In most early western cultures, wolves were traditionally the animal guise assumed by witches or warlocks wishing to travel incognito, defend their turn, or attack and prey on mortals. They transformed themselves by donning the animal's skin, by drinking a vile potion (made from special herbs, human blood, and the fat of dead infants), or via a pact with Satan or his minions. Certain lore held that agents of the devil had double-sided skinds: human on one side, lupine (wolflike) on the other.
In other lore, werewolves were the unfortunate victims of either a witch's curse or demonic possession - innocents doomed to involuntarily become predatory monsters by night and awaken tormented by the knowledge of their condition and crimes, longing for release or death. There were also overt connections between lycanthropy and vampirism, beyond the common bond of bloodthirst, or the vampire's ability to change into a wolf. In some cultures it was believed a person who was a werewolf in life was damned to return from the grave as a vampire. thus death would provide no deliverance for the innocent cursed with the affliction.
The persistens association of lycanthropy with witchcraft throughout Europe led many presumably innocent victims of the notorious European witch hunts to be torched as "weir-wolves." In the sixtheenth century, convicted werewolf Peter Stubbe confessed under torture to wearing a magic belt given to him by Satan allowing him to become a wolf, killing and partially devouring many children in and about Cologne, Germany, for twenty-five years. Stubbe, his daughter, and his sister were executed; the "magic belt" was never found.
Between 1520 and 1630, more that thirty thousand cases of lycanthropy were reported in central France. In Labourt, France, in 1619, appointed witch finders Pierre de l'Ancre and Commissioner Espaignel ferreted out many "weir-wolves." Convicted "weir-wolves" were too dangerous to hang then burn; they had to be burned alive and their shaes tossed to the winds.
Every corner of the globe has its indigenour lycanthropes. In England, witches were thought to change into cats thanks to magical ointments; in Mexico, witches metamorphosed into coyotes to drink children's blood; in India, women could change into dogs by slipping into canine skins; in Burma, vengeful married women changed into tigers by wearing tigerskin or could become venomous sepents (snake-people). In Jamaica, twin brothers were waid to be able to inhabit the bodies of rats at will, sneaking into the homes of their enemier to lick (numbing the skin) and nibble the soles of their feet away as they slept. Native American mythology posited the existence of "skin walkers," individuals who wore wolf skins and could shapeshift into evil, bestial forms and move at incredible speeds. In Germany, men became wolves by wearing a magic belt, while and equally magical strap worn on the head could change women into foxes. In China it was believed that foxes could assume human guise, much like the Celtic and Gaelic seal-people - the Roane of the Highlands, the Selkies of the Orkneys and Shetland, and the Merrows of Ireland.
The Leopard Men of West Africa were feared for centuries, just as the carnivorous Wendigo demon frightened Canada's Inuits, cursed polar bear-men terrified Norwegians, dangerous reindeer-people roamed Lapland, and Russians dreaded shapeshifting bear-men. Other corners of Russia and Scandinavia were haunted by their own local breeds of werewolves. Nort America has its share of shapeshifter beliefs. In the Ozarks witches are believed to assume the form of wolves or giant cats for nocturnal visits to their lovers, or to thabel. In Ozark Superstitions (1947), folklorist Vance Randolph tells the tale of "a drunken bravo in northwestern Arkansas" who fired at an enormous cat, blowing off it's foot and causing a woman to scream nearby; the next morning, a woman in a neighboring cabin died, having bled to death from the loss of her foot in a rumored shooting accident.
Though the French word loup-garou has been popularly thought to refer to traditional werewolves, French-Canadian lore links loup-garou to sorcerers with the magical ability to torment thir enemies by assuming the form of owls, bears, or wolves. Louisiana Cajun legends speak of the culture: Cajun loup-garou gather to dance together on the Bayou Houla; control giant bats that carry them about, and some can change themselves into mules to work their land. To frighten them away, one has to throw a frog at them, or leave a sifter outside the home, as they are compelled to count every hole. If sprinkled with salt, they catch fire and dash out of their skins.
Many cultures indeed believed the condition to be communicable by either bite or exposure to werewolf's saliva, and most cultures consider lycanthropy a curse (both elements essential to the pop-cultural werewolf mythology). There are exceptions: Wiccan beliefs invite male devotees who sleep naked under the night sky to let the wolf spirit possess their bodies to dream of future events, while Amazonian tribal rituals summon the jaguar spirit to inhabit human form.
In each respective culture's lycanthrope lore, there are certain characteristics that might indentify
the damned in his or her mortal form. In many Christian cultures, it was believed that the unlucky few
born on December twenty-fifth, the date of Christ's birth, were cursed to become werewolves. Certain
physical deformities marked a lycanthrope: red hair, eyebrows that join over the bridge of the nose, hairs
on the palm of the hands, hair frowing under the skin, or index and middle fingers of the same length
were sure signs of lycanthropy. (Nocturnal disappearances, an unnatural affinity for raw of bloody-rare
meat, a proclivity toward sexual attacks, and a particular craving for human flesh were considered tip-offs,
too.)