Note 82 — Chapter VII · A CHRONICLE OF ZANZIBAR.—THE CAREER OF THE LATE ‘IMAM,’ SAYYID SAID.

I have alluded to this subject in my exploration of Harar (chap. ii.), and a few more details may not be uninteresting. Strong-headed Pliny (viii. 32) believes metamorphosis to be a ‘fabulous opinion,’ and remarks, ‘there is no falsehood, however impudent, that wants its testimony among them’ (the Greeks), yet at Tusdrita he saw L. Coisilius, who had been changed from a woman into a man. Curious to say, the learned Anatomist of Melancholy (Part I. sect. 1) charges him with believing in the versipellis, and explains the belief by lycanthropy, cucubuth or Lupina Insania. Petronius gives an account of the ‘fact.’ Pomponius Mela accuses the Druidesses of assuming bestial shapes. Suidas mentions a city where men changed their forms. Simon Magus could produce a double of himself. Saxo Grammaticus declared that the priests of Odin took various appearances. John of Salisbury asserts that Mercury taught mankind the damnable art of fascinating the eyes. Joseph Acosta instances fellow-country men in the West Indies who were shot during transformation. Our ancestry had their were-wolf (homo-lupus), and the Britons their Bisclavaret. Coffin, the Abyssinian traveller, all but saw his Buda change himself into a hyena. Mr Mansfield Parkyns heard of a human horse. In Shoa and Bornou men become leopards; in Persia, bears; in Somali-land Cyn-hyenas; in West African Kru-land elephants and sharks; in Namaqua-land, according to the late Mr Andersson, lions. At Maskat transformation is fearfully frequent; and illiterate Shiahs believe the good Caliph Abubekr, whom they call Pir i Kaftar (old hyena), to be trotting about the deserts of Oman in the semblance of a she-hyena, pursued by many amorous males. At Bushire the strange tale of Haji Ismail, popularly called ‘Shuturi,’ the ‘Camel’d,’ is believed by every one, and was attested with oaths by his friends and relations: this respectable merchant whilst engaged in pilgrimage was transformed by an Arab into a she-camel, and became the mother of several foals, till restored to human shape by another enchanter. Even in Europe, after an age of scepticism, the old natural superstition is returning, despite the pitch-fork, under another shape. The learned authoress of the Night-side of Nature objects to ‘illusionists,’ argues lycanthropy to be the effect of magico-magnetic influence, and instances certain hysterical and nervous phenomena of eyes paralyzed by their own weakness.

For many years I have carefully sifted every case reported to me in Asia and Africa, and I have come to the conclusion with which most men commence. No amount of evidence can justify belief in impossibilities, in bonâ fide miracles. Moreover, such evidence mostly comes from the duper and the dupe. Finally, all objective marvels diminish in inverse ratio to the increase of knowledge, whilst preternaturalisms and supernaturalisms gradually dwindle down to the natural badly understood.

Of course this disclaimer of belief in the vulgar miracle does not imply that human nature has no mysterious powers which, if highly developed and displayed in a dark age, would be treated as a miracle or as an act of magic. It has lately been proved that the will exercises positive and measurable force upon inert matter; such ‘glimpses of natural actions, not yet reduced to law,’—as Mr Faraday said—open up a wonderful vista in the days to come.