380 MAN : PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



Mr Niblack's reasoning applies with equal force to common 

 popular beliefs and practices, a notable instance of 



Folklore. 



which is the wide-spread couvade, and generally to 

 myths and folklore in the strict sense of the word. Thus the 

 European were-wolf and Malayan were-tiger 1 are matched by the 

 South-American were-jaguar, as amongst the Minuana Indians, 

 who speak of a good man formerly dwelling on the Rio Gualeguay 

 who was one night murdered by a gang of brigands. Soon after 

 some men, including one of the murderers, were passing along 

 the sedgy river-bank when a black jaguar sprang out and struck 

 down the assassin. This jaguar was often seen afterwards, but 

 never hurt anybody unless he happened to be one of the gang, 

 and when all were killed he was seen no more. A story, which 

 despite its Christian colouring is undoubtedly of native origin, is 

 current in Paraguay about Yaguarete'-Aba, a baptized Indian, who 

 changes at night to a jaguar in order to feed on human flesh. 

 Withdrawing to a thicket, he falls prone on the ground and is 

 thus transformed. Then to become man again he repeats the 

 process in reverse order. He differs from a real jaguar by his 

 very short tail (a mere stump) and hairless forehead. At last he 

 is wounded by a daring youth and vanishes, but the hunter fol- 

 lowing up the trail of blood comes to a cave strewn with human 

 bones, renews the fight, and slays the ghoul'. 



More striking still is the story current in the province of 

 Tucuman about two brothers, who formerly lived in a hut in a 

 wood infested by a man-eating jaguar. All attempts to hunt him 

 down had failed, as at every shot his hair merely bristled up, 

 causing the bullet to rebound. Now one of the men, noticing 

 that whenever the jaguar appeared his brother was never at home, 

 sat a-watching, and one day followed stealthily after him into the 

 woods, till they reached a tree on which hung a flask of coarse 

 salt and a jaguar skin rolled up in a bundle. Here the suspected 

 brother, taking three grains of salt and spreading the skin on the 

 ground, danced round and round until he became a jaguar. 

 Horrified at the sight, the watcher went home, and presently 



1 See p. 239. 



- J. B. Ambrosetti, La Legenda del Yaguarete-Aba, in Anales de la Sociedad 

 Cientifica Argentina, 1896, vol. 41, p. 321. 



