Animal

(From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shapeshifting)

'Shapeshifting is a common theme in mythology and folklore, as well as in science fiction and fantasy. In its broadest sense, it is a metamorphosis (change in the physical form or shape) of a person or animal. Shapeshifting involves physical changes such as alterations of age, gender, race, or general appearance or changes between human form and that of an animal (therianthropy), plant, or inanimate object.

(From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therianthropy)

Therianthropy (part man and part beast, from the Greek theríon, meaning "wild animal" or "beast" (impliedly mammalian), and anthrōpos, meaning "human being") refers to the metamorphosis of humans into other animals. Therianthropes have long existed in mythology, appearing in ancient cave drawings such as the sorcerer at Les Trois Freres.
The term therianthropy was used to refer to animal transformation folklore of Asia and Europe as early as 1901. Sometimes, "zoanthropy" is used instead of "therianthropy".
Therianthropy was also used to describe spiritual belief in animal transformation in 1915 and one source raises the possibility the term may have been used in the 16th century in criminal trials of suspected werewolves.


http://www.geocities.com/schablotski.geo/Werewolf1.htm - 'Timeline of werewolf and therianthrope fiction'


I'd like to look more into this kind of story. Similar to 'The Queen Rat' story..


(From: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29320962@N07/3031581619/)

'The Queen Rat

The most idiosyncratic of my illustrations for my weird book. Below is an excerpt which explains the picture:

A vestige of much older traditions about the sexual potency of rats may have survived into the Victorian era in the folklore of the Toshers, or scrap metal scavengers of Bermondsey, in London. They repeated tales of the Queen Rat, a rat-like supernatural being who could transform into an alluring young woman and seduce an unsuspecting tosher. If the tosher failed to notice her rat-like characteristics (eyes which reflected light in the dark, claws on her toes) and made sufficiently passionate love to her, she would give him good luck, but if he detected her animal nature and shunned her, she would shape-shift back into a rat, and he would suddenly become alarmingly accident prone. In the case of Jerry Sweetly, who slapped the Queen Rat when she bit his neck at the height of her passion, the price was death and misfortune for his future sexual partners, although he always did well in business after their assignation. The Queen Rat also seemed to be capable of passing on some sort of genetic inheritance through the men she seduced, for amongst the children borne by their future sexual partners, there would always be a girl with mismatched eye colours, and very acute hearing. Once again, the rat is both admired and despised for being so like us: it exhibits an evident enjoyment of sex and a prodigious reproductive capacity.'