The Man-Wolf and Other Tales

The Man-Wolf and Other Tales

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Title: The Man-Wolf and Other Tales
Author: Emile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrian
Release Date: May 2, 2005 [EBook #15745]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE MAN-WOLF
AND OTHER TALES
By Emile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrian
1876

CONTENTS.
The Man-Wolf:--

CHAPTER I.

CHAPTER II.

CHAPTER III.

CHAPTER IV.

CHAPTER V.

CHAPTER VI.

CHAPTER VII.

CHAPTER VIII.

CHAPTER IX.

CHAPTER X.

CHAPTER XI.

CHAPTER XII.

CHAPTER XIII.
Myrtle:--

CHAPTER I.

CHAPTER II.
Uncle Christian's Inheritance
The Bear-Baiting
The Scapegoat
A Night In The Woods:--

CHAPTER I.

CHAPTER II.

PRELIMINARY NOTE BY THE TRANSLATOR.
It has often been remarked, with perfect justice, that the eminent French
writers, a translation of one of whose works is here attempted, are
singularly faithful in their adherence to historic truth. Remove the
thread of obvious fiction which is indispensable to make these
admirable productions romances or tales, and what we have left is
perfectly reliable history. It is this feature mainly which gives the
indescribable charm to their historical tales--a charm powerfully
realised in the original, though less appreciable in an imperfect
translation.
The same claim to perfect truthfulness in all essential points may be
placed to the credit of the following "Roman Populaire,"
notwithstanding the startling supernatural element on which the story is
founded. Erckmann-Chatrian have not thought it right or necessary to
depart in this case from their practice of abstaining from all prefaces or
notes in every edition of their works. Yet perhaps the translator may be
forgiven, and even condoned with thanks, if he ventures upon an
explanation tending to show that the tale of Hugh the Wolf is not
entirely founded upon superstition and the supernatural.
"Let his heart be changed from man's, and let a beast's heart be given
unto him!" Such was the sentence pronounced and executed upon him
of Babylon whose pride called for abasement from the Lord. Dr. Mead
(Medica Sacra, p. 59) observes that there was known among the
ancients a mental disorder called lycanthropy, the victims of which
fancied themselves wolves, and went about howling and attacking and
tearing sheep and young children (_Aetius, Lib. Med_. vi., _Paul
Ægineta_, iii. 16). So, again, Virgil tells of the daughters of Prætus,
who fancied themselves to be cows, and running wildly about the
pastures, "implêrunt falsis mugitibus agros."--Ecl. vi. 48. This horrible
disease appears happily to have been a rare one, and recoveries from it
have taken place, for it is not destructive of the sufferer's life. It has
even been thoroughly cured after a lapse of many years.
Dr. Pusey (Notes on Daniel, p. 425), in a disquisition of great fulness
upon the disease of Nebuchadnezzar, refers to a communication which
he received from Dr. Browne, a Commissioner of the Board of Lunacy
for Scotland, in which he says, "My opinion is that in all mental powers

or conditions the idea of personal identity is but rarely enfeebled, and
that it is never extinguished. The ego and non-ego may be confused;
the ego, however, continues to preserve the personality. All the angels,
devils, dukes, lords, kings, "gods many" that I have had under my care
remained what they were before they became angels, dukes, etc., in a
sense, and even nominally. I have seen a man declaring himself the
Saviour or St. Paul sign himself James Thomson, and attend worship as
regularly as if the notion of divinity had never entered into his head."
Esquirol, a very trustworthy writer, has a description of an
extraordinary outbreak of lycanthropy in France (in the Jura, at Dole,
and other places in Eastern France) in the 16th century.
"This terrible affliction began to manifest itself in France in the 15th
century, and the name of '_loups-garous_' has been given to the
sufferers. These unhappy beings fly from the society of mankind and
live in the woods, the cemeteries, or old ruins, prowling about the open
country only by night, howling as they go. They let their beard and
nails grow, and then seeing themselves armed with claws and covered
with shaggy hair, they become confirmed in the belief that they are
wolves. Impelled by ferocity or want, they throw themselves upon
young