BOOK I.

Cervantes makes extraordinary mistakes with the names of these northern countries; by Hibernia, he doubtless means Scotland. The absurd story of the Barnacle Goose was believed in the time of Cervantes. Gerard, in his Herbal, published 1636, writes as follows:—

"But what our eyes have seene, and hands have touched, we shall declare: There is a small island in Lancashire called the Pile of Foulders, wherein are found the broken pieces of old and bruised ships, some whereof have been cast thither by shipwracke, and also the trunks and bodies with the branches of old and rotten trees cast up there likewise; whereon is found a certain spume or froth, that in time breedeth unto certeine shels, in shape like those of the muskle, but sharper pointed, and of a whitish color; wherein is contained a thing in form like a lace of silke, finely woven, as it were, together, of a whitish color, one end whereof is fastened unto the inside of the shell, even as the fish of oysters and muskles are: the other end is made fast unto the belly of a rude masse or lumpe, which in time cometh to the shape and form of a bird: when it is perfectly formed the shell gapeth open, and the first thing that appeareth is the aforesaid lace or string: next come the legs of the bird, hanging out, and as it grows greater, it openeth the shell by degrees, till at length it is all come forth, and hangeth only by the bill: in short space after it cometh to full maturitie and falleth into the sea, where it gathereth feathers and groweth to a fowle bigger than a Mallard and lesser than a goose, having blacke legs and bill or beake, and feathers blacke and white spotted, in such manner as is our magpie, called in some places a Pie-annet, which the people of Lancashire call by no other name than a tree-goose; which place aforesaid, and all those parts adjoining, do so much abound therewith, that one of the best is bought for three pence. For the truth hereof, if any doubt, may it please them to repaire unto me, and I shall satisfie them by the testimonie of good witnesses."

Gerarde's Herbal came out first in 1597; a second edition, with corrections and emendations, 1633.

[Note 2.] Page 103.

The Loup-garoux, or Man-wolf—Garwall.

In the "Lais de Marie," we have the story of Bisclaveret—

"Formerly many men became garwalls, and had their houses in woods. A garwall is a savage beast: his rage is so great that he devours men, does great mischief, and lives in vast forests. The Bretons call him Bisclaveret."—Marie's Lays, p. 160.

There are a great many curious particulars and observations upon this subject in the Mémoires de la Société Nationale des Antiquaires de France, tome 9.

There have been few superstitions more popular and general from very ancient times down to comparatively modern; and it is remarkable that under different names it is common to many countries.

"Parmi les Transformations d'hommes en animaux il en est une qui se distingue des autres par ses caractères speciaux, par son nom particulier et par la terreur profonde dont elle a frappé les imaginations des gens du moyen age. Je veux parler des loups-garous; les loups-garous ou hommes changés en loups, natures feroces et redoutables, puissances malfaisantes emanées du demon ont été un des plus constants objets de l'effroi populaire, et la foi a leur existence s'est perpetuée jusqu'aux epoques les plus modernes."

"Si nous consultons les textes historiques du moyen age nous trouvons la croyance aux loups-garous repandu dès les epoques les plus reculées dans la plupart des contrées de l'Europe. Dans les lois de Canut Roi d'Angleterre, un homme est designé sous le vieux nom de Lycanthrope."—Leges Canute regis. Edit. Smith, i. 148.

"Jean Trithême raconte qu'en l'an 976, il y avait un Juif nommé Baïan, fils de Siméon, Prince des Bulgares, qui se transformait en loup, et se rendait invisible quand il voulait."—Vois Bodin Demonomanie des Sorciers, I. H. C. VI.

"Boniface, Archevêque de Mayence, qui vivait au viii. siecle, mentionne dans un de ses Sermons, parmi les œuvres du Diable, Incantationes et Sortileges exquirere strigas et fictos lupos credere."—Sermon XV. de Abrenuntiatione Diaboli.

"Saint Bernard d'apres l'auteur de sa vie, en passant dans une certaine ville entendit raconter aux habitants que le bon voisin etait désole par deux betes très feroces que le vulgaire appelle Varoli."—Vita Sancte Bernardi, J. H. p. 227, 228.

Numbers of stories similar to these are given in the above-mentioned work; but these must suffice. Very curious are the accounts given of the different ways in which the same superstition existed in different countries.

"En Portugal les lubishomens passent pour des gens nés sous une mauvaise étoile, et condamnés par la fatalité au malheur; c'est a dire, a l'enfer. Quand il y a dans une famille sept fils ou sept filles, l'un d'eux appartient au Diable. Pendant le jour les lubishomens sont taciturnes et melancoliques; la nuit un penchant irresistible les porte a quitter leur demeures et a chercher les lieux les plus sauvages. Après s'etre depouillés de leur vêtemens ils se transforment en chevaux a la longue crinière, aux yeux ardents, franchissant les montagnes, les vallées et les fleuves, et parcourent ainsi un arc de quelques centaines de lieues; mais avant l'aube ils retournent au point de depart, reprennent leur vêtemens et redeviennent hommes. Il n'y a qu'un moyen de détruire l'influence diabolique a laquelle ils sont soumis; c'est d'avoir le courage de se mettre au devant d'eux et d'arrêter leur course fougeuse et de les blesser légèrement a la poitrine, dès que le sang coule à terre ils sont délivrés du Démon, et leur métamorphose cesse pour toujours."

"Cette tradition qui m'a été signalée par mon savant collegue, M. Depping, est rapportée dans les Lusitanian Sketches, et dans Le Portugal de M. Ferd. Denis."

"Autrefois la Prusse, la Lithuanie, la Livonie fourmillaient de Sorciers qui passaient pour se métamorphoser en loups quand ils vouloient."

In the same paper, "Recherches sur la Lycanthropie," we have a great deal more on the subject, too long to extract for this note. In the middle ages, it is stated that the laws were very strict and rigorous against all who were accused of this singular species of sorcery. They were feared and hated as the most dangerous and ferocious of murderers, and when taken were burnt alive. About 1436, at Berne, a great number of sorcerers were burnt alive, who confessed that they were obedient to the devil, and, by means of certain ointments, were able to transform themselves, and that they had devoured their own children. In 1574, before the Parliament of Dôle, a "Procès de Lycanthropie" was tried against Gilles Garnier, a sorcerer, of Lyons. He was condemned and burnt. The 3rd of December, 1573, the Parliament of Franche Comté issued an order for a "Chasse de Loups-garous." From 1596 to 1600, a great number of men and women suffered the punishment of fire as Lycanthropes and Demonolâtres. In the capacity of judge, Jean Boquet showed such intense zeal against them, that, at the close of his life, he boasted, says Voltaire, of having himself caused more than six hundred Lycanthropes to perish.—Boquet Disc. des Sorciers, &c. 1603. Voltaire, Œuvres completes. Ed. Baudmin, t. 39.

The subject was preached upon from the altar; learned dissertations were written and published as to whether the fact of men being able to transform themselves into beasts were true or no.

At the close of this paper the author gives his own opinion as to whether the transformation of men into beasts be admissible; and in all the facts produced by writers and preserved by tradition, how much is reality, trickery, or imagination. To the first question, we need hardly say, he answers in the negative; to the second, our answer is, that certain facts set down to Lycanthropy have been really accomplished by true wolves, or men in a state of savage nature; 2ndly, others have been contrived by popular imaginations, or by deceivers, whether to terrify or to delude; 3rdly, the greater number of the facts have been caused by affections of the brain in the pretended loups-garous, by that black melancholy already described by the physicians of antiquity—in a word, by madness.

[Note 3.] Page 103.

This is one of the mistakes Cervantes falls into: the story of no venomous creature being able to exist is told of Ireland, and not of England. "Bede writeth, that serpents conueid into Ireland did presently die, being touched with the smell of the land; that whatsoever came from Ireland was then of sovereigne virtue against poison."—Bede, lib. 1, Ang. Hist. cap. 1.

Saith Irenæus: "I am doone to understand by the report of diuerse, and also by Bede, that no poisoned or venemous thing is bred in that realme (Ireland), insomuch that the verie earth of that countrie, being brought to other realmes, killeth all venemous and poisoned wormes."

[Note 4.] Page 105.

"Evanthes (a writer among the Greekes of good account and authority) reporteth that he found among the records of the Arcadians, that in Arcadia there was a certain house and race of the Antœi, out of which one evermore must needs be transformed into a wolf: and when they of that family have cast lots who it shall be, they vie to accompany the party upon whom the lot is falne to a certain meere or poole in that country. When he is thither come, they turn him naked out of all his clothes, which they hang upon an oak thereby: then he swimmeth over the said lake to the other side; and being entered into the wildernesse, is presently transfigured and turned into a wolfe, and so keepeth company with his like of that kind for nine yeeres space; during which time (if he forbeare all the while to eat man's flesh) he returneth again to the same poole or pond; and being swomme over it, receiveth his former shape of a man, save only that he shall look nine yeeres older than before. Fabius addeth one thing more, and saith that he findeth again the same apparel that was hung up in the oak aforesaid.

"A wonder is it to see to what passe these Greekes are come in their credulity; there is not so shamelesse a lye but it findeth one or other of them to uphold and to maintaine it."—Holland's Pliny.

[Note 5.] Page 105.

Cervantes is fond of this legend. He refers to it in his Don Quixote, chap. 5. I never heard that such a superstition ever existed in England; but Sharon Turner, speaking of King Arthur, says: "So greatly were the people of Bretagne interested in his fame, that Alanus de Insulis tells us that even in his time (the twelfth century) they would not believe that their favourite was dead. If you do not believe me, go into Bretagne, and mention in the streets and villages that Arthur is really dead like other men, you will not escape with impunity; you will be either hooted with the curses of your hearers, or be stoned to death."

Trouveurs (continues Turner), troubadours, and monkish versifiers combine to express the same idea. We find the same in the traditions of the old Welsh bards, "who believed that King Arthur was not dead, but conveyed away by the fairies into some pleasant place, where he should remaine for a time, and then return again, and reign in as great authority as ever."—Holinshed, b. 5. c. 14.

"Some men yet say, in many parts of England, that King Arthur is not dead; but by the will of our Lord Jesu Christ, into another place; and men say that he will come again, and he shall win the holy cross. I will not say that it shall be so; but rather I will say, that here, in this world, he changed his life. But many men say that there is written upon his tomb this verse:—

"'Hic jacet Arthurus rex quondam, rex futuris.'"
Mort d'Arthur, by Sir Thomas Maleor, or Malory, Knight.