Job Fincelius[10] relates the sad story of a farmer of Pavia, who, as a
wolf, fell upon many men in the open country and tore them to pieces.
After much trouble the maniac was caught, and he then assured his
captors that the only difference which existed between himself and a
natural wolf, was that in a true wolf the hair grew outward, whilst in
him it struck inward. In order to put this assertion to the proof, the
magistrates, themselves most certainly cruel and bloodthirsty wolves,
cut off his arms and legs; the poor wretch died of the mutilation. This
took place in 1541. The idea of the skin being reversed is a very
ancient one: _versipellis_ occurs as a name of reproach in Petronius,
Lucilius, and Plautus, and resembles the Norse _hamrammr_.
[10] FINCELIUS _de Mirabilibus_, lib. xi.
Fincelius relates also that, in 1542, there was such a multitude of
were-wolves about Constantinople that the Emperor, accompanied by his
guard, left the city to give them a severe correction, and slew one
hundred and fifty of them.
Spranger speaks of three young ladies who attacked a labourer, under
the form of cats, and were wounded by him. They were found bleeding in
their beds next morning.
Majolus relates that a man afflicted with lycanthropy was brought to
Pomponatius. The poor fellow had been found buried in hay, and when
people approached, he called to them to flee, as he was a were wolf,
and would rend them. The country-folk wanted to flay him, to discover
whether the hair grew inwards, but Pomponatius rescued the man and
cured him.
Bodin tells some were-wolf stories on good authority; it is a pity that
the good authorities of Bodin were such liars, but that, by the way. He
says that the Royal Procurator-General Bourdin had assured him that he
had shot a wolf, and that the arrow had stuck in the beast’s thigh. A
few hours after, the arrow was found in the thigh of a man in bed. In
Vernon, about the year 1566, the witches and warlocks gathered in great
multitudes, under the shape of cats. Four or five men were attacked in
a lone place by a number of these beasts. The men stood their ground
with the utmost heroism, succeeded in slaying one puss, and in wounding
many others. Next day a number of wounded women were found in the town,
and they gave the judge an accurate account of all the circumstances
connected with their wounding.
Bodin quotes Pierre Marner, the author of a treatise on sorcerers, as
having witnessed in Savoy the transformation of men into wolves.
Nynauld[11] relates that in a village of Switzerland, near Lucerne, a
peasant was attacked by a wolf, whilst he was hewing timber; he
defended himself, and smote off a fore-leg of the beast. The moment
that the blood began to flow the wolf’s form changed, and he recognized
a woman without her arm. She was burnt alive.
[11] NYNAULD, _De la Lycanthropie_. Paris, 1615, p. 52.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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