102 DIVISION I. VEKTEBKAL ANIMALS. — CLASS I. MAJLMALIA. 



would iKit fiKlurc the caresses of any utlier person, ami lie answered stran- 

 qors with nothing' hut uienaces. 



This account, we do not doubt, is strictly true : but still it w'ould not be 

 safe to infer from it that the wolf is capable of complete domesticity. Tlicre 

 is reason to belie\e that had this animal been set at liberty near the haunts 

 of his tribe he would immediately have rejoined the band ; or, still more, 

 had he been accom]ianying his master in the same vicinitv, and the latter 

 being attacked by a pack of wolves, instead of defending him to the death, 

 as a dog would, in all probability his brutal instinct would liavc rcturneil, 

 and he would have joined his brethren in killing and devouring his master. 



The "Wolf ln ^Iytiiulogy. — The wolf, like the dog, occupies a large 

 place in the ancient m\tho]ogies, and, with lew exceptions, is topical of 

 ideas in harmony with the incorrigible ferocity of his nature. 



The malevolent sagacity, fearful howling, and originally obtrusive perti- 

 nacitv, which led tiie wolf to roam aljout the habitations of mankind, and 

 show his sinister eyes llaming in the dark, were no doubt the cause of that 

 nivsterions power he was presumed to jiossess. ^Vv can trace in the earli- 

 est institutions, poems, and hi.-toi'v of nations, the awe they inspired. The 

 wolf was sacred to Apollo ; a she-wolf having nursed him, as another 

 nursed licmus and lunnulus. The figure of <inc was adored liy the people 

 of Parnassus ; it was a military ensign of the ^lacedoniatis, vi' the iio- 

 mans, and tif the < ),--tr<ii;dths. In the metamorjihosis of the ancients the 

 Wolf is conspicuous ; and that demons assume its shape, that stu'cerers and 

 ineantators alternately pass from the human to the lupine form, is believed 

 bv the \ulgar througiiout Km'ope and Asia; slightly modilied, it is a com- 

 mon >u]ier.~titi(in in ,Vbys,-inia, and e\en among the Calfres. The Cioldfoot 

 ( \\'olf ) is an attendant upon Odin, as he was more anciently upon ^lars ; 

 and he is the l\pe of the destroyer, under the name of Fenur, in the twilight 

 of the gods, when, according to Scandinavian lore, the world >hall ])eri>h, 

 and the gods themsehes will be consumed. If the l)ruids assumed the 

 name of lied-eared Dogs, the jiriests of the Egyptians, IJomans, and sev- 

 eral other nations, including the I'lotmeiunu' of the N(irtli, were likewise 

 designated as wolves. Some nations of antiipiity, as well as the more 

 recent noble tribes of Goths and Saxons, claimed the name of V^olves. 



The 



" TtTtia post Iilus iiuiIds Aurora lupurcos, 

 Aspicit " 



of Ovid, relates to the priests (jf Pan at the Lupercalia. The Blotmen, or 

 saerilieers, fif the fiothic nations, wore wolfskin wrappers in their naked 

 and sanguinarv ceremonies. 



The socuud tribe in point of dignity among the Ostrogoths (as wc gather 



