Geti Afraz, the heroine of a typical Eastern transformation story, on the other hand, changes Malec Muhammed the moment he grows too ardent in his caresses.
One day when Malec was on his travels, he arrived at the city of Ekbalia and took up his lodging in a caravanserai.[78]
At dusk that evening he saw a remarkable illumination in the sky and heard intoxicating music. Presently a procession of beautifully dressed people passed by, and he caught a glimpse of a lovely princess. "Who is she?" he asked of the neighbours. "Geti Afraz, daughter of the King of the Peris, is riding through the city," they answered. "Her palace is close by."
Entranced by the beauty of her appearance, Malec Muhammed inquired whether she received visitors. "Yes, she does," was the answer; "but it is at their own risk, as she usually changes her visitors into the shape of some animal." Malec, nothing daunted by this strange remark, set out at once for the abode of the princess.
The door of the palace was shut, and knocking loudly he cried, "Open to Malec Muhammed." The Peri's reputation was well-known, and no one ever arrived at the palace who was not brave enough to risk being turned into an animal. In a moment the door was opened and Malec was invited to step inside.
In the reception hall he saw a throne composed of a single jacinth, adorned with the richest cushions, on which was seated a lady, beautiful as the silver moon, surrounded by a thousand handmaids, brilliant as stars.
Malec stood stupefied in wonder at this vision of paradise. The princess pointed to a golden seat near the throne, and when he sat upon it she asked, "Whence come you, who are you, and why have you visited me?"
Malec Muhammed answered like one in a dream,
Then Geti Afraz ordered one of her handmaidens to bring some ruby-coloured wine to her guest, and after he had taken it she asked whether the company of the maiden would give him entertainment. But he refused her offer, saying that his devotion to herself prevented him talking to, or even looking at, any other woman.
The princess seemed pleased with this compliment, but said in a pensive tone, "Man is an impatient creature and from his impatience many misfortunes result which he lays to our charge." Malec replied that whilst in her presence he could never give way to impatience for, if he were allowed to gaze into her adorable eyes, life needed nothing more to make it perfect.
Geti Afraz smiled sarcastically, saying, "I fear you will not remain satisfied gazing for ever into my eyes, and take heed, for if you show the least tendency to lose your head over me you will be punished by being banished from my society."
Thus they spent many hours in each other's company, he gazing into her eyes but never presuming even so far as to touch her hand.
Overcome by her beauty, at last he threw himself at her feet and asked whether the lifelong devotion he was prepared to offer was acceptable in her sight. "Be patient and cautious," she said, to calm his protestations, "otherwise you will be transformed into an animal, which is not an easy matter to remedy."
So Malec went back to his golden seat and mastered his passionate feelings as well as he could. Just then one of the handmaidens brought in a scented rose to present to the princess. Malec Muhammed led her forward in hopes that his fingers might chance to touch those of Geti Afraz. The princess stretched out her hand to take the rose when Malec Muhammed lost his self-control and planted an impassioned kiss upon her fingers. "Ah! you cursed billing dove!" cried Geti Afraz, "Why do you do that?" and at her words Malec gave a sudden spring into the air and whirled round and round in the form of a dove.
The poor bird was desperate on account of this strange way in which his affection had been received. All day long he flew from turret to turret, and hopped from branch to branch, before his unrelenting mistress; but finding his appeals no use he flew away and took the quickest road to his house. There his servants set traps to catch him, and he fluttered about in great fear, until one remarked, "Poor little dove, let it go, for the love of our master, who has not been seen here for some days."
Malec then flew to the house of his uncle, the Vizier, and perched on his knee. The Vizier, suspecting enchantment, sent for a box of medicine and inserted a dose in the bird's bill; the dove fluttered round and round in a circle and suddenly resumed human form.
But the attraction of the princess proved too much for Malec, and though he tried to forget her he found it impossible. At last, in desperation, he cried out that he must see her again, cost what it might.
he exclaimed as he set out once more for the palace.
He was admitted into the presence of the princess, who expressed great surprise at the fate which had overtaken him.
"Ah," he said, "it was hard to be so severely punished for one kiss of those charming fingers."
"Well," she replied, "I approve of you so well that to compensate you for your misfortune I will give you leave to kiss both my hands and my feet as often as you please, but you must not presume any further than that."
That evening he was allowed to stay beside her couch, because when she suggested sending him away he reminded her of her promise. How could he kiss her hands and her feet if he was forced to leave her side? This concession made Malec believe that she had more affection for him than she was willing to show. "I asked her only for the opportunity of admiring her at a distance and she has given me a place close beside her," he thought.
Hour after hour he kissed her hands and feet, and all the time he aspired to her lips. There she lay slumbering, beautiful as a goddess, and as he bent over her to approach his lips to hers, she awoke and reminded him of his promise, saying, "Be cautious, or you will have to take your departure."
At this rebuke he retired ignominiously from her side, but his love for her increased by leaps and bounds, and she fostered it by walking with him in the lovely palace gardens and by taking him with her in her gorgeous carriage when she followed the hounds. In the evening they feasted, and, after quaffing wine, Malec, driven to madness by her beauty, forgot himself as she lay slumbering and, bending forward, pressed his lips to hers.
At that moment she awoke, crying, "Cursed ass! what have you done?"
Even as she uttered the words, Malec gave a spring and galloped away in the form of an ass.
The servants of the princess beat the animal with sticks and drove him out of the palace.
After nine long months, in which Malec endured the ignominy of being in animal form, his uncle, who had been greatly annoyed by his nephew's repeated folly, softened sufficiently to help him out of his dilemma, by giving him a further dose of the magic medicine which brought him back to his natural appearance.
When once again he arrived at the palace Geti Afraz welcomed him warmly.
"All that has befallen you has happened through your own impatience," she said. "What can a man expect who loses his self-control as you did?"
Nevertheless the princess bound him to her in flowery chains, which entangled him more and more, until the tortured Malec, whilst visiting King Anushah in her company, exceeded the limits of propriety she had laid down for him and was turned into an ox.
In this form he was set to draw water, and tears trickled down his ox-like face at the indignities he had to undergo. His uncle, seeing the animal's distress, said, "Malec Muhammed, if this be you, make some sign to let me know!"
The ox nodded as a sign.
"The curse of God light on you and your doings," said the Vizier, and he had the ox driven to a stall and ordered his servants to fatten him up for the winter, when he intended to make mince-meat of him.
After six months had passed, however, King Anushah interfered and asked the Vizier to pardon Malec's folly. Enough medicine was sent for to serve its purpose even if Malec had been metamorphosed a hundred times and he was called into his uncle's presence.
"Gallows face!" cried the Vizier, "this time you must thank the Shah that you are to become a man once more, for I should have let you die in disgrace. If you take an oath never to behave so foolishly again I will give you the medicine."
The ox pleaded and nodded, the dose was administered and Malec became himself again.
"Really," said the Shah, "you have made a beast of yourself often enough, Muhammed," and he made him promise not to do it again.
But even then Malec had not learnt wisdom, and after many vicissitudes, when he was brought once more into the presence of his charmer, he found her fascination too much for his senses.
The languid Narcissus-like eyes of Geti Afraz yielded to slumber after a banquet, and she fell asleep on her sofa with Malec by her side. In tenderest mood he rained kiss after kiss upon her lips:
Unable to restrain himself further he laid one hand upon her lily-white bosom, and she started up with the cry, "Cursed dog, what are you doing?" and he became a dog.
For many months Malec endured this new indignity, for his uncle, the Vizier, declared that he should wear a dog's collar round his neck till the day of his death, but the princess herself, relenting of the cruel fate to which she had condemned her lover, contrived that the Shah's wife, Ruh Afza, should transform her husband into an animal in order that he might suffer what Malec was suffering.
As soon as the Shah offered his caresses to her, Ruh Afza cried out:
"Ha! you cat, what? Would you scratch me?" and immediately the Shah found himself whirled round and round, and, taking a spring with his head down and his heels up, he assumed the form of a cat. All the rest of the night he strolled through the garden caterwauling piteously.
In the morning he met the Vizier, who recognised his master, King Anushah, at once, and restored him to his normal condition.
The Shah, wishing to vent his anger on Geti Afraz for this insult to his dignity, decided to execute Malec, "to sear her bosom with a lasting wound," for he believed her to be fond of Malec in spite of her conduct. Sending for the poor dog he lashed the animal severely.
Then, in his pain, Malec cried out to his enchantress to rescue him from danger, and she relented, restoring him to human form and rewarding him with her love.
One of the best descriptions of transformation by use of ointments, in which details of the process are given, is to be found in "The Metamorphosis or Golden Ass of Apuleius," in which Lucius, the hero, happening to use the wrong salve, transforms himself into a donkey instead of into a bird as he intended. The manner in which he has to resume human shape is by partaking of rose leaves.
Lucius witnesses the transformation of Pamphile into a bird. Watching through the chink of the door leading to her chamber he sees Pamphile divest herself of her garments and after opening a certain small chest, take several boxes therefrom, uncover one of them and rub herself for a long time with the ointment, from the soles of her feet to the crown of her head. Holding a lamp in her hand she uttered a long incantation, and then shook her limbs with a tremulous agitation; and from these, lightly fluctuating, soft feathers extended and strong wings burst forth, her nose hardened and incurvated, the nails were compressed and made crooked, and Pamphile turned into an owl. Giving voice to a querulous sound, she made trial of her new attributes, gradually leaping from the earth, and soon after, being raised on high, she flew out of doors with all the force of her wings. Thus she was voluntarily changed by her own magic arts.
Lucius then asked Pamphile's maid, Fotis, for a little ointment from the same box, as he much desired to experience a similar transformation. At first Fotis demurred, but at last agreed to do what he asked, telling him that a change back to human form could be effected by "small and frivolous herbs," such as dill put into fountain water, with the leaves of the laurel given as a lotion, and also to drink.
The matter being decided, Fotis went into the bedchamber of her mistress and fetched a box of ointment from the chest, which she brought to Lucius, who thus tells the story of what took place.
"Having obtained the box from Fotis, and having prayed that transformation would favour me with prosperous flights, I hastily divested myself of all my garments, and having ardently put my hand into the box and taken from it a sufficient quantity of the ointment, I rubbed with it the members of my body. And now, balancing my arms with alternate efforts, I longed to be changed into a bird. No plumes, however, germinated, but my hairs became evidently thickened into bristles, my tender skin was hardened into a hide, and the extremities of my hands, all my fingers having lost their number, coalesced into several hoofs and a long tail proceeded from the extremity of my spine. My face was now enormous, my mouth was long, and my limbs immoderate and pendant. Thus, also, my ears increased excessively, and were clothed with rough hairs. And while destitute of all hope, I consider the whole of my body, I see that I am not a bird, but an ass; and, complaining of the deed of Fotis, but being deprived both of the human gesture and voice, I silently expostulated with her (which was all I could do) with my underlip hanging down, and beheld her sternly and obliquely yet with humid eyes. But she, as soon as she beheld me thus changed, struck her forehead with her indignant hands, and exclaimed, 'Wretch that I am, I am undone. Trepidation, and at the same time festination, have beguiled me, and the similitude of the boxes has deceived me. It is well, however, that a remedy for this transformation may be easily obtained; for by only chewing roses you will put off the form of an ass and will immediately become again my Lucius. And I wish I had prepared for this evening, according to my custom, some garlands of roses, for then you would not have suffered the delay of even one night. But as soon as it is morning, a remedy shall hastily be procured for you.' After this manner she lamented. But I thought I was a complete ass, and instead of Lucius a labouring beast, yet I retained human sense."[79]
Lucius deliberated whether he should kick and bite Fotis to death, but was only deterred by the knowledge that if he did so he would not be able to return to human shape, so he ran to the stable and spent the night with the horses there. But unfortunately he was driven off by a band of robbers, and under these circumstances, necessarily abstaining from roses which he could not get, he was forced to continue under the form of an ass, in which he had numerous adventures.
A most remarkable series of transformations occurs in the Welsh romance "The History of Taliesin," written about the thirteenth century. Caridwen, who is boiling a charmed mixture from which she hopes to secure "the three blessed drops of the grace of inspiration," for her ugly and deformed son, leaves her cauldron for a moment, in which space of time one of her servants unfortunately obtains the benefit of her wisdom. In her anger she threatens him and he, in fear, takes to his heels. She gives chase and he changes into a hare. Then she becomes a greyhound and gains on him. Throwing himself into the river he takes the form of a fish, and she, as an otter, pursues him, and he assumes the shape of a bird. She follows him as a hawk. Then he drops to earth upon a heap of winnowed wheat, disguising himself as a grain. Caridwen transforms herself into a high-crested black hen and scratches among the wheat till she sifts him out and swallows him.
These kaleidoscopic changes are positively bewildering and may be regarded as purely symbolic. They contrast with the simple and pathetic transformation which follows.
The Ebesoana race among the Arawaks of Guiana, take their name from "Ebesotu," the transformed heroine of the following legend:—
A love-sick maiden prayed her father, a sorcerer, to transform her into a dog, so that she might follow her lover, who had been utterly indifferent to her charms.
Her father treated the affair very practically indeed, in spite of the fact that he thought his daughter very foolish.
The young lover, who was a huntsman, used to start out every morning into the woods, followed by four dogs, but when he returned in the evening only three of them were at heel, for one always ran home when it came to the point of slaughtering the prey. When the hunter reached his cottage he found it swept and clean, the fire burning, and bread freshly baked, and he imagined a kind neighbour had done this for him.
Next day, when he noticed there were only three dogs instead of four, he tied the hounds to a tree and went in search of the missing animal. Peeping through a crack in the door of his cottage he saw a lovely maiden, and the dogskin lying over a chair close by. Making a sudden dart into the room, he seized the skin and thrusting it into the fire, claimed the maiden as his bride.
(continued)
A skin-dress that could be put on or taken off to change a person into an animal, or into a human being again, is the basic idea of transformation in folk-tales. When the skin is burnt the animal permanently resumes human shape, as appears from the last story in the preceding chapter. Many legends of frog-princes, serpent-husbands, swan-maidens, tiger-sons, and so forth, fall into this class. A quaint and typical story of the kind is told about a mouse-maiden.
A king and queen of a certain city had a daughter who was invited to become the bride of a prince who lived in another city. Messengers were sent to fetch her, and when they arrived at the palace they ordered the bride to come out of her room to eat the rice of the wedding-feast. But the queen said to the messengers, "She is now eating cooked rice in the house."
They then begged the princess to come out to dress in the robes sent by the bridegroom, but the queen said, "She is already putting on robes in her chamber." Then they said she was to come out and be taken to the bridegroom's city, and the queen, having put a female mouse in an incense box, asked two of the messengers to come forward and gave the box into their hands, saying, "Take this and until seven days have gone by do not lift the lid of the box."
With this the messengers had to be satisfied. They took the box to the prince's city, and when they lifted the lid after seven days the mouse jumped out of the box and hid herself among the cooking pots. Now it was the duty of a servant girl in the prince's household to apportion and serve cooked rice and vegetable curry to the prince, and when he was satisfied, she covered up the cooking pots containing the rest of the food. Then the mouse came, and having taken and eaten some of the cooked rice and vegetables, covered up the cooking pots and went back to hide among the pots.
The following day the same thing occurred, and the prince said to the servant, "Does the mouse eat cooked rice? Look and tell me."
The girl went to see and when she came back she said, "She has eaten the cooked rice and covered the cooking pots, and has gone."
Next day the prince said, "I am going to cut the rice-crop. Remain at home and, when evening comes, put the utensils for cooking near the hearth." So the servant obeyed him and in the evening the mouse came and cooked. She placed the food ready and again ran and hid behind the pots.
This went on for several days, and when the whole rice-crop was garnered in, the prince went near to the place where the mouse was hidden and said, "Having pounded the rice and removed the husks, let us go to your village and present it to your parents as first-fruits." But the mouse said, "I will not go. You go!" So the prince made the servant get the package of cooked rice ready, and he went to the village of the queen and gave the package to her.
And the queen said, "Where is my daughter?" The prince answered, "She refused to come."
Then the queen said, "Go back to your city, and having placed the cooking utensils near the hearth, hide yourself and stay in the house."
After the prince returned to the city, he did as she had told him. The mouse, having come out, took off her mouse-jacket, and, assuming the shape of a girl, put on other clothes. While she was preparing to cook, the prince took the mouse-jacket and burnt it.
Afterwards when the girl went to the place where the mouse-jacket had been and looked for it, it was not there. Then she looked in the hearth, and saw that there was one sleeve of the skin-dress among the embers. While she was there weeping and weeping, the prince came out of his hiding-place and said, "Your mother told me to burn the mouse-jacket. Now you are really mine!"
So the mouse became a princess again and married the prince.[80]
The same idea is contained in the story of the king who, putting on a jackal-skin, turns into a jackal, only resuming human form permanently when the skin is burnt.[81] In "Indian Fairy Tales" there is a prince who has a monkey-skin which he can put on and off at pleasure.[82] A king's daughter in another story also has a monkey-skin and when a prince burns it she takes fire and flies away all ablaze to her father's palace.[83] Four fairy doves in feather-dresses appear in "Romantic Tales from the Panjab with Indian Night's Entertainment."[84] When they take off their feathers to bathe, a prince conceals one dress and the fairy is unable to resume bird form. The story of the feather-vest of the dove-maiden in "The Arabian Nights"[85] is similar in style.
The swan-maidens or cloud-maidens, as they are sometimes called, have a shirt made of swan's feathers which acts much in the same manner as the wolf-skin to the wer-wolf. The swan-maiden retains human shape as long as she is kept away from her feather tunic. The commonest form of this legend is that of a man who passes by a lake and sees several beautiful maidens bathing, their feather-dresses lying on the bank. He approaches quietly and steals one of the dresses. In due course the bathers come to the shore, don their dresses and swim off in the shape of swans, all but one, who is left lamenting on the shore. Then the thief appears, tells her what he has done and bids the maiden marry him. They live happily together until one day when the husband, by accident, leaves the wardrobe door unlocked and the swan-maiden puts on her feather-shirt and flies off, never to return.[86]
In a similar story the maiden is wearing a gold chain round her neck which her huntsman lover seizes, thus gaining the power over her which makes it possible to woo and wed her. She gives birth in due course to seven sons, each one of whom wears a gold chain about his neck and can transform himself into a swan at will.
Lothaire, King of France, married a fairy wife, and his children were born wearing golden collars which gave them the magical power of assuming the form of swans.
In the legends which have a Knight of the Swan as hero, like the story of Lohengrin, the swan plays only a secondary part.
The primitive idea at the root of all these stories is that the human soul, in passing from one shape to another, has to wear the outer sign or garment of the creature it desires to represent. The symbolic difference between the wer-wolf and the swan-maiden is that the former represents the rough, howling, and destructive night-wind, the latter the fleecy, pure, and enthralling summer cloud.
The Valkyries, with their shirts of plumage, who hover over Scandinavian battle-fields to minister to the souls of dying heroes are of the same order of beings as the Hindu Asparas and the Houris of the Mussulman. The Lorelei sirens with their fish-tails, their golden combs and mirrors, who lure fishermen to their doom on the rocks, are not far removed from the same family. All are partly human and allied with more or less fanciful animal forms and characteristics. They are frequently the precursors of evil or at least of danger to mankind, but many of them possess a sweetness and charm which is unsurpassed and unsurpassable.
Far more terrible than sirens and swan-maidens were the Berserkers of Scandinavia in the ninth century who, possessed by a strange mania, arrayed themselves in the skins of wolves or bears and went forth to see whom they might devour.
The Mara is a more peaceable but nevertheless a more uncanny being, a kind of female demon who comes at night to torment sleepers by crouching on their bodies and checking respiration. Sometimes she is to be seen in animal form, sometimes as a beautiful woman. She has been known to torture people to death, and may perhaps have some distant affinity to the vampire, but is far less vindictive and self-seeking, though gifted with powers of darkness.
A pious knight, journeying one day, found a fair lady nude, and bound to a tree, her back streaming with blood from the stripes of lashes. Rescuing her from her unfortunate position, he took her to his palace and made her his wife, her extraordinary loveliness winning her fame throughout the neighbourhood.
Her husband, the knight, accompanied her to mass every Sunday, and to his great surprise and regret she always refused to stay in the church while the creed was said. Just beforehand she would deliberately rise from her seat and walk out. Her husband questioned her about this strange habit, but could get no satisfactory explanation, nor would she consent to alter her behaviour. He used entreaties and even threats without avail, and at last he decided to keep her in the church by main force. Seizing upon her with both hands, he held her in her seat, and then he noticed her frame become convulsed and her eyes grow unnaturally large and dark. The service stopped and everyone in the building turned to see what was happening. "In the name of God, speak," cried the pious knight, "and tell me what or who thou art!" and as he said these words his wife melted away and disappeared, while, with a great cry of anguish, a monster of evil shape rose from the spot where she had been sitting and, passing through the air, vanished through the roof of the church.
Another legend about the Mara is that if she be wrapped up in the bedclothes and held down tightly, a white dove flies out of the window and the bedclothes will be found to contain nothing. This belief is apparently isolated and unrelated to other phenomena and is probably only a tribute to the elusive character of this she-demon.
One of the Calmuc stories concerns three sisters, who, coming across an enchanted castle tenanted by a white bird, are each in turn offered marriage by the owner. The third sister marries the bird, who turns out to be a handsome cavalier, but having burned his aviary, she loses him, and cannot regain her husband until the aviary is restored.
In the well-known story of "The Brahman Girl who marries a Tiger," the tiger assumes human shape and makes a beautiful girl fall in love with him. Soon after their marriage he threatens her, saying, "Be quiet or I shall show you my original shape."[87] When she urges him to do so he changes and behold, "four legs, a striped skin, a long tail, and a tiger's face come on him suddenly, and, horror of horrors, a tiger, and not a man stands before her!"
She has to obey all his orders and finally gives birth to a son, who also turns out "to be only a tiger."
She gets her brothers to help her, murders her child and runs off home. In the end the tiger is killed by her relatives, and the Brahman girl, in memory of him, raises a pillar over the well and plants a fragrant shrub on the top of it.[88]
The Chinese have a curious idea about "making animals,"[89] and a story is told about a man who arrived at an inn in Yang-Chow leading five donkeys. He asks the landlord whether he may put the animals in the stable, and while he goes off for a short time, he leaves instructions that they are not to be given water to drink. They become so restless, however, that the landlord takes the responsibility of setting them loose, and they make a rush to a neighbouring pond. But no sooner has water touched their lips than they roll on the ground and change into women. The landlord, frightened at what has occurred, hides them in his house and presently the man returns leading five sheep. But now the landlord's suspicions are aroused and, persuading his guest to take wine indoors, he goes out and waters the sheep. They turn into young men and their temporary owner is put under arrest and executed for a sorcerer.
In a Basque story, seven brothers forbid their sister to go near a certain house. She disobeys them and a witch in the house gives her certain herbs, telling her to put them in her brothers' foot-bath. She does so and the brothers are changed into cows. The ideas contained in these examples are similar in character to those contained in Grimm's "Household Tales." The following is more like the Japanese wer-fox episodes:—
A certain prince royal of India has a lovely mistress who bewitches him, and who falls asleep one day in a bed of chrysanthemums where her lover shoots and wounds a fox in the forehead. The girl is found to be bleeding from a wound in her temple and is thus exposed. She is an evil animal.
In many stories women give birth to animals.
A widow who lives near a palace and makes a livelihood by pounding rice, bears a frog which becomes a good-looking prince, but he ends as a frog.
In the story of Madana Kama Raja (Natesa Sastri) a queen bears a tortoise prince who has the power of leaving his shell, and assuming human form. One day his mother is present at the transformation and smashes the shell, after which her son has to remain a man. Another queen gives birth to a tortoise which is reared by her, and goes in search of divine flowers, which he obtains by the aid of a nymph.
A raja has two wives and the first has six sons, the second only one, who is a mongoose. His name is Lelsing, and he speaks like a man, but grows no bigger than an ordinary mongoose. In this story the six brothers do everything they can to ill-treat the mongoose boy, but all their tricks turn to his advantage, and in the end he grows rich while they grow poor, and finally they all get drowned, while he goes home rejoicing at his revenge upon them for their unkindness.[90]
The Bards at Jaisalmer claimed one of the raja's sons for a ruler, so he gave them one of his seven ranis, who was expecting to become a mother, and they took her to Nahan and near the Sarmor tank she gave birth first to a lion and four monsters, and then to a son. After the monsters were exorcised they took the child to Medni and he became the first raja of Nahan (Sarmor).[91]
Another raja's child was born with the ears of an ox. Only the raja's barber knew, but he blurted it out to the dom and the dom went to the raja's palace and sang
Then the raja was very angry, and only forgave the dom when he said he had not been told about the misfortune, but that a drum had sung the words to him.[92]
"The Two Brothers" is a typical and classical story in which one brother assumes the form of a great bull with all the sacred marks. In another story of German origin, the hero, who has been hacked to pieces and stuffed in a bag, is restored to life by a master sorcerer, who endows him with the power of assuming whatever shape he pleases. He turns into a fine horse, and the king's daughter, believing she is being deceived, has the animal decapitated.
A similar Russian tale is about a horse which has a golden mane and, when it is killed, a bull with golden hair arises from the blood spilt.
So numerous are the stories of this description, dealing with transformation, that it is practically impossible to divide them into their various types, although many attempts to classify them have been made by authoritative writers on folk-lore; nor is it possible to give them due occult significance. They are interesting chiefly on account of the details which may be gathered from them concerning methods and reasons of transformation.
The Indian Rakshasa (Bengalese Raqhosh) are beings of a malevolent nature which haunt cemeteries, harass the devout, animate dead bodies, and afflict mankind in various ways. They can assume any form they please, animal or other. Females appear as beautiful women for the purpose of luring men to their doom. When in their natural state they have upstanding hair, yellow as the flames which they vomit forth from mouths which are provided with huge tusks. They have large, black, hairy bodies. The Nagas, on the other hand, are semi-divine snake-beings with good impulses.
In "Bengali Household Tales," by William McCulloch,[93] a Raqhosh performs a transformation in the following manner: He removes a stone from an underground passage and descending brings forth a monkey. He then plucks a few leaves from a tree, draws water from a well close by, throws the leaves into it and pours it over the body of the monkey. The monkey is immediately transformed into a beautiful young woman with whom the Raqhosh descends by the underground passage. Towards dawn the two come up again. This time the Raqhosh plucks some leaves from another tree and throws them into some water from another well, and then pours it over the young woman. Instantaneously she is changed into a monkey again.
This is not the most usual way for such transformations and retransformations to occur in Indian folk-tales; sometimes they are achieved by magic rods. In Grimm's "Household Tale," "Donkey Cabbages," one kind of cabbage transforms a man into an ass and the other reverses the process.
Magicians, however, have other methods. Mercurius, the most skilful of sorcerers, was supposed to have discovered the secret of "fascinating" men's eyes in such a way as to make people invisible to their sight, or perhaps to give them the appearance of an animal. This may be compared to modern hypnotism and has an important bearing on the subject.
Pomponius Mela attributes to the Druidical priestesses of Sena the knowledge of transforming themselves into animals at will.
Proteus, according to Homer's account, becomes a dragon, a lion, or a boar. Eustathius, the commentator, adds, "not really changing but only appearing to do so." Proteus was an adroit worker of miracles, and was well acquainted with the secrets of Egyptian philosophy. He assumed animal shape in order to escape the necessity of foretelling the future when asked to do so but, whenever he saw his endeavours were of no avail, he resumed his natural appearance.
Towards the end of the sixteenth century Joseph Acosta, who resided in Peru, asserts that sorcerers existed there at that time who were capable of assuming any form they pleased. He tells of a ruler of a city in Mexico who was sent for by the predecessor of Montezuma and who transformed himself successively before the eyes of men who tried to seize his person, into a tiger, an eagle, and a serpent. At length he gave in, and being taken before the emperor was condemned to death.
The same kind of power was ascribed, in 1702, by the Bishop of Chiapa (a province of Guatemala) to the Naguals, the national priests who endeavoured to win back the children brought up as Christians by the Government, to the religion of their ancestors. After various ceremonies, the child he was teaching was told to advance and embrace the Nagual. At that moment he assumed a hideous animal form, and as a lion, tiger, or other wild beast, threw the young convert to Christianity into a state of abject terror by appearing chained to him.[94] There, no doubt, hypnotism became a weapon of religious fanaticism.
At the appearance of the monster Ravanas, the gods, becoming alarmed, transform themselves into animals: Indras changes into a peacock, Yamas into a crow, Kuveras into a chameleon, and Varunas into a swan in order to escape the ire of the enemy.
These transformations, says de Gubernatis,[95] instead of being capricious, were necessary and natural to the several gods, for the animal is the shadow that follows the hero and is so closely identified with him that it may often be said to be the hero himself.
Nash, in "Christ's Tears over Jerusalem," 1613, has the following remarkable passage. "They talk of an ox that tolled the bell at Woolwich, and how from an ox he transformed himself into an old man, and from an old man to an infant and into a young man again."
The Egyptians were the first to broach the opinion that the soul of man is immortal and that, when the body dies, it enters into the form of an animal which is born at the moment, thence passing on from one animal to another, until it has circled through the forms of all the creatures which tenant the earth, the water, and the air, after which it enters again into a human frame and is born anew. The whole period of transmigration is (they say) three thousand years.[96]
According to Egyptian beliefs only the souls of wicked men suffered the disgrace of entering the body of an animal when, "weighed in the balance" before the tribunal of Osiris, they were pronounced unworthy to enter the abode of the blessed. The soul was then sent back to the body of a pig.
The doctrine of metempsychosis was borrowed from Egypt by Pythagoras and classical allusions are so numerous that it is impossible to mention more than a few instances.
Empedocles believed he had passed through many forms, a bird and a fish among others. Lucian's story was of a Pythagorian cock which had been a man, a woman, a fish, a horse, and a frog, and of all states he thought that man was the most deplorably wretched of the animals. After anointing himself with enchanted salve from Thessaly, Lucian was transformed into an ass and worked for seven years under a "gardiner, a tyle man, a corier, and suchlike." At the end of the period he was restored to human shape by nibbling rose leaves.
Dionysius was believed to assume the form of a goat or of a bull, and Cronius was said to take the form of a horse. Epona was a horse-goddess, and Callisto in an Arcadian myth was changed into a bear. Citeus, son of Lycaon, laments the transformation of his daughter into a bear. Iphigenia at the moment of sacrifice was changed into a fawn. Osiris was mangled by a boar, or Typhon in the form of a boar;—just as in the tale of Diarmuid and Grainne, the former's foster brother was transformed into a boar.
The sorceress Thessala was able to call up strange animal ghosts: