Chap. 34.] WO LYES. 283 



away the voice of a man,^^* if it is the first to see him. Africa 

 and Egypt produce wolves of a sluggish and stunted na- 

 ture ;^^ those of the colder climates are fierce and savage. 

 That men have been turned into wolves, and again restored to 

 their original form/" we must confidently look upon as untrue, 

 unless, indeed, we ai'e ready to believe all the tales, which, for 

 so many ages, have been found to be fabulous. But, as the 

 belief of it has become so firmly fixed in the minds of the 

 common people, as to have caused the term '' Yersipellis""'^ to 

 be used as a common form of imprecation, I will here point 

 out its origin. Euanthes, a Grecian author of no mean repu- 

 tation, informs us that the Arcadians assert that a member 

 of the family of one Anthus is chosen by lot, and then taken 

 to a certain lake in that district, where, after suspending 

 bis clothes on an oak, he swims across the water and goes 

 iway into the desert, where he is changed into a wolf and as- 

 sociates with other animals of the same species for a space of 

 aine years. If he has kept himself from beholding a man 

 luring the whole of that time, he returns to the same lake, 

 md, after swimming across it, resumes his original form, only 

 with, the addition of nine years in age to his former appear- 

 mce. To this Eabius^^ adds, that he takes his former clothes as 

 well. It is really wonderful to what a length the credulity ^^ of 



^"'* Hence the proverbial expression applied to a person who is suddenly 

 iilent upon the entrance of another ; " Liipus est tibi visus." 



^' Cuvier says, tbat tbe wolves of Afi-ica are of tbe ordinaiy size, and 

 ;onjectures tbat tbis remark probably applies to tbe cbakale, or "Canis 

 lureus" of Linnaeus, Avbicb is of tbe colour of the wolf, and the size of tbe 

 bx, and is common throughout all Africa. — B. 



^^ The opinion that men were converted into wolves by enchantment, or 

 i preternatural agency, was at one time so generally received, as to have 

 ed to judicial processes, and tbe condemnation of tbe supposed criminal. 

 — i>. To tlie relator of the above stoi-y tbat men lose their voice on seeing a 

 .volf, Scaliger wishes as many blows as at different times be bad seen a wolf 

 writhout losing his voice. 



6^ This literally means " changing the skin ;" it was applied by some 

 mcient medical writers to a peculiar form of insanity, where tbe patient 

 conceives himself changed into a wolf, and named XvKavQpioTria, " lycan- 

 ;bropy." The word appears to have been in common use among the Ro- 

 nans, and to have been applied by tbem to any one who bad undergone a 

 'eraarkable change in bis character and habits ; in tbis sense it is used by 

 Plautus, Amphitryon, Prol. 1. 123, and Bacchides, A. iv. sc. 4, I. 12. — B. 



^8 It is not known who is here referred to ; it is not probable tbat it is 

 Fabius Pictor, the Roman historian. — B. 



*3 It is rather curious to find Pliny censuring others for credulity ; indeed 



