Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1890-04-29
PORTUGUESE BuoAeoos.


i 6i ,omy Traditional Beliefs Existing
Among the Peasants OF Portugal.
Tho most somber OF the traditionary
beliefs in rural Portugal certainly go
back to far beyond the time Of the
Moors, beyond even the period of the
entry into the peninsula OF the nations
from Central Europe. The wehr-wolf
legend come from Roman times. The
term for the man-wolf in Portuguese is
Io5fs-homem, hardly a change from the
Latin lupus-h0mO, though it is more than
likely that in substance II not in form
the lycanthropic myth is far older than
the Roman nation itself. The legend
OF human being assuming VOLTS
shape is certainly one OF the most gener-
ally diffused through the world. 1t takes
many forms in Portugal. A common
belief is that when there are seven
children of the same parents, one, either
SON or daughter, is fated before the age
Of puberty arrives to turn into cOrredOr
"a interchangeable is, TO become
that which is preliminary to being a
true wehr-wolt or tObis-hOmem. The
cOrredOr need not necessarily assume a
VOLTS shape-indeed, he often takes
that of q hare, wildcat or fox, but OF
nights he must put on the likeness of
one of these animals and range through
woods and desert places. The corredOr
by all can learn harms no one but him
self, and is unconscious of his nightly
wanderings as soon as he returns to his
human shape and right senses, but he is
always to be recognized by excessive
leanness, wild eyes, and pale and hag-
gard face. The c0rredor steals from his
bed, and climbing the highest tree in the
neighborhood, strips to the skin and
hides his clothes in the branches; then de-
scending naked to the ground, he is in
stantly transformed into bestial shape,
with all the habits belonging TO the
beast whose form he has put on. He is
endowed with supernatural speed and
can outstrip man and all other animals.
The child with this fate to undergo
passes novitiate OF seven years as a
cOrredor, and then unless the spell is
broken he turns to true L0Jis-hdmen,
versi-peits, wolf-man or a wolf-woman.
The female of this terrible human wild
beast is known as bJoird. Male or
female, 1t is fierce creature, with ap-
petites exaggerating those OF the wolf
1t resembles, and whose strength and
swiftness are greater than those OF the
wolf. Tho creature is now no longer
harmless, but leaps upon and preys on
other animals, and its special delight is
in the slaughter and devouring OF
children. When once the change into
the true l06ie-hOmen or lOJaird has
taken place l understand that
the wolf man or woman can never again
be reclaimed into the ranks of our COM
mon humanity, but the spell upon a
corredor can be broken. 1t needs but
for its clothes to be found and burned,
or for blood to bo drawn from its body
while in the form OF beast; then the
spell Is broken, the animal returns into
human shape-waking amazed asif from
q sleep-walking dream and recovering
the reversion OF tho human soul, Of
which the true 1biS-homem must inevita-
bly, forfeit tho tenure. Tales are many
whore particularly savage wolf, being
sorely wounded by peasant in mid
night fray, has yet escaped by seem
ing miracle. The next morning the un-
suspected brother or sister Of the peas
ant himself is seen with wound Of
identically the same nature, and SO has
proved to be nothing less than foul
iobis-homem or iobeira.-The Fortnightly
Review.