The first happens through hunger; when the wolves find nothing to eat
in the woods, they must come to people and eat men when hunger drives
them to it. You see well, when it is very cold, that the stags come in
search of food up to the villages, and the birds actually into the
dining-room in search of victuals.
“Under the second head, wolves eat children through their innate
savageness, because they are savage, and that is (propter locum coitum
ferum). Their savageness arises first from their condition. Wolves
which live in cold places are smaller on that account, and more savage
than other wolves. Secondly, their savageness depends on the season;
they are more savage about Candlemas than at any other time of the
year, and men must be more on their guard against them then than at
other times. It is a proverb, ‘He who seeks a wolf at Candlemas, a
peasant on Shrove Tuesday, and a parson in Lent, is a man of pluck.’ .
. . Thirdly, their savageness depends on their having young. When the
wolves have young, they are more savage than when they have not. You
see it so in all beasts. A wild duck, when it has young poults, you see
what an uproar it makes. A cat fights for its young kittens; the wolves
do ditto.
“Under the third head, the wolves do injury on account of their age.
When a wolf is old, it is weak and feeble in its leas, so it can’t ran
fast enough to catch stags, and therefore it rends a man, whom it can
catch easier than a wild animal. It also tears children and men easier
than wild animals, because of its teeth, for its teeth break off when
it is very old; you see it well in old women: how the last teeth
wobble, and they have scarcely a tooth left in their heads, and they
open their mouths for men to feed them with mash and stewed substances.
“Under the fourth head, the injury the were-wolves do arises from
experience. It is said that human flesh is far sweeter than other
flesh; so when a wolf has once tasted human flesh, he desires to taste
it again. So he acts like old topers, who, when they know the best
wine, will not be put off with inferior quality.
“Under the fifth head, the injury arises from ignorance. A dog when it
is mad is also inconsiderate, and it bites any man; it does not
recognize its own lord: and what is a wolf but a wild dog which is mad
and inconsiderate, so that it regards no man.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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