the true original of our _turncoat_. In Petronius the superstition
appears in its full shape, and is worth repeating. At the banquet of
Trimalchion, Nicoros gives the following account of the turn-skins
of Nero's time:

It happened that my master was gone to Capua to dispose of some
second-hand goods. I took the opportunity and persuaded our guest
to walk with me to the fifth milestone. He was a valiant soldier,
and a sort of grim water-drinking Pluto. About cock-crow, when the
moon was shining as bright as mid-day, we came among the monuments.
My friend began addressing himself to the stars, but I was rather
in a mood to sing or to count them; and when I turned to look at
him, lo! he had already stripped himself and laid down his clothes
near him. My heart was in my nostrils, and I stood like a dead man;
but he '_circumminxit vestimenta_', and on a sudden became a
wolf. Do not think I jest; I would not lie for any man's estate.
But to return to what I was saying. When he became a wolf, he began
howling, and fled into the woods. At first I hardly knew where I
was, and afterwards, when I went to take up his clothes, they were
turned into stone. Who then died with fear but I? Yet I drew my
sword, and went cutting the air right and left, till I reached the
villa of my sweetheart. I entered the court-yard. I almost breathed
my last, the sweat ran down my neck, my eyes were dim, and I
thought I should never recover myself. My Melissa wondered why I
was out so late, and said to me: 'Had you come sooner you might at
least have helped us, for a wolf has entered the farm, and worried
all our cattle; but he had not the best of the joke, for all he
escaped, for our slave ran a lance through his neck.' When I heard
this, I could not doubt how it was, and, as it was clear daylight,
ran home as fast as a robbed innkeeper. When I came to the spot