ferocity against human beings, and those animals which are not wild,
that the natives of these regions suffer more detriment from these,
than they do from true and natural wolves; for when a human habitation
has been detected by them isolated in the woods, they besiege it with
atrocity, striving to break in the doors, and in the event of their
doing so, they devour all the human beings, and every animal which is
found within. They burst into the beer-cellars, and there they empty
the tuns of beer or mead, and pile up the empty casks one above
another in the middle of the cellar, thus showing their difference
from natural and genuine wolves. . . . Between Lithuania, Livonia, and
Courland are the walls of a certain old ruined castle. At this spot
congregate thousands, on a fixed occasion, and try their agility in
jumping. Those who are unable to bound over the wall, as; is often the
case with the fattest, are fallen upon with scourges by the captains
and slain." [1] Olaus relates also in c. xlvii. the story of a
certain nobleman who was travelling through a large forest with some
peasants in his retinue who dabbled in the black art. They found no
house where they could lodge for the night, and were well-nigh
famished. Then one of the peasants offered, if all the rest would hold
their tongues as to what he should do, that he would bring them a lamb
from a distant flock.

[1. OLAUS MAGNUS: _Historia de Vent. Septent_. Basil. 15, lib. xviii.
cap. 45.]

He thereupon retired into the depths of the forest and changed his
form into that of a wolf, fell upon the flock, and brought a lamb to
his companions in his mouth. They received it with gratitude. Then he
retired once more into the thicket, and transformed himself back again
into his human shape.