34 
The Animal-Lore of Shakspeare’s Time. 
the seventeenth century, and stray specimens were killed in 
that country at a still more recent date. In Ireland these 
animals were so numerous, that as late as Cromwell’s time 
a law was passed prohibiting the exportation of wolf-dogs. 
Of all evils that from time to time have sprung from 
purely imaginary sources, none was more terrible in its 
results than the strange hallucination known as lycan- 
thropy (from lycos , a wolf, and anthropos, a man), or 
wolf-madness. Men and women believed that by super¬ 
natural agency they could transform themselves for a 
certain period into wolves. Human beings, when under 
this delusion, roamed through forests and desert places 
actuated by the same passions as the wild beasts whose 
name they bore. They howled, walked on all fours, tore 
up graves in search of prey, attacked unarmed passengers, 
devoured children, and committed the wildest excesses. 
Mr. Baring-Gould, in his Book of Were- Wolves, 1865, has 
traced this frightful superstition back to the very earliest 
times. The origin of the were-wolf myth may be found 
in the dread of wolves experienced by the early pastoral 
inhabitants of various countries, and in the natural ten¬ 
dency of the human mind to attribute every physical 
evil to superhuman power. The hurricane, the water¬ 
spout, the volcano, were universally supposed to be 
animated by some demon; consequently, we find were¬ 
wolf legends in countries as far asunder as Norway and 
India, and they may be discovered in almost every 
country whose forests were extensive enough to harbour 
wolves in formidable numbers. The myth varies, indeed, 
among different nations according to the particular 
animal by which the flocks were molested. That it is 
seldom alluded to in English folk-lore is due to the early 
destruction of wolves, and the consequent cessation of 
dread on their account. The more harmless cat and dog 
are substituted for the wolf in the various witchcraft 
stories. 
