Among the many survivais which have come down to us from the childhood of humanity nothing seems to be so widespread, so prominent, so persistently vital, as the belief in Metamorphosis. Mythology and Legend are filled with it. Literature is indebted to it for some of her brightest jewels; in fact, some of her grandest monuments, without it, would hardly have a raison d'être. In all nations and times the gods enjoy this, their peculiar privilege, as a matter of course, and they use it, both on themselves and on others, with varying motives and more or less discretion. Among men, those who come by the gift naturally are comparatively rare, and seldom encountered outside of the most primitive nations; of the remainder, a few are presented with the gift by some higher power, but the great majority derive their ability wholly from the use of magic arts. There are the Bear-Men or“ Berserkers” and the Swan-Maidens of Scandinavia, the Tiger-Men of India, the Hyena-Men of Abyssinia and many other people of a similar character in all quarters of the earth.