Written in 1912 by a famous ghost hunter who was also an occult fantasy writer, this interesting book collects together folktales and traditions from across Europe, starting in the British Isles, through Spain, France, Belgium and Norway to Russia. The "scientific" accounts (including "How to Become a Werewolf") are embellished by anecdotes of the author's personal experiences with werewolves, ghosts and vampires.From Chapter 1: It is an old belief that the souls of cataleptic and epileptic people, during the body's unconsciousness, adjourned temporarily to animals, and it is therefore only in keeping with such a view to suggest that on the deaths of such people their spirits take permanently the form of animals. (Summary by Beth Thomas)