Matheson Collection > Aislinge Meic Conglinne

Parallels. xlix
in her body. When he wanted to eat, he made himself
small, crept up into her mouth, and pinched her till she
was forced to eat something, when he was appeased.
If he wished to eat " Eierback" or " Stuten", he would
call to her out of her body, "Stuten!" "Eierback!"
and when he was satisfied he said "Stop !" after which
she was unable to eat anything more.^
In a dissertation for the degree of doctor at Witten-
berg, written in 1757, the candidate treats the case of
a celebrated eater of the time, whom the people con-
sidered possessed. The Senate of the University had
instituted an inquiry into this case, and placed the
minutes at the disposal of the author.^
According to an English superstition, it is the presence
of a wolf in the stomach that produces an unnatural
craving for food. Thus, in The Dialect of Craven in the
West Riding of York (2nd ed., London, 1888), vol. ii,
p. 8, the word " wolf" is explained — " an enormous
unnatural appetite, vulgarly supposed to be a wolf in
the stomach."^ Or take this passage from the Vocabu-
lary of East Anglia, by Robert Forby, London, 1830 :
"Wolf, (1) a preternatural or excessive craving for
^ Ernst Gottfried Kurella, der Arzneygelahrtlieit Doktors,
Gedanhen von Besessenen unci Bezan'herten, Halle, 1749. On
p. 12 the author quotes the proceedings of the Court of In-
quisition from a disputation by Prof. Detharding of Rostock,
Von Benessenen und von hescsitcn- Gehaltenen.
^ Christ. Godofred. Frenzelius, De polyiihago et allotriophago
Wittenberf/cnsI, p. 4 : " Putabant vero plurimi ilium miraculosa
et priBternaturali ratione ea peragere, ideoque suspectum et a
diabolo forte obsessum esse communiter dicebant." In chapter
ii the author, with much learning, gives " alia phagonum ex-
empla".
3 Cf. the slang use of •' to wolf" = to eat gluttonously.