HUMAN ANIMALS

PREFACE


From the abundant records and traditions dealing with the curious
belief that certain men and women can transform themselves into
animals I have collected a number of instances and examples which
throw fresh light on the subject both from the point of view of
folk-lore and occultism. The causes of transformation are various:
contact with a wer-animal, touching what he has touched, wearing an
animal skin, rubbing the body with ointment, slipping on a girdle,
buckling on a strap, and many other expedients, magical and otherwise,
may bring about the metamorphosis. Removing the skin, burning it, or
piercing it with the stab of a knife, or the shot from a gun, so that
blood is drawn, are among the best-known methods for causing the human
shape to be resumed, but the stab should be on the brow or between the
eyes, and the bullet should be made of silver and is all the better
for having been blessed in a chapel of St. Hubert, otherwise the
attempt to break the enchantment may fail. The penalty for being a
wer-animal is death, but sentence is not passed until after some
ordeal has been gone through, such as dipping the finger into boiling
resin, innocence being established if the finger be drawn out unhurt.
Any wound inflicted on the transformed animal is simultaneously
inflicted on the human body, and in many other characteristics the
nature of the wer-animal is similar to that of the witch or wizard.

In "Balder the Beautiful" Dr. J. G. Frazer, after telling many typical
stories, endeavours to establish a parallelism between witches and
wer-animals, the analogy appearing to confirm the view that the reason
for burning a bewitched animal alive is a belief that the human being
is in the animal, and that by burning you compel him to assume another
shape. Since the sum of energy in the universe is held to be constant
and invariable, the chain of transformation is thus continued, and
form follows form, endlessly linked together. By some such theory the
phenomena of life and death may be explained and the doctrine of
immortality, usually applied only to the soul of man, can be
reasonably extended to animals.

The belief that human and animal souls possess power and entity when
externalised and apart from the living body is less widely held than
that of persistence after death. It is one that bears strongly on the
subject of animal transformation, as well as on the affinity which
certain animals possess for some families, an affinity that is akin to
totemism.

These preliminary suggestions will enable readers to grasp the scope
of my book, which is intended to provide a comprehensive view of the
subject and to familiarise them with the nature of the phenomena, even
though it has been well-nigh impossible to classify and tabulate them
fully, or to explain them satisfactorily.

I wish to express my thanks to Miss J. A. Middleton, author of "The
Grey Ghost Book," for her kindness in reading my work in MS., and to
her and others for suggesting interesting material.

FRANK HAMEL

_London_, 1915




TO
C. A. W.




CONTENTS


CHAPTER PAGE

PREFACE vii

I. INTRODUCTORY 1

II. TRANSFORMATION 5

III. THE BUSH-SOUL 15

IV. HUMAN SOULS IN ANIMAL BODIES 23

V. ANIMAL DANCES 28

VI. MAN-ANIMAL AND ANIMAL-MAN 39

VII. SCAPEGOAT AND SAINT 45

VIII. THE WER-WOLF TRIALS 54

IX. THE WER-WOLF IN MYTH AND LEGEND 65

X. LION- AND TIGER-MEN 78

XI. WER-FOX AND WER-VIXEN 88

XII. WITCHES 103

XIII. FAMILIARS 120

XIV. TRANSFORMATION IN FOLK-LORE AND FAIRY-TALE 131

XV. TRANSFORMATION IN FOLK-LORE AND FAIRY-TALE
(_continued_) 143

XVI. FABULOUS ANIMALS AND MONSTERS 159

XVII. HUMAN SERPENTS