ABO^A. 
427 
transformation he should experience any bodily injury, that a 
corresponding wound would be found on his proper frame. The 
credit attached to these fabulous ideas appears to be inconceivably 
strong throughout the country. I was not aware until my return, 
that a very similar superstition existed among the Greeks as well 
as the Komans, with respect to men turning themselves into 
wolves.* Pliny calls the persons possessing this power of transfor- 
mation versipelles/' remarking that it is a fabulous opinion not 
worthy of credit (vide Hist. Nat. Lib. viii. c. xxii.) He after- 
wards explains more particularly the popular belief on this head, 
and makes mention, from a Greek author, of a man who lived 
nine years in the form of a wolf/' adding, but it is astonishing 
how far the Greeks carried their credulity, for there is no false- 
hood, however impudent, that wants its testimony amono* 
them." -j- 
The latitude of Adowa was deduced from the results of two 
meridian altitudes of stars, the declinations of which have been 
taken from tables brought up to the year 1810. 
* The « hyaenas'* at the Cape of Good Hope are always called by the inhabitants 
wolves." 
t The following passages extracted from Petronius, give a very complete view of 
this singular superstition. « Deinde ut respexi comitem ille exsuit se j omnia vesti- 
menta secundum viam posuit. Stabam tamquam mortuus~at ille circumminxit ves- 
timenta sua, et subito lupus factus est— postquam lupus factus est, ululare coepit et in 
sylvas fugit— Ego primitus nesciebam ubi essem— deinde accessi ut vestimenta ejus tolle- 
rem, ilia autem lapidea facta sunt— lupus villam intravit et omnia pecora tamquam 
lanius sanguinem illis misit, nec tamen derisit, etiamsi fugit, servus enim noster lan(?ea 
collum ejus trajecit— postquam veni in ilium locum, in quo lapidea vestimenta eruni facta, 
nihil inveni nisi sanguinem. Ut verum domum veni jacebat miles (comes) meus in 
lecto et collum illius medicus curabat. Intellexi ilium versipellem esse, nec postea cum 
illo panem gustare potui, non si me occidisses." 
3 I 
