tal!" he exclaimed, as his eyes fell on Paul. "Magnificent! He is
quite as fat as the other two. How clever of you, darling!" and throwing
his arms round her, he embraced her tenderly. A few seconds later and he
suddenly thrust her from him.

"Quick! quick!" he cried. "Run away, darling! run away instantly. I can
feel myself changing!" and he pushed her gently to the door.

Mlle de Nurrez took one glance at Paul as she left the room. "Poor
fool!" she said, half pityingly, half mockingly. "Poor fat fool! Though
you may no longer believe in women you will certainly believe in
werwolves--now." And as the door slammed after her, the wildest of
shrieks from within demonstrated that, for once in her life, Mlle de
Nurrez had spoken the truth.

CHAPTER XIII

THE WERWOLF IN BELGIUM AND THE NETHERLANDS

Belgium abounds in stories of werwolves, all more or less of the same
type. As in France, the werwolf, in Belgium, is not restricted to one
sex, but is, in an equal proportion, common to both.

By far the greater number of werwolfery cases in this country are to be
met with amongst the sand-dunes on the sea coast. They also occur in the
district of the Sambre; but I have never heard of any lycanthropous
streams or pools in Belgium, nor yet of any wolf-producing flowers, such
as are, at times, found in the Balkan Peninsula.

Though the property of lycanthropy here as elsewhere has been acquired
through the invocation of spirits--the ceremony being much the same as
that described in an earlier chapter--nearly all the cases of werwolfery
in Belgium are hereditary.

In Belgium, as in other Roman Catholic countries, great faith is
attached to exorcism, and for the expulsion of every sort of "evil
spirit" various methods of exorcism are employed. For example, a werwolf
is sprinkled with a compound either of 1/2 ounce of sulphur, 4 drachms
of asafoetida, 1/4 ounce of castoreum; or of 3/4 ounce of hypericum in
3 ounces of vinegar; or with a solution of carbolic acid further diluted
with a pint of clear spring water. The sprinkling must be done over the
head and shoulders, and the werwolf must at the same time be addressed
in his Christian name. But as to the success or non-success of these
various methods of exorcism I cannot make any positive statement. I have
neither sufficient evidence to affirm their efficacy nor to deny it. Rye
and mistletoe are considered safeguards against werwolves, as is also a
sprig from a mount