Lycantropos

In Italy, France and Germany, it was said that a man or woman could turn into a werewolf if he or she, on a certain Wednesday or Friday, slept outside on a summer night with the full moon shiningdirectly on his face
Even if the denotation of lycanthropy is limited to the wolf-metamorphosis of living human beings, the beliefs classed together under this head are far from uniform, and the term issomewhat capriciously applied. The transformation may be temporary or permanent; the were-animal may be the man himself metamorphosed; may be his double whose activity leaves the real man to allappearance unchanged; may be his soul, which goes forth seeking whom it may devour, leaving its body in a state of trance; or it may be no more than the messenger of the human being, a real animal or afamiliar spirit, whose intimate connection with its owner is shown by the fact that any injury to it is believed, by a phenomenon known as repercussion, to cause a corresponding injury to the humanbeing
Common among the Kashubs of what is now northern Poland, and the Serbs and Slovenes, was the belief that if a child was born with hair, a birthmark or a caul on their head, they were supposed topossess shape-shifting abilities. Though capable of turning into any animal they wished, it was commonly believed that such people preferred to turn into a wolf.[21]
The wendigo (also known as windigo,weendigo, windago, waindigo, windiga, witiko, wihtikow, and numerous other variants)[1] is a creature appearing in the legends of the Algonquian people.
It is thought of variously as a malevolentcannibalistic spirit that could possess humans or a monster that humans could physically transform into. Those who indulged in cannibalism were at particular risk,[2] and the legend appears to havereinforced this practice as a taboo.
Wendigo psychosis is the name conventionally given to a culture-bound disorder featuring an intense craving for human flesh and the fear that the sufferer would...