Zanzibar; city, island, and coast. Vol. 1 (of 2)Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
History
Zanzibar; city, island, and coast. Vol. 1 (of 2)
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
Africa, East -- Description and travel; Ethnology -- Tanzania -- Zanzibar; Zanzibar -- Description and travel
I have alluded to this subject in my exploration of Harar (chap. ii.),
and a few more details may not be uninteresting. Strong-headed Pliny
(viii. 32) believes metamorphosis to be a ‘fabulous opinion,’ and
remarks, ‘there is no falsehood, however impudent, that wants its
testimony among them’ (the Greeks), yet at Tusdrita he saw L.
Coisilius, who had been changed from a woman into a man. Curious to
say, the learned Anatomist of Melancholy (Part I. sect. 1) charges him
with believing in the versipellis, and explains the belief by
lycanthropy, cucubuth or Lupina Insania. Petronius gives an account of
the ‘fact.’ Pomponius Mela accuses the Druidesses of assuming bestial
shapes. Suidas mentions a city where men changed their forms. Simon
Magus could produce a double of himself. Saxo Grammaticus declared
that the priests of Odin took various appearances. John of Salisbury
asserts that Mercury taught mankind the damnable art of fascinating
the eyes. Joseph Acosta instances fellow-country men in the West
Indies who were shot during transformation. Our ancestry had their
were-wolf (homo-lupus), and the Britons their Bisclavaret. Coffin, the
Abyssinian traveller, all but saw his Buda change himself into a
hyena. Mr Mansfield Parkyns heard of a human horse. In Shoa and Bornou
men become leopards; in Persia, bears; in Somali-land Cyn-hyenas; in
West African Kru-land elephants and sharks; in Namaqua-land, according
to the late Mr Andersson, lions. At Maskat transformation is fearfully
frequent; and illiterate Shiahs believe the good Caliph Abubekr, whom
they call Pir i Kaftar (old hyena), to be trotting about the deserts
of Oman in the semblance of a she-hyena, pursued by many amorous
males. At Bushire the strange tale of Haji Ismail, popularly called
‘Shuturi,’ the ‘Camel’d,’ is believed by every one, and was attested
with oaths by his friends and relations: this respectable merchant
whilst engaged in pilgrimage was transformed by an Arab into a she-
camel, and became the mother of several foals, till restored to human
shape by another enchanter. Even in Europe, after an age of
scepticism, the old natural superstition is returning, despite the
pitch-fork, under another shape. The learned authoress of the Night-
side of Nature objects to ‘illusionists,’ argues lycanthropy to be the
effect of magico-magnetic influence, and instances certain hysterical
and nervous phenomena of eyes paralyzed by their own weakness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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