"All we can understand about the transformation of persons into wolves is, that there exists a complaint or disease, which is called by physicians the wolf-mania; its nature is, that the person afflicted with it fancies himself changed into a wolf, and howls like one; and, joining with others who are similarly afflicted, go ranging about the country in parties, barking like dogs, and howling like wolves; tearing down trees, killing any one they meet, and devouring the raw flesh of the dead. And, at the present time, I know that there are in Sicily, which is the largest of the Mediterranean isles, people of this sort, called by the Sicilians, _Lobos menar_, were wolves, or _loups garoux_. "These persons know and feel when this terrible infirmity is about to seize them, and they warn those who are about them, that they may fly from and avoid them; or that they may tie them fast, or lock them up; because, if not prevented, they will tear anything that approaches them to pieces, and destroy them with both their teeth and nails, uttering frightful and hideous howlings; and so true is this, that where there is a question of marriage on foot, inquiry is made to ascertain that there is no touch of this complaint in the family; and if on good authority they discover it even afterwards, the marriage may be dissolved. "Pliny also tells us, in Book viii. chap. 22, that among the Arcadians there is a kind of people who, in passing a certain lake, hang their garments upon an ilex, and go naked into the inland country, where they join with others they find there of their own lineage, in the form of wolves, and are with them for nine years, at the end of which they return and pass the lake, and recover their lost figure. But all this is probably fiction and lies; and if there is anything in it, it is in the imagination, and not real." (Note 4). "I do not know," said Rutilio, "as to that; all I know is that I killed the she-wolf, and found dead at my feet, the sorceress." "This might very well be," replied Maurice; "for the power of the enchantments of those accursed witches is such, that they can make us see one thing for another; and I am perfectly satisfied that there are no people whatever who change their own first form for any other." "I have a great desire," said Arnoldo, "to know the truth of this; for I too have always been one of those who believed these things; and I should like also to know if it is a fable what is said of King Arthur of England (Note 5) having been changed into a crow, a thing so much believed by that wise nation that no one will kill a crow throughout the island." "I know not," answered Maurice, "whence arose this saying, so generally believed, and so ill imagined."