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.
[65] Ethn. Rep. 1901-02, p. 392:—The owner of fine beads fears that some witch, prompted by jealousy, will strike him with disease.
As another example of the pretended assumption of superhuman powers to gain influence over others, we may cite the instances given by Andree, p. 68 fol., according to which Livingston met in Africa a native said to have power to transform himself into a lion. As lion he would stay for days and months in the forest, in a sacred hut, to which however his wife carried beer and food for him, so we may judge that at least this lion did not cause much devastation amongst the wild beasts. He was able to reassume human form by means of a certain medicine brought him by his wife. Again Andree, p. 69:—In Banana, Africa, the members of a certain family transform themselves in the dark of the forest into leopards. They throw down those they meet in the forest, but dare not injure them nor drink their blood, lest they remain leopards. (See note [83].)
The motive of personal gain is exemplified by our American Indians, who put on a wolf’s mantle to steal, or to recover stolen animals (Grinnell, Pawnee hero stories, p. 247, also the story of robbery entitled Wolves in the night, p. 70 fol.). Similarly in Abyssinia, Andree, p. 69, where the lowest caste of laborers are believed to have power to transform themselves into hyenas or other animals, as such, plundering graves. They employ naturally various artifices to help along their cause, since it yields such returns. They are reported to act like other folk by day, at night though to assume the ways of wolves, kill their enemies and suck their blood, roaming about with other wolves till morning. They are supposed to gain their supernatural powers by a secret beverage made from herbs. They are not likely to be discovered to be only sham animals, since their roaming and plundering is done in the night; in the daytime they of course conceal the animal skins (see Andree, p. 72).
Ethn. Rep. 1880-81, p. 68:—Among the Chaldeans, Egyptians and Greeks, the success of magic depended upon the ignorance of the masses and the comparative learning of the few who practised it. Among the American Indians the medicine-man and the more expert sorceress have little learning above that of the body of the tribe, and their success depends entirely upon their own belief in being supernaturally gifted, and upon the faith and fear of their followers.
The Iroquois believed in people who could assume a partly animal shape. See Grinnell, Blackfoot lodge tales, p. 79:—“An old blind wolf with a powerful medicine cured a man, and made his head and hands look like those of a wolf. The rest of his body was not changed. He was called a man-wolf.”
[66] Ethn. Rep. 1880-81, p. 73:—Witches could and did assume animal shapes. For example a dog seen by a man which had fire streaming from its mouth and nostrils. It was night. The man shot at it, and the next morning tracked it by the marks of blood from its wound. At a bridge a woman’s tracks took the place of the dog’s, and finally he found the woman. She had died from the effect of the shot. Page 73: Likewise a hog, when pursued, disappeared at a small creek, and finally reappeared as an old man, who said it was he, whom they had been chasing. So they, the pursuers, knew he was a witch. Page 74: A Canadian Indian one evening pursued a white bull with fire streaming from its nostrils. He had never seen a white bull on the reservation before. “As it passed in front of a house it was transformed into a man with a large white blanket, who was ever afterward known as a witch.”
Ethn. Rep. 1901-02, p. 395:—A man going out at night noticed a queer-looking burro. Upon his return home he was told that a large cat had entered the house. He went out again, discovered a man wrapped in a blanket, but not in the Zuñi fashion, his head was sunk low in the blanket. He knew this creature to be a wizard.