Humboldt Library of Science Volume 54 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1884 Excerpt: ...they arise. And in the recognition of a fundamental unity between the physical and the mental, in the healthy working of the one as dependent on the wholesome care of the other, she rinds not only the remedy against mental derangement and all forms of harmful excitement, but also the prevention which is better than cure. Spenser says: --'Such, men do changelings call, so changed bv fairies' theft." XIII. THE BELIEF IN TRANSFORMATION UNIVERSAL. Traditions of transformation of men into beasts are not confined to the Old World. In Dr. Rink's "Tales of the Eskimo" there are numerous stories both of men and women who have assumed animal form at will, as also incidental references to the belief in stories such as that telling how an Eskimo got inside a walrus skin, so that he might lead the life of that creature. And among the Red Races, that rough analogy which led to the animal being credited with life and consciousness akin to the human, still expresses itself in thought and act. If even now it is matter of popular belief in the wilds of Norway that Finns and Lapps, who from remote times have passed as skillful witches and wizards, can at pleasure assume the shape of, bears, the common saying, according to Dr. Dasent, about an unusually daring and savage beast being, "that can be no Christian bear," we may not be surprised that lower races still ascribe power of interchange to man and brute. The werewolf superstition is extant among the Northwestern Indians, but free from those dia bolical features which characterized it in mediaeval times among ourselves. It takes its place in barbaric myth generally, and although it may have repellant or cruel elements, it was never blended with belief in the demoniacal. The Ahts say that men go into ...