The Cumsha Hound In youth we gave little credence to the lycanthrope who was al nately man or wolf at will, incline ing rather to versions of the carnivore to whom it was given once a year to assume human guise and a8 a beauteous maiden, conducted a violent flirtation with her intended victim only to lure him, the end, to a remote forest glade and there destroy him, reverting to wolf by easy stages during the process. We live to find this concep tion in the main unfounded and our scepticism rebuked; for it is the true lycanthrope that has come down to us and whom we encountin the guise of household vants, the postman, the telegraph messenger, the da host then, that recorders of Cathay's fauna should make no mention of Hound (Canis finanwsis) and that so much attention should be directed to common places like eggs 1,000,000 years old or the missing link (who waits fon us daily at table) to the exelusion of this survival of the werewolf.
Just as the dog and the eat will unexpectedly revert to their savage forbears, so does the Cumsha Hound periodically betray his or-in, It is interesting to note that.
val sponsors for the were-elf stressed the influence of" the moon upon his transformation from brute, So with the Cum-sha Hound. "With the waning of the moon, he is attentive to the point of affection. At the new moon, he is dangerous or innocuous according to sacrifices rendered him, In mid-moon, he is quite harmless, exhibiting, in fact, a species of coma from which, however, he is instantly aroused by the chinking of coins which. must subsequently be yielded him else. disastrous consequences. ensue., Throughout the Twelfth Moon (Chinese computation), he is least to be trusted since he is prepare for the Grand Annual Hunt under the direction of skilled leaders. - It then that he betrays his affinity to' the wilder Canide by hunting in packs. To turn the back on him this time is to court death. Wheel about suddenly, and one discovers him crouched to spring. Thus detected, he resumes the posture of man'and grins wolfishly, engendering sincere sympathy with Hittle Red Riding Hood.
In a sense, our favourite conception. of the Iyeanthrope still hol since the modern survival endear ours to exercise some of the wiles of the maiden whose description thralled and terrified us, This will be better understood from brief review of the legend. Scene, a hut at the edge of the forest. Father being away, the eldest gon has taken
tress of mother and Junior., te-staving cut at nights to the diy Know all about the were-wolf, whereas elder brother has no ink-Hing of it. Christmas eve; and the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.