The Origin of the Werewolf SuperstitionStewart, Caroline Taylor
History
The Origin of the Werewolf Superstition
Stewart, Caroline Taylor
Werewolves
[60] Ethn. Rep. 1888-89, p. 503:—Account of “a cloak or mantle
made from the skin of a deer, and covered with various mystic
paintings. It was made and used by the Apaches as a mantle
of invisibility, that is, a charmed covering for spies which
would enable them to pass with impunity through the country,
and even through the camp of their enemies. In this instance
the fetichistic power depends upon the devices drawn.” The
Apache have a similar fetich or charm. The symbols drawn were
the raincloud, serpent lightning, raindrops and the cross of
the winds of the four cardinal points. Ethn. Rep. 1889-90, p.
515:—Among the Hidatsa (Sioux) fetiches are especially the
skins of the wolf. “When they go to war, they always wear the
stripe off the back of a wolf skin, with the tail hanging down
the shoulders. They make a slit in the skin through which the
warrior puts his head, so that the skin of the wolf’s head
hangs down upon his breast.” Finally the magic robes or shirts
and girdles came to be a part of the regular paraphernalia of
the shamans, or practisers of magic. In the folklore of all
countries we find numerous notices of holy girdles.
Ethn. Rep. 1897-98, I. (Cherokee) 393: “Some warriors had
medicine to change their shape as they pleased, so that they
could escape from their enemies.” Page 501: Such stories might
be paralleled in any tribe.
[61] See further development in note 64.
(5) For purposes of revenge,[62],[63] personal or other. For some other
personal motive of advantage or gain, to inspire terror in the opposing
agent by hideousness.
[62] Note 52.
[63] As an example of the motive of vengeance, or pure
brutality, we cite from Andree, p. 69:—People in the interior
of Africa who understand magic, transform themselves into lions
and go about killing people. See also below, note 65, where the
wolf-man of Abyssinia kills his enemy and sucks his blood, and
also kills other wolf-men it meets, the question being one of
the survival of the fittest, that is the strongest. All this
takes place at _night_, which reminds us of our Pawnee Indian
starting out at night in his wolf’s robe, and trotting up to
the hostile village to ascertain where his enemies’ horses
are tied, so as to steal them when all are asleep (Grinnell’s
Pawnee hero stories and folk-tales, p. 246, and pp. 70-73).
Ethn. Rep. 1887-88, p. 461:—“To recover stolen or lost
property, especially ponies, is one of the principal tasks
imposed upon the so-called medicine-men” (shamans).
(6) To inspire terror in the opposing agent by symbolizing superhuman
agencies.[64] So now would arise first a belief in superhuman power or
attributes,[65] and then,
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