Re: CHAT: Austin in Mid November (bats and wolves)

scaves@frontiernet.net writes:
>I've been reading up on werewolves (new project) and taboo
>deformations.  In order not to utter the totemically dangerous
>word "wolf," people in Europe came up with epithets, or verbal
>deformations.  Gray-leg, Strangler--hence warg, varg in the
>Germanic languages.  How many of you have werewolf legends in
>your conlangs, and do they go by epithets?
In the language of the Daga Bundogs, they call weredogs "aswang". Anyway
there are no epithets for weredogs. The reason they have weredogs instead
of wolves is because there are no wolves in the Philippines, but plenty of
dogs. The name aswang  also applies to werehogs, and werecats (it's also a
general term for any number of malevolent creatures).

Weredogs are believed to be people during the day but around midnight they
change into weredogs and kills them. The Daga Bundog believe that sour
food or spices can drive them off. One becomes a weredog by being breathed
on by one or drinking from someones cup that is a weredog.



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'The beginning calls for courage; the end demands care'