WERE-WOLVES AND VAMPIRES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2857, 16 December 1908, Page 88

WERE-WOLVES AND VAMPIRES.

By a Bankes. In the dark. Middle Age, when superstitions of all kinds were life, and witchcraft and -oixery were \eiy generally practised — and al c o even at the present day in those parts of Eastern Europe where education is in a very primitive condition — the belief m the were-wolf and vampire was and is largely prevalent. The«e ghoulish creatures were believed to ba the mateiialised spirits i of tho^e v.-ho had practised any kind of sorcery during then lives. When dead it was behe /ed that their bodies did not decay, leniaining quiescent during the day, but at night n^ing in the form of these weird, murderous ghouls, and either devouring the dead, or sucking the blocd of the living. The grisly, cadaicrous creatures were believed to be ever prowling and hovering about at liight, now in a graveyai-d tearcbing for prey ; now, if any were so indiscreet as to sleep in the open air at night, softly alighting \ipon the sleeper, and. without waking him, suckmg away his 'lfe-blood. Even, it is stated, to this day in those more benighted parts those who believe in these ' chimerical creatures wear a were-wolf band as a, defence against their attacks.

But although, of course, the wer«-wolf im but a childish superstition, yet there is no doubt that sorcery as mystic and as mysterious »s in the days of Pharaoh is still practised. The somewhat r*re "rope trick" of the Indian juggler ia an example. 4. xope is apparently *thrown up in the air, so higk that the end is lost to sight. A boy apparently climbs up it, he, too, disappearing from view. The juggler then tella a tale of some monster who is cutting up the child, and one after another limb aiter ldnA falls apparently to the ground, until at length there is a. heap of dismembered remains. A gentleman, not believing 1 the evidence of hi 3 own eyes, then took a snapshot with his camera, and when developed there was not the slightest trace of eiuier the rope or the remains of the boy. The | magician had, in fact, hypnotised the entire audience into believing that ..hey saw that which did not exist. The "basket trick," which is much more frequently performed', must also unquestionably be produced by the same agency of hypnotism, which some of these Eastern magicians appear to possess in an extraordinary degree. But although there is no such thing as % were-wolf or an illusory vampire, yet there are other things ever hovering about, f*r more destructive and baneful, for they woudl ; drag down aud wxeck the immortal eoul. i But if we place ourselves- under the cate j of our Heavenly Father, whp sc loved us I that He gave His Son to die for us, that with His stripes we may be healed, we need not fear'the assaults of our spiritual enemies For greater is- He that is for us than those that be ? gainst us.