strange-seeming affairs as the 'Ship of Women' and the marriage market +at Quebec have their historical sanction. + + +NANCE OF MANCHESTER + +By Orme Agnus, Author of 'Sarah Fuldon's Lovers.' Crown 8vo, 6s. +[August + +Dr. Anthony Belton called Nance 'the bravest girl in Manchester,' and he +was a good judge. She assumed maternal cares at an early age, and she +lived for her children. Later she took up her residence in the South of +England with Mrs. Nolliver, and there struck up a friendship with Miss +Denise Martayne, a lady whose gifts had put her in an exalted if not a +happy position. It was a friendship that dispelled gloom and created +happiness. 'Nance of Manchester' is a tribute to the omnipotence of +love. + + +A KINGDOM DIVIDED + +By David Lisle, Author of 'A Painter of Souls.' Crown 8vo, 6s. [August + +This new novel by the author of A Painter of Souls may be described as +actively controversial. It deals largely with poignant chapters in the +life of a young clergyman, and in its pages we find an amazing array of +startling facts connected with the march of Ritualism and the future of +England. Side by side with the history of a tragic struggle we find +glowing descriptions of scenery and of brilliant social life. The scene +is laid in Devon, and, later on, at Biarritz. + + +A WOMAN IN THE LIMELIGHT + +By Charles Gleig, Author of 'The Nancy Manoeuvres.' Crown 8vo, 6s. +[August + +A Woman in the Limelight presents candidly a typical actress of the +Musical Comedy Stage, treating of her career and her love affairs with a +realism that is convincing, but free of offence. The heroine allures and +for a long time retains the devotion and affection of a typical solitary +Londoner, who is not less devoted to the bon motif; but the inevitable +break occurs. There is plenty of humour and of first-hand knowledge in +this study of upper Bohemian life of to-day, and the characters are +vividly drawn. + + +BURIED ALIVE + +By Arnold Bennett, Author of 'Clayhanger.' A New Edition. Crown 8vo, 6s. +[August + +This is a reprint of one of Mr. Bennett's most delightful stories. It +has been out of print for some time. + + +THE STREET CALLED STRAIGHT + +By the Author of 'The Wild Olive.' Crown 8vo, 6s. [August + +The anonymous author of those very interesting novels The Inner Shrine +and The Wild Olive has in the new book dealt with a financial man's +case of conscience. The story, which is laid for the most part in +Boston, illustrates the New England proverb, 'By the street called +straight'--should it not be strait?--'we come to the house called +beautiful.' + + +IT HAPPENED IN SMYRNA + +By Thomas Edgelow. Crown 8vo, 6s. [August + +A vivid record of Eastern travel and adventure by a new author, who is +introduced to the novel-reading public by no less a sponsor than +Baroness von Hutten--the authoress of Pam whose cheery preface in the +form of an open letter will be found in Mr. Edgelow's first book. The +story opens on a German liner off the East African coast, and leads us +via Port Said to Smyrna. There and in the interior of Turkey-in-Asia +are laid the scenes of Tony Paynter's adventures. It is in the Smyrna +bazaars that he and Sylvia Sayers first encounter the Turk who is +destined to play so important a role in their two lives, and it is +from Smyrna that, at last, they sail away when all has happily ended. + + +DEVOTED SPARKES + +By W. Pett Ridge, Author of 'Thanks to Sanderson.' Crown 8vo, 6s. +[August + +Mr. Pett Ridge's new novel, an animated story of London life, concerns a +girl sent out to service by her stepmother. Taking the management of +her career into her own hands, and holding the reins, goes first to a +house on the north side of Regent's Park, afterwards to the +neighbourhood of Berkeley Square; and her adventures in both situations, +her acquaintances, and the person to whom she is devoted, are described +in Mr. Pett Ridge's brightest manner. + + +THE ANGLO-INDIANS + +By Alice Perrin, Author of 'The Charm.' Crown 8vo, 6s. [August + +The background of this novel is the contrast between official life in +India and a pensioned existence in England. The theme of the story is +the affection, almost amounting to a passion, that the heroine feels +towards India, where she has spent part of her childhood and her early +girlhood; it leads to a love adventure involving the chief problem +between the East and West. + + +THE HEATHER MOON + +By C. N. and A. M. Williamson, Authors of 'The Lightning Conductor.' +Crown 8vo, 6s. [August + +The story of a motor tour in Scotland and many quests. The drama shows +us a girl in search of her mother, who has her own reasons for not +wishing to be found by a pretty grown-up daughter. A man in search of +some lost illusions is also here, and the girl helps him to discover +that they are not illusions but splendid truths. Other seekers are a +woman in search of love, and her brother in search of materials for a +novel. In finding or failing to find these things a romance of a very +original kind with many conflicting interests has been evolved. + + +THE QUEST OF THE GOLDEN ROSE + +By John Oxenham, Author of 'The Long Road.' Crown 8vo, 6s. [August + +By 'The Golden Rose' the author means the Spirit of Romance--Love--and +all that pertains thereto. The story tells how three very typical +Englishmen--surgeon--artist--barrister--encounter it in odd fashion +while tramping the High Alps, and follow it up each in his own peculiar +way to his destined end. Their various testings, mental, moral, and +physical, make the story, which is replete with the joy, the sorrow, and +the tragedy of life. + + +OLIVIA MARY + +By E. Maria Albanesi, Author of 'The Glad Heart.' Crown 8vo, 6s. +[August + +In this, her first new novel to be published since The Glad Heart, +Madame Albanesi strikes new ground. Although full of able and +sympathetic characterization and that elusive charm which belongs to all +her books, this story is unlike any that she has yet written. The author +deals with a problem which is the outcome of emotions at once simple, +even ordinary, and yet at the same time profound and most touching. + + +SALLY + +By Dorothea Conyers, Author of 'Two Impostors and Tinker.' Crown 8vo, +6s. [August + +A hunting novel of Irish life. The scene is laid in the wilds of +Connemara, where a man suffering from melancholia starts hunting over +the mountains and the bogs. A seaside lodge close to him is taken by +some strangers, and the plot of the book then turns on the lonely man, +who has not spoken for years save when obliged to, being charmed from +his loneliness by Sally Stannard, and the subsequent complications which +ensue betwixt her and her various lovers. + + +LAMORNA + +By Mrs. A. Sidgwick, Author of 'The Severins.' Crown 8vo, 6s. [August + +The story of two girls united by kinship and affection, but divided by +character and temperament. Lamorna, the elder one, has to look on while +her cousin makes a tragedy of her life and successively becomes the +victim of a roue and a mischief-monger. Lamorna's own fate is at one +time so enmeshed with her cousin's that she requires all her sense and +strength to escape from the toils set by a man who would override all +scruple and all honour to win her. + + +THE HAPPY FAMILY + +By Frank Swinnerton, Author of 'The Young Idea.' Crown 8vo, 6s. +[August + +The Happy Family is a realistic comedy of life in London suburbs. The +scenes are laid principally in Kentish Town, with excursions to +Hampstead, Highgate, and Gospel Oak; while unusual pictures of the +publishing trade form a setting to the highly-important office-life of +the chief male characters. The interplay of diverse temperaments, the +conflict between the ideal and the actual, are the basis of the story, +which, however, is concerned with people rather than problems. + + +DARNELEY PLACE + +By Richard Bagot, Author of 'Donna Diana.' Crown 8vo, 6s. [September + +The scene of Mr. Richard Bagot's new novel is laid partly in England and +partly in Italy. The story turns upon the double life led by a wealthy +English landowner in consequence of the abduction in his more youthful +days of the daughter of an old Italian house at a period when he had no +prospect of succeeding to the position he subsequently attained. +Incidentally, the novel deals with certain phases of Italian +Spiritualism, and Mr. Bagot's readers will again resume their +acquaintance with some of the most sympathetic characters described in +his previous work The Passport. + + +A KNIGHT OF SPAIN + +By Marjorie Bowen, Author of 'I Will Maintain.' Crown 8vo, 6s. +[September + +This story is laid in the stormy and sombre last half of the sixteenth +century, and deals with the fortunes of the Royal House of Spain, the +most powerful, cruel, and tragic dynasty of modern Europe. The hero is +Charles V's son, the gay, beautiful, and heroic Don Juan of Austria, who +rose to an unparalleled renown in Christendom as the victor of Lepanto, +intoxicated himself with visions of a crown and the rank of 'Infant' of +Spain, and from the moment of his apogee was swiftly cast down by his +brother, Philip II, sent to undertake the impossible task of ruling the +Low Countries, and left to die, forsaken, of a mysterious illness, at +the age of twenty-eight, in a camp outside Namur. The story embraces the +greater part of this Prince's short life, which was one glowing romance +of love and war, played in the various splendours of Spain, Genoa, +Venice, Naples, Sicily, Africa, Paris, and Brussels. + + +REMITTANCE BILLY + +By Ashton Hilliers, Author of 'Memoirs of a Person of Quality.' Crown +8vo, 6s. [September + +In this book Mr. Ashton Hilliers, again finding his material in the +world we live in, tells of the quite excusable muddling of a straight, +but rather stupid young gentleman, whose ignorance of 'business' is too +severely punished by 'business-like relations,' who regard him as +hopeless, until he, saved by his love of nature, and befriended by +outsiders who see stuff in the fellow, muddles through, to the surprise +of his family and himself. There is a nice girl in it, and a militant +suffragette, but only two unfortunate marriages, and one of these comes +right at last. + + +HONOURS EASY + +By Mrs. J. O. Arnold, Author of 'The Fiddler.' Crown 8vo, 6s. +[September + +The interest of this story centres in the will of a Professor Clifford, +in which a large sum of money is left to the scientist who shall within +a specified time finish the testator's life research. Failing its +completion the money is to revert to his stepdaughter. Humphrey Wyatt +undertakes the task, incidentally falling in love with the stepdaughter, +of whose relationship to the Professor he is unaware. What happens +before and after he discovers her identity makes a charming romantic +ending to the book. + + +LONDON LAVENDER: An Entertainment + +By E. V. Lucas, Author of 'Mr. Ingleside.' Crown 8vo, 6s. [September + +This will make Mr. Lucas's fourth novel, or 'Entertainment' as he +prefers to call his stories; and readers of the preceding three may find +some old acquaintances. The scene is again laid principally in London, +and again an odd company of types converse and have urbane adventures. + + +THE HOLIDAY ROUND + +By A. A. Milne, Author of 'The Day's Play.' Crown 8vo, 6s. [September + +Among our younger humorists none has so quickly found his way to the +hearts of readers as 'A. A. M.' of Punch, whose special gift and +privilege it is to touch Wednesdays with irresponsibility and fun. He +has now brought together a further collection of his contributions to +Punch, similar in character to The Day's Play published two years +ago. The history of the Rabbits is continued, and is supplemented by +'Little Plays for Amateurs,' 'Stories of Successful Lives,' and many +other of his recent dialogues and sketches. + + +THE ROYAL ROAD: Being the Story of the Life, Death, and Resurrection of +Edward Hankey of London + +By Alfred Ollivant, Author of 'Owd Bob.' Crown 8vo, 6s. [September + +In the pages of this book the reader follows the courageous spirit of a +working man down the alley of life. We hear his laughter; share his +joys; and watch the heroic struggle of his soul against the circumstance +that is oppressing him. The book, remorseless in its representation of +things as they are, is strong in hope: for it finds its inspiration in +the Love that shall some day conquer the world. It is a story for all +who seek to succour our England in her distress. To read it is to +understand something of her troubles of this present time, and to have a +glimpse of the glory that shall be revealed in her. A stern book, it is +to those who read aright a joyful one. For it is a prophecy of dawn. + + +MARY PECHELL + +By Mrs. Belloc Lowndes, Author of 'The Uttermost Farthing,' etc. Crown +8vo, 6s. [September + +In her new novel Mrs. Belloc Lowndes returns to the manner of Barbara +Rebell. It is an ample, spacious tale of English country-house life, +laid in a quiet Sussex village, dominated by the ruins of an ancient +castle, the scene of the last Lord Wolferstan's lawless but not ignoble +passion. The writer shows all her old power of presenting the passion of +love in each of its Protean phases. Mary Pechell herself is a lovely, +gracious figure, whose compelling charm the reader feels from the first. +In half-humorous, half-pathetic contrast is the middle-aged romance of +Miss Rose Charnwood, touched with the tenderest sentiment, and not +belied by the happiness in store both for her and for Mary Pechell +herself. + + +THE SILVER DRESS + +By Mrs. George Norman, Author of 'Lady Fanny.' Crown 8vo, 6s. +[September + +A novel describing the life of an attractive and still young woman whose +circumstances are those of so many others of her type in England, for +she has no acquaintances but women, is approaching 'the youth of middle +age' without yet knowing love or any vital interest. Then, quite +unexpectedly, adventure, and, subsequently, love coming to her, she +lives for the first time. + + +THE SUBURBAN + +By H. C. Bailey, Author of 'Storm and Treasure.' Crown 8vo, 6s. +[September + +In this novel Mr. H. C. Bailey, who is best known by his spirited +historical romances, has deserted the past for the present. He tells a +story of modern London. The scenes are laid in poor middle-class life, +in the worlds of journalism and theoretical revolutionaries and +business. His hero is one of the most ordinary of men, fighting his way +up from the borders of poverty to respectable suburban comfort. With him +is contrasted a much more brilliant creature, an apostle of the newest +creeds of revolt. Both have to do with the master of one of the great +modern organizations of finance and industry. In the heroine Mr. Bailey +has given us a study of one of the newest types of young women of the +middle class. + + +BETTY HARRIS + +By Jennette Lee, Author of 'Uncle William' and 'Happy Island.' Crown +8vo, 3s. 6d. [September + +Betty Harris, the only child of an American millionaire, strays one day +into the shop of a Greek fruit-dealer, Achilles Alexandrakis, and +watches the flight of a butterfly that the Greek liberates from its grey +cocoon. The story is of the friendship that grew out of this meeting, +and a rescue that grew out of the friendship. This blend of the spirit +of the old world and the new, meeting in the grimy Chicago shop and +finding out their need of each other, gives the book a piquancy. + + +THE FOOL IN CHRIST + +By Gerhart Hauptmann. Crown 8vo, 6s. [September + +A translation of Hauptmann's most wonderful novel--a work that attempts +to place the living human Christ before sophisticated twentieth-century +eyes. Whatever other effect it may have, the book cannot fail to cause +discussion. In Quint, a figure at once pathetic and inspiring, the +author has drawn a character whose divine charm should be felt by every +reader. + + +CHARLES THE GREAT + +By Mrs. H. H. Penrose, Author of 'The Sheltered Woman,' etc. Crown 8vo, +6s. [September + +Charles the Great is a very light comedy, and it therefore counts as a +new departure for Mrs. H. H. Penrose. Those who like their fiction to +provide them with 'a good laugh' will doubtless prefer this book, which +is packed from cover to cover with mirth-provoking material, to those +other books by the same author, in which humour acts chiefly as +train-bearer to tragedy. The determination of Charles to invent for +himself a greatness which he is incapable of otherwise achieving, and +its effect on his circle of intimates, are set forth in an exceedingly +lively story, the plot of which it would be unfair to give away. + + +THE ACE OF HEARTS + +By C. Thomas-Stanford. Crown 8vo, 6s. [September + +An English Member of Parliament, spending a holiday in the Portuguese +island of Madeira in January 1912, becomes unwittingly privy to a plot +against the Republican Government. The conspirators, fearful that he +will betray their secrets, make him prisoner; but he escapes to +experience a series of adventures on the rugged coast, and amid the wild +mountains of the island. Through the tangled web of plot and +counter-plot runs the thread of a love story. + + +METHUEN & CO. LTD., 36 ESSEX STREET, LONDON, W.C. + + + + +A SELECTION OF BOOKS +PUBLISHED BY METHUEN +AND CO. LTD., LONDON +36 ESSEX STREET +W.C. + + +CONTENTS + + PAGE + +General Literature 2 + Ancient Cities 12 + Antiquary's Books 12 + Arden Shakespeare 13 + Classics of Art 13 + "Complete" Series 13 + Connoisseur's Library 14 + Handbooks of English Church History 14 + Handbooks of Theology 14 + "Home Life" Series 14 + Illustrated Pocket Library of Plain and Coloured Books 15 + Leaders of Religion 15 + Library of Devotion 16 + Little Books on Art 16 + Little Galleries 17 + Little Guides 17 + Little Library 18 + Little Quarto Shakespeare 19 + Miniature Library 19 + New Library of Medicine 19 + New Library of Music 19 + Oxford Biographies 19 + Three Plays 20 + States of Italy 20 + Westminster Commentaries 20 + "Young" Series 20 + Shilling Library 21 +Books for Travellers 21 +Some Books on Art 21 +Some Books on Italy 22 +Fiction 23 + Two-Shilling Novels 27 + Books for Boys and Girls 27 + Shilling Novels 28 + Novels of Alexandre Dumas 28 + Sixpenny Books 29 + + +JULY 1912 + + + + +A SELECTION OF +Messrs. Methuen's +PUBLICATIONS + + +In this Catalogue the order is according to authors. An asterisk denotes +that the book is in the press. + +Colonial Editions are published of all Messrs. Methuen's Novels issued +at a price above 2s. 6d., and similar editions are published of some +works of General Literature. Colonial editions are only for circulation +in the British Colonies and India. + +All books marked net are not subject to discount, and cannot be bought +at less than the published price. Books not marked net are subject to +the discount which the bookseller allows. + +Messrs. Methuen's books are kept in stock by all good booksellers. If +there is any difficulty in seeing copies, Messrs. Methuen will be very +glad to have early information, and specimen copies of any books will be +sent on receipt of the published price plus postage for net books, and +of the published price for ordinary books. + +This Catalogue contains only a selection of the more important books +published by Messrs. Methuen. A complete and illustrated catalogue of +their publications may be obtained on application. + + +Andrewes (Lancelot). PRECES PRIVATAE. Translated and edited, with Notes, +by F. E. Brightman. Cr. 8vo. 6s. + + +Aristotle. THE ETHICS. Edited, with an Introduction and Notes, by John +Burnet. Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net. + + +Atkinson (C. T.). A HISTORY OF GERMANY, 1715-1815. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. +net. + + +Atkinson (T. D.). ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. Illustrated. Fcap. 8vo. 3s. +6d. net. + +A GLOSSARY OF TERMS USED IN ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. Illustrated. Second +Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d. net. + +ENGLISH AND WELSH CATHEDRALS. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net. + + +Bain (F. W.). A DIGIT OF THE MOON: A Hindoo Love Story. Ninth Edition. +Fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d. net. + +THE DESCENT OF THE SUN: A Cycle of Birth. Fifth Edition. Fcap. 8vo. +3s. 6d. net. + +A HEIFER OF THE DAWN. Seventh Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. net. + +IN THE GREAT GOD'S HAIR. Fifth Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. net. + +A DRAUGHT OF THE BLUE. Fourth Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. net. + +AN ESSENCE OF THE DUSK. Third Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. net. + +AN INCARNATION OF THE SNOW. Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d. +net. + +A MINE OF FAULTS. Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d. net. + +THE ASHES OF A GOD. Fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d. net. + +*BUBBLES OF THE FOAM. Fcap 4to. 5s. net. Also Fcap. 8vo. 3s. 6d. +net. + + +Balfour (Graham). THE LIFE OF ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON. Illustrated. +Fifth Edition in one Volume. Cr. 8vo. Buckram, 6s. Also Fcap. +8vo. 1s. net. + + +Baring (Hon. Maurice). A YEAR IN RUSSIA. Second Edition. Demy 8vo. +10s. 6d. net. + +LANDMARKS IN RUSSIAN LITERATURE. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. +net. + +RUSSIAN ESSAYS AND STORIES. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 5s. net. + +THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE. Demy 8vo. 15s. net. + + +Baring-Gould (S.). THE LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. Illustrated. Second +Edition. Royal 8vo. 10s. 6d. net. + +THE TRAGEDY OF THE CAESARS: A Study of the Characters of the Caesars of +the Julian and Claudian Houses. Illustrated. Seventh Edition. Royal +8vo. 10s. 6d. net. + +THE VICAR OF MORWENSTOW. With a Portrait. Third Edition. Cr. 8vo. +3s. 6d. *Also Fcap. 8vo. 1s. net. + +OLD COUNTRY LIFE. Illustrated. Fifth Edition. Large Cr. 8vo. 6s. + +A BOOK OF CORNWALL. Illustrated. Third Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s. + +A BOOK OF DARTMOOR. Illustrated. Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s. + +A BOOK OF DEVON. Illustrated. Third Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s. + + +Baring-Gould (S.) and Sheppard (H. Fleetwood). A GARLAND OF COUNTRY +SONG. English Folk Songs with their Traditional Melodies. Demy 4to. +6s. + +SONGS OF THE WEST: Folk Songs of Devon and Cornwall. Collected from the +Mouths of the People. New and Revised Edition, under the musical +editorship of Cecil J. Sharp. Large Imperial 8vo. 5s. net. + + +Barker (E.). THE POLITICAL THOUGHT OF PLATO AND ARISTOTLE. Demy 8vo. +10s. 6d. net. + + +Bastable (C. F.). THE COMMERCE OF NATIONS. Fifth Edition. Cr. 8vo. +2s. 6d. + + +Beckford (Peter). THOUGHTS ON HUNTING. Edited by J. Otho Paget. +Illustrated. Third Edition. Demy 8vo. 6s. + + +Belloc (H.). PARIS. Illustrated. Second Edition, Revised. Cr. 8vo. +6s. + +HILLS AND THE SEA. Fourth Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 5s. + +ON NOTHING AND KINDRED SUBJECTS. Third Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 5s. + +ON EVERYTHING. Third Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 5s. + +ON SOMETHING. Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 5s. + +FIRST AND LAST. Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 5s. + +MARIE ANTOINETTE. Illustrated. Third Edition. Demy 8vo. 15s. net. + +THE PYRENEES. Illustrated. Second Edition. Demy 8vo. 7s. 6d. net. + + +Bennett (W. H.). A PRIMER OF THE BIBLE. Fifth Edition. 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HIS GRACE. + +GILES INGILBY. + +THE CREDIT OF THE COUNTY. + +LORD LEONARD THE LUCKLESS. + +MATTHEW AUSTEN. + +CLARISSA FURIOSA. + + +Oliphant (Mrs.). THE LADY'S WALK. + +SIR ROBERT'S FORTUNE. + +THE PRODIGALS + +THE TWO MARYS. + + +Oppenheim (E. P.). MASTER OF MEN. + + +Parker (Sir Gilbert). THE POMP OF THE LAVILETTES. + +WHEN VALMOND CAME TO PONTIAC. + +THE TRAIL OF THE SWORD. + + +Pemberton (Max). THE FOOTSTEPS OF A THRONE. + +I CROWN THEE KING. + + +Phillpotts (Eden). THE HUMAN BOY. + +CHILDREN OF THE MIST. + +THE POACHER'S WIFE. + +THE RIVER. + + +'Q' (A. T. Quiller Couch). THE WHITE WOLF. + + +Ridge (W. Pett). A SON OF THE STATE. + +LOST PROPERTY. + +GEORGE and THE GENERAL. + +A BREAKER OF LAWS. + +ERB. + + +Russell (W. Clark). ABANDONED. + +A MARRIAGE AT SEA. + +MY DANISH SWEETHEART. + +HIS ISLAND PRINCESS. + + +Sergeant (Adeline). THE MASTER OF BEECHWOOD. + +BALBARA'S MONEY. + +THE YELLOW DIAMOND. + +THE LOVE THAT OVERCAME. + + +Sidgwick (Mrs. Alfred). THE KINSMAN. + + +Surtees (R. S.). HANDLEY CROSS. + +MR. SPONGE'S SPORTING TOUR. + +ASK MAMMA. + + +Walford (Mrs. L. B.). MR. SMITH. + +COUSINS. + +THE BABY'S GRANDMOTHER. + +TROUBLESOME DAUGHTERS. + + +Wallace (General Lew). BEN-HUR. + +THE FAIR GOD. + + +Watson (H. B. Marriott). THE ADVENTURERS. + +CAPTAIN FORTUNE. + + +Weekes (A. B.). PRISONERS OF WAR. + + +Wells (H. G.). THE SEA LADY. + + +Whitby (Beatrice). THE RESULT OF AN ACCIDENT. + + +White (Percy). A PASSIONATE PILGRIM. + + +Williamson (Mrs. C. N.). PAPA. + + +PRINTED BY +UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, +LONDON AND WOKING. + + + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES: + + +The word "earth-bound" appears with and without an hyphen. The word has +been spelled as in the original. + +Variations in spelling appear as in the original. 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