 |
Werewolves
and the Big Bad Wolf helped induce generations
of people to believe that the wolf was a snarling, lurking beast
hiding in the forest waiting for someone to drop by for lunch.
Between 1520 and 1630, over 30 000 supposedly proven cases of
werewolves were documented. Most of these people received harsh
treatment from their persecutors.
The "Werewolves" may have suffered from
a psychological disorder, called lcanthropy,
or be under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs, or even have
had rabies. Sometimes people who were up to no good skulked around
in wolf skins, trying to scare the populous for their own devious
reasons, this may have helped fuel the werewolf legend.
The interest in the myth of werewolves has been kept alive by
tales like Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs. More
recently by movies. The first Werewolf movie was titled "The Werewolf"
and was made in 1913. Since then we have crowded into picture
theatres to be terrified by movies like "The Howling" and "An
American Werewolf in London" and lots more.
Another famous tale that has not been
so deadly for wolves is about the twin
brothers Romulus and Remus, who are incorporated into the arms
of the city of Rome. They were condemned to death as babies and
thrown into the River Tiber. They were the illegitimate sons of
the vestal virgin Rhea Silvia and the god Mars. A female wolf
found the twins, her maternal instincts took over and she suckled
them and took them to a cave overlooking Rome. The children were
later discovered by a shepherd and became part of his family.
There are other stories of children being raised by wolves, there
were several cases recorded between 1843 and 1933 in India. In
1920 a Doctor Singh brought back two girls to his orphanage who
had lived with wolves. The oldest girl was eight and they walked
on all fours at their time of rescue. They fed entirly on raw
meat, and they lapped their water crouched on all fours. When
they felt threatened, they hunched their backs, bared their teeth
and growled.
|
