In Europe the belief in lycanthropy, as the transformation is called, is very old. Herodotus, the Greek historian of the 5th century B.C., recounted a tradition concerning the Neuri, a people who turned into wolves for a few days every year ... In 16th century France the belief was so prevalent that the parliament of Franche-Comt� passed a law expelling werewolves ...

The belief in lycanthropy persisted even into the late 19th century, when French peasants in remote regions feared to go out at night lest they be attacked by loup-garou, the French name for werewolf. Country folk in North Germany thought that speaking the word "wolf" in the month of December laid them open to attack by a werewolf; Danish countryfolk claimed to be able to detect a werewolf by the shape of his eyebrows; while Greeks believed epileptics to be lycanthropes ...