Antonio, who best understood the words Rutilio sung, cried, "Well sung, Rutilio, if thou hast thyself composed those verses, thou art no bad poet; though I do not know how a dancing-master can be a good one; nevertheless, I am wrong in saying this, for I remember well that in my own land of Spain, there were poets of all professions." Maurice overheard him speak thus, and so did the prince and Periander, who could not sleep; and Maurice said, "It is very possible for an artizan to be a poet; poetry lying not in the fingers, but the mind; and the soul of a tailor is as capable of poetic feeling as that of a gentleman; for souls are all of equal rank, and of the same nature originally, but formed and fashioned by their Maker, and according to the temperament and disposition of the body in which each is enclosed, so appear they more or less learned and wise, and inclined to study and know the arts and sciences, and other things to which their stars dispose them. But in speaking of a poet, one generally says that he is nascitur, born such. I see no reason, then, to wonder at Rutilio being a poet, although he is a dancing-master."
"And so great a one," said Antonio, "that he has cut capers in the air, even beyond the clouds." "Even so," answered Rutilio, who was listening all this time; "I made them even up in the sky, when I travelled in the witch's mantle from Tuscany to Norway, where I killed her when she changed into a wolf, as I have before told you."
"That tale about men and women being turned into wolves, is a great error," said Maurice, "although it is believed by many."
"How is it, then," asked Arnoldo, "that it is generally said, and held as a fact, that in England, troops of wolves go about the fields, who are human creatures that have been so transformed?" [(Note 2).]
"In England," Maurice replied, "such things could not be, because not only are there no wolves in that fertile and cultivated country, but no noxious animals whatever, such as serpents, vipers, toads, spiders and scorpions; also it is a well-known fact, that if any poisonous animal is brought thither from other parts, when it arrives there, it dies; and if the earth of this island be carried to any other place, and a viper be surrounded with this earth, it dares not leave the circle so made in which it is imprisoned, and runs round and round until it dies." [(Note 3.)]
"All we can understand about the transformation of persons into wolves is, that there exists a complaint or disease, which is called by physicians the wolf-mania; its nature is, that the person afflicted with it fancies himself changed into a wolf, and howls like one; and, joining with others who are similarly afflicted, go ranging about the country in parties, barking like dogs, and howling like wolves; tearing down trees, killing any one they meet, and devouring the raw flesh of the dead. And, at the present time, I know that there are in Sicily, which is the largest of the Mediterranean isles, people of this sort, called by the Sicilians, Lobos menar, were wolves, or loups garoux.
"These persons know and feel when this terrible infirmity is about to seize them, and they warn those who are about them, that they may fly from and avoid them; or that they may tie them fast, or lock them up; because, if not prevented, they will tear anything that approaches them to pieces, and destroy them with both their teeth and nails, uttering frightful and hideous howlings; and so true is this, that where there is a question of marriage on foot, inquiry is made to ascertain that there is no touch of this complaint in the family; and if on good authority they discover it even afterwards, the marriage may be dissolved.
"Pliny also tells us, in Book viii. chap. 22, that among the Arcadians there is a kind of people who, in passing a certain lake, hang their garments upon an ilex, and go naked into the inland country, where they join with others they find there of their own lineage, in the form of wolves, and are with them for nine years, at the end of which they return and pass the lake, and recover their lost figure. But all this is probably fiction and lies; and if there is anything in it, it is in the imagination, and not real." [(Note 4)].
"I do not know," said Rutilio, "as to that; all I know is that I killed the she-wolf, and found dead at my feet, the sorceress."