Formerly there were individuals in the neighbourhood of Steina, who, by
putting on a certain girdle, could transform themselves into
were-wolves. A man of the neighbourhood, who had such a girdle, forgot
one day when going out to lock it up, as was his wont. During his
absence, his little son chanced to find it; he buckled it round him.,
and was instantaneously turned into an animal, to all outward
appearance like a bundle of peat-straw, and he rolled about like an
unwieldy bear. When those who were in the room perceived this, they
hastened in search of the father, who was found in time to come and
unbuckle the belt, before the child had done any mischief. The boy
afterwards said, that when he had put on the girdle, he was seized with
such a raging hunger, that he was ready to tear in pieces and devour
all that came in his way.
The girdle is supposed to be made of human skin, and to be three
finger-breadths wide.
In East Friesland, it is believed, when seven girls succeed each other
in one family, that among them one is of necessity a were-wolf, so that
youths are slow in seeking one of seven sisters in marriage.
According to a curious Lithuanian story related by Schleicher in his
_Litauische Märchen_, a person who is a were-wolf or bear has to remain
kneeling in one spot for one hundred years before he can hope to obtain
release from his bestial form.
In the Netherlands they relate the following tale:—A man had once gone
out with his bow to attend a shooting match at Rousse, but when about
half way to the place, he saw on a sudden, a large wolf spring from a
thicket, and rush towards a young girl, who was sitting in a meadow by
the roadside watching cows. The man did not long hesitate, but quickly
drawing forth an arrow, took aim, and luckily hit the wolf in the right
side, so that the arrow remained sticking in the wound, and the animal
fled howling to the wood.
On the following day he heard that a serving-man of the burgomaster’s
household lay at the point of death, in consequence of having been shot
in the right side, on the preceding day. This so excited the archer’s
curiosity, that he went to the wounded man, and requested to see the
arrow. He recognized it immediately as one of his own. Then, having
desired all present to leave the room, he persuaded the man to confess
that he was a were-wolf and that he had devoured little children. On
the following day he died.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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