Shapeshifters, (LYCANTHROPY), part 9

26 5 0
                                    

Later, the belief in a werewolf belt faded and was replaced with the idea that werewolves turn on their own, often on a full moon. This wasn't a new invention, though. The Roman writer Petronius, in his Satyricon, mentions the following story of a man who turns into a wolf at the full moon-so the idea's been around at least since then.
My master had gone to Capua to sell some clothes. I seized the opportunity, and persuaded our guest to bear me company about five miles out of town; for he was a soldier, and as bald as death. We set out about cockcrow, and the moon shone bright as day, when, coming among some monuments, my man began to converse with the stars, whilst I jogged along singing and counting them. Presently I looked back after him, and saw him strip and lay his clothes by the side of the road. My heart was in my mouth in an instant, I stood like a corpse; when, in a crack, he was turned into a wolf. Don't think I'm joking: I would not tell you a lie for the finest fortune in the world.
But to continue: after he was turned into a wolf, he set up a howl, and made straight for the woods. At first I did not know whether I was on my head or my heels; but at last going to take up his clothes, I found them turned into stone. The sweat streamed from me, and I never expected to get over it. Melissa began to wonder why I walked so late. "Had you come a little sooner," she said, "you might at least have lent us a hand; for a wolf broke into the farm and has butchered all our cattle; but though he got off, it was no laughing matter for him, for a servant of ours ran him through with a pike." Hearing this I could not close an eye; but as soon as it was daylight, I ran home like a pedlar that has been eased of his pack. Coming to the place where the clothes had been turned to stone, I saw nothing but a pool of blood; and when I got home, I found my soldier lying in bed, like an ox in a stall, and a surgeon dressing his neck. I saw at once that he was a fellow who could change his skin, and never after could I eat bread with him, no, not if you would have killed him. Those who would have taken a different view of the case are welcome to their opinion; if I tell you a lie, may your genii confound me!

Supernatural the book of monsters, demons, spirits and ghoulsWhere stories live. Discover now