THE WOLF. 39 



the den till they are near two months old, nor leave their 

 dam till they have shed their first teeth and completed 

 the new set, which does not happen before they attain the 

 age of ten or twelve months. The mother, now consider- 

 ing them sufficiently trained in the means of defence, anc 

 capable of providing for themselves, deserts them, tobrin^ 

 up a new family. 



The Wolf, as well as all the other beasts of prey, car 

 endure hunger a long time, though extremely voracious 

 when he meets witli food. He is naturally dull and cow- 

 ardly, but being driven from the habitations of man, ana 

 obliged to live in the forest, where he finds but few animah 

 to satisfy his rapacious appetite, he is often on the brink 

 of starving. Impelled thus by necessity, he becomes 

 regardless of danger, and boldly attacks those animals 

 which are under man's protection. Lambs, sheep, and 

 even dogs, or any animal he can carry off, are equally his 

 prey. These depredations he renews, till having been 

 harassed and intimidated by the dogs, he becomes prudent 

 by experience, hides himself during the day, and only 

 ventures out by night, when numbers of them, assembled 

 together, prowl around the villages, destroying every crea- 

 ture they meet. Sheepfolds have always been devoted to 

 scenes of his devastation and carnage ; and when he per- 

 ceives, by his exquisite smell, that the flocks are housed, 

 he undermines the threshold of the door with his claws, 

 where he enters, to the terror and destruction of the harm- 

 less fleecy tribe, displaying the most ferocious and savage 

 cruelty, by immolating all he finds, ere he carries any off, 

 or his thirst for blood is satiated. It is asserted, that when 

 the Wolf has once tasted human blood, he always prefers 

 it to any other. This prevailing notion has given rise to 

 many superstitious stories. The old Saxons imagined 

 it was possessed by some evil spirit, and called it the 

 Were-Wolf, or Man- Wolf ; and, to this day, the French 

 peasants entertain similar notions. 



