海外文化:英美民俗-狼人

【英文原文】

摘要：狼人据说是一种可以时时变化为狼的人。

The werewolf, according to superstition, in a person who from time to time changes into a wolf. The change is usually said to occur when the moon is full. Werewolves appear in many old stories. In some tales, they turn themselves into wolves by putting on a wolf skin, by drinking water from a wolf\'s footprint, or by rubbing a magic ointment on their bodies. In other stories, they are transformed by someone else\'s magic power.

The werewolves in most stories roam about at night, attacking and eating people or devouring dead bodies. In the stories the people who are threatened by werewolves use various methods to bring them back to human form. These methods include saying the werewolf\'s real name, hitting the werewolf three times on the forehead, and making the sign of the cross. According to the stories, if a wolf had humanlike eyes and a short or missing tail, people could be sure that it was a werewolf. And if a werewolf were wounded, the wound would still show the next day when the werewolf had changed back into a human being. It was a way to find out a werewolf\'s identity.