The Book of Were-Wolves, Sabine Baring-Gould [chapter books to read to 5 year olds txt] 📗
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be traced at intervals where she had diverged from the beaten track.
In that part of the road where the trees were thickest, there were
marks of two pair of feet leaving the path; but owing to the density
of the trees at that spot and to the slightness of the fall of snow,
which did not reach the soil, where shaded by the pines, the
footprints were immediately lost. By the following morning a heavy
fall had obliterated any further traces which daylight might have
discovered.
The servant-girl also was never seen again.
During the winter of 1849 the wolves were supposed to have been
particularly ravenous, for thus alone did people account for the
mysterious disappearances of children.
A little boy had been sent to a fountain to fetch water; the pitcher
was found standing by the well, but the boy had vanished. The
villagers turned out, and those wolves which could be found were
despatched.
We have already introduced our readers to Polomyja, although the
occurrences above related did not take place among those eight hovels,
but in neighbouring villages. The reason for our having given a more
detailed account of this cluster of houses—rude cabins they
were—will now become apparent.
In May, 1849, the innkeeper of Polomyja missed a couple of ducks, and
his suspicions fell upon the beggar who lived there, and whom he held
in no esteem, as he himself was a hardworking industrious man, whilst
Swiatek maintained himself, his wife, and children by mendicity,
although possessed of sufficient arable land to yield an excellent
crop of maize, and produce vegetables, if tilled with ordinary care.
As the publican approached the cottage a fragrant whiff of roast
greeted his nostrils.
“I’ll catch the fellow in the act,” said the innkeeper to himself,
stealing up to the door, and taking good care not to be observed.
As he threw open the door, he saw the mendicant hurriedly shuffle
something under his feet, and conceal it beneath his long clothes. The
publican was on him in an instant, had him by the throat, charged him
with theft, and dragged him from his seat. Judge of his sickening
horror when from beneath the pauper’s clothes rolled forth the head of
a girl about the age of fourteen or fifteen years, carefully separated
from the trunk.
In a short while the neighbours came up. The venerable Swiatek was
locked up, along with his wife, his daughter—a girl of sixteen—and a
son, aged five.
The hut was thoroughly examined, and the mutilated remains of the poor
girl discovered. In a vat were found the legs and thighs, partly raw,
partly stewed or roasted. In a chest were the heart, liver, and
entrails, all prepared and cleaned, as neatly as though done by a
skilful butcher; and, finally, under the oven was a bowl full of fresh
blood. On his way to the magistrate of the district. the wretched man
flung himself repeatedly on the ground, struggled with his guards, and
endeavoured to suffocate himself by gulping clown clods of earth and
stones, but was prevented by his conductors.
When taken before the Protokoll at Dabkow, he stated that he had
already killed and—assisted by his family—eaten six persons: his
children, however, asserted most positively that the number was much
greater than he had represented, and their testimony is borne out by
the fact, that the remains of fourteen different caps and suits of
clothes, male as well as female, were found in his house.
The origin of this horrible and depraved taste was as follows,
according to Swiatek’s own confession:—
In 1846, three years previous, a Jewish tavern in the neighbourhood
had been burned down, and the host had himself perished in the flames.
Swiatek, whilst examining the ruins, had found the half-roasted corpse
of the publican among the charred rafters of the house. At that time
the old man was craving with hunger, having been destitute of food for
some time. The scent and the sight of the roasted flesh inspired him
with an uncontrollable desire to taste of it. He tore off a portion of
the carcase and satiated his hunger upon it, and at the same time he
conceived such a liking for it, that he could feel no rest till he had
tasted again. His second victim was the orphan above alluded to; since
then—that is, during the period of no less than three years—he had
frequently subsisted in the same manner, and had actually grown sleek
and fat upon his frightful meals.
The excitement roused by the discovery of these atrocities was
intense; several poor mothers who had bewailed the loss of their
little ones, felt their wounds reopened agonisingly. Popular
indignation rose to the highest pitch: there was some fear lest the
criminal should be torn in pieces himself by the enraged people, as
soon as he was brought to trial: but he saved the necessity of
precautions being taken to ensure his safety, for, on the first night
of his confinement, he hanged himself from the bars of the
prison-window.
CHAPTER XV.
ANOMALOUS CASE.—THE HUMAN HYÆNA.
It is well known that Oriental romance is full of stories of violators
of graves. Eastern superstition attributes to certain individuals a
passion for unearthing corpses and mangling them. Of a moonlight night
weird forms are seen stealing among the tombs, and burrowing into them
with their long nails, desiring to reach the bodies of the dead ere
the first streak of dawn compels them to retire. These ghouls, as they
are called, are supposed generally to require the flesh of the dead
for incantations or magical compositions, but very often they are
actuated by the sole desire of rending the sleeping corpse, and
disturbing its repose. There is every probability that these ghouls
were no mere creations of the imagination, but were actual
resurrectionists. Human fat and the hair of a corpse which has grown
in the grave, form ingredients in many a necromantic receipt, and the
witches who compounded these diabolical mixtures, would unearth
corpses in order to obtain the requisite ingredients. It was the same
in the middle ages, and to such an extent did the fear of ghouls
extend, that it was common in Brittany for churchyards to be provided
with lamps, kept burning during the night, that witches might be
deterred from venturing under cover of darkness to open the graves.
Fornari gives the following story of a ghoul in his _History of
Sorcerers_:—
In the beginning of the 15th century, there lived at Bagdad an aged
merchant who had grown wealthy in his business, and who had an only
son to whom he was tenderly attached. He resolved to marry him to the
daughter of another merchant, a girl of considerable fortune, but
without any personal attractions. Abul-Hassan, the merchant’s son, on
being shown the portrait of the lady, requested his father to delay
the marriage till he could reconcile his mind to it. Instead, however,
of doing this, he fell in love with another girl, the daughter of a
sage, and he gave his father no peace till he consented to the
marriage with the object of his affections. The old man stood out as
long as he could, but finding that his son was bent on acquiring the
hand of the fair Nadilla, and was equally resolute not to accept the
rich and ugly lady, he did what most fathers, under such
circumstances, are constrained to do, he acquiesced.
The wedding took place with great pomp and ceremony, and a happy
honeymoon ensued, which might have been happier but for one little
circumstance which led to very serious consequences.
Abul-Hassan noticed that his bride quitted the nuptial couch as soon
as she thought her husband was asleep, and did not return to it, till
an boar before dawn.
Filled with curiosity, Hassan one night feigned sleep, and saw his
wife rise and leave the room as usual. He followed cautiously, and saw
her enter a cemetery. By the straggling moonbeams he beheld her go
into a tomb; he stepped in after her.
The scene within was horrible. A party of ghouls were assembled with
the spoils of the graves they had violated., and were feasting on the
flesh of the long-buried corpses. His own wife, who, by the way, never
touched supper at home, played no inconsiderable part in the hideous
banquet.
As soon as he could safely escape, Abul-Hassan stole back to his bed.
He said nothing to his bride till next evening when supper was laid,
and she declined to eat; then he insisted on her partaking, and when
she positively refused, he exclaimed wrathfully,—“Yes, you keep your
appetite for your feast with the ghouls!” Nadilla was silent; she
turned pale and trembled, and without a word sought her bed. At
midnight she rose, fell on her husband with her nails and teeth, tore
his throat, and having opened a vein, attempted to suck his blood; but
Abul-Hassan springing to his feet threw her down, and with a blow
killed her. She was buried next day.
Three days after, at midnight, she reappeared, attacked her husband
again, and again attempted to suck his blood. He fled from her, and on
the morrow opened her tomb, burned her to ashes, and cast them into
the Tigris.
This story connects the ghoul with the vampire. As will be seen by a
former chapter, the werewolf and the vampire are closely related.
That the ancients held the same belief that the witches violate
corpses, is evident from the third episode in the Golden Ass of
Apuleius. I will only quote the words of the crier:—
“I pray thee, tell me,” replied I, “of what kind are the duties
attached to this funeral guardianship?” “Duties!” quoth the crier;
“why, keep wide awake all night, with thine eyes fixed steadily upon
the corpse, neither winking nor blinking, nor looking to the right nor
looking to the left, either to one side or the other, be it even
little; for the witches, infamous wretches that they are! can slip out
of their skins in an instant and change themselves into the form of
any animal they have a mind; and then they crawl along so slyly, that
the eyes of justice, nay, the eyes of the sun himself, are not keen
enough to perceive them. At all events, their wicked devices are
infinite in number and variety; and whether it be in the shape of a
bird, or a dog, or a mouse, or even of a common house-fly, that they
exercise their dire incantations, if thou art not vigilant in the
extreme, they will deceive thee one way or other, and overwhelm thee
with sleep; nevertheless, as regards the reward, ‘twill be from four
to six aurei; nor, although ‘tis a perilous service, wilt thou receive
more. Nay, hold! I had almost forgotten to give thee a necessary
caution. Clearly understand, that it the corpse be not restored to the
relatives entire, the deficient pieces of flesh torn off by the teeth
of the witches must be replaced from the face of the sleepy guardian.”
Here we have the rending of corpses connected with change of form.
Marcassus relates that after a long war in Syria, during the night,
troops of lamias, female evil spirits, appeared upon the field of
battle, unearthing the hastily buried bodies of the soldiers, and
devouring the flesh off their bones. They were pursued and fired upon,
and some young men succeeded in killing a considerable number; but
during the day they had all of them the forms of wolves or hyænas.
That there is a foundation of truth in these horrible stories,
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