naive process has made bears of
the Arkadians, whose name, like that of the Lykians, merely signified
that they were "children of light"; and the metamorphosis of Kallisto,
mother of Arkas, into a bear, and of Lykaon into a wolf, rests
apparently upon no other foundation than an erroneous etymology.
Originally Lykaon was neither man nor wolf; he was but another form of
Phoibos Lykegenes, the light-born sun, and, as Mr. Cox has shown, his
legend is but a variation of that of Tantalos, who in time of drought
offers to Zeus the flesh of his own offspring, the withered fruits, and
is punished for his impiety.

It seems to me, however, that this explanation, though valid as far
as it goes, is inadequate to explain all the features of the werewolf
superstition, or to account for its presence in all Aryan countries and
among many peoples who are not of Aryan origin. There can be no doubt
that the myth-makers transformed Lykaon into a wolf because of his
unlucky name; because what really meant "bright man" seemed to them
to mean "wolf-man"; but it has by no means been proved that a similar
equivocation occurred in the case of all the primitive Aryan werewolves,
nor has it been shown to be probable that among each people the
being with the uncanny name got thus accidentally confounded with the
particular beast most dreaded by that people. Etymology alone does not
explain the fact that while Gaul has been the favourite haunt of the
man-wolf, Scandinavia has been preferred by the man-bear, and Hindustan
by the man-tiger. To account for such a widespread phenomenon we must
seek a more general cause.

Nothing is more strikingly characteristic of primitive thinking than the
close community of nature which it assumes between man and brute. The
doctrine of metempsychosis, which is found in some shape or other all
over the world, implies a fundamental identity between the two; the
Hindu is taught to respect the flocks browsing in the meadow, and will
on no account lift his hand against a cow, for who knows but it may
he his own grandmother? The recent researches of Mr. M`Lennan and Mr.
Herbert Spencer have served to connect this feeling with the primeval
worship of ancestors and with the savage customs of totemism. [71]

The worship of ancestors seems to have been every where the oldest
systematized form of fetichistic religion. The reverence paid to the
chieftain of the tribe while living was continued and exaggerated after
his deat