WILD ANIMALS. 291 



actually transform himself into a wolf had obviously 

 a great advantage over those enemies in whom there 

 still lingered some traces of humanity. In this trans- 

 formation the Teutonic races were the greatest 

 adepts : they reached the lowest depths of ravening 

 ferocity. The Were-wolf, Loup Garou, or Gerulphus, 

 was common in the Middle Ages. Gervasius assures 

 us that in England he frequently saw men change into 

 wolves. " Vidi frequenter in Anglia homines in lupos 

 mutarL" 



Beware of persons whose eyebrows meet, for 

 that is considered to be a sign of the Were-wolf, or 

 Gerulphus. Indeed, there is still a good deal of the 

 wolf about many people, beetle-browed or not. The 

 callous indifference of vivisectors to the torture of 

 helpless animals cannot otherwise be explained. 

 Better perhaps the wolf than the fox, for against 

 Reynard strength and courage avail nothing. Isegrim 

 is on the whole less dangerous. 



There is a French saying that " Jamais loup n'a 

 connu son pere." We are informed by African 

 travellers, Burton and others, that the whole Negro 

 race is still in this primitive stage of morality : " No 

 child knows its own father, and each man counts 

 his sister's children to be his heirs." This lupine 

 morality prevailed among the Picti, the ancestors of 

 the present North Britons, to the great scandal of 

 their more respectable neighbours, the Scoti or Irish 

 Gaels. It is thought that all races, at an early stage 

 of their history, traced their descent thus through the 

 mother. 



The superstitions relating to wolves would fill a 

 volume. I will mention one only. Be careful to keep 



19A 



