Note 64 — Front matter

As superstition waxed strong, no doubt the wolf robe was put on not merely to make the wearer look just like a common object of the landscape, but also because the wearer of the disguise was supposed to take on the characteristics of the animal he represented (swiftness, boldness, etc.), as in the case of masks (see note 57), and finally the wearer of such a robe was believed to actually become transformed, like the wearers of the werewolf shirt, for example in Germany. Wolves were regarded as good hunters who never fail, Ethn. Rep. 1897-98, I. 280, also p. 264:—The wolf is revered by the Cherokee as hunter and watchdog of Kanáti; therefore we can understand how the wolf disguise, as conferring the quality of unerring huntsmanship, might be in especial favor amongst those who gained their food from the chase. Similarly the singing of songs imitating the cries of certain animals was supposed to confer a characteristic of the animal in question (see note 33).

Ethn. Rep. 1901-02, p. 394:—To gain animal characteristics a wizard attached crow and owl plumes to his head that he might have the eyes of the crow to see quickly the approach of man, and the eyes of the owl to travel by night. He flapped his arms, ... A Zuñi man hearing a cry like an owl, yet human, looked about him and found a man whom he recognized as a Zuñi. “Aha!” said he, “why have you those plumes upon your head? Aha, you are a sorcerer,” etc.

An example of the transforming power of the robe we find in Bulletin 26, of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington, 1901, Kathlamet texts, p. 156 fol.:—A woman ate of some of the fat of a bitch, gave birth to five male dogs and one female dog. When they grew older, she discovered one day that they could transform themselves into real children. While they were down at the beach, she entered the house, and now she saw the dog blankets. She took them and burnt them. Then the children retained their human form (like Sigmund and Sinfjötli in the Völsungasaga). Page 58 fol., is the Myth of the Elk, according to which an old man transformed himself into an elk by putting on an elkskin.

W. Golther, Handbuch der germanischen mythologie, 1895, p. 100, writes, “Die Fähigkeit von Leuten, die sich verwandeln können, heisst ‘sich zu häuten, die Hülle zu wechseln’. Das Umwerfen eines äusserlichen Gewandes kann den Wechsel der Gestalt hervorbringen, wie Freyjas Federgewand, die Schwan- und Krähenhemden der Valkyrjen, Odins Adlergewand. Die Wolfsgewänder (úlfahamir) wenn angelegt, verwandeln den Menschen zum Wolfe”. See also Meissner, Ritter Tiodel, Zeitschrift für deutsches altertum, XLVII. 261.