Those poor wolves! ... The dog's cousin, the wolf, has inspired lots of horrific tales through the ages - probably borne of a deep fear of wolves which have been thought to be unnaturally cruel, ferocious, treacherous, and to have huge appetites. One of the most known legends based on the wolf is that of the "werewolf". A werewolf is a human being that changes into a wolf (usually the result of an evil curse). The werewolf is the most common "were" creature, but there are others that are less known! In a place called Wallachia there were weredogs. Mexico and Peru had weretigers, were-eagles and wereserpents ... However, Abyssinia and Egypt had the biggest collection of were-animals, including werehyenas, wereleopards, weretigers, werejaguars, werelions, were-elephants, werecrocodiles, were-alligators, and even weresharks! Most such legends, though, are about werewolves ... But, like lots of other yarns passed on through the ages, werewolf stories vary greatly. For example, some say werewolves are just men wearing a wolves' heads - but others say a werewolf is a man who turns partially, or all the way, into a wolf. Werewolves are usually men, but can also be women and children. Being a werewolf can be voluntary, but not always ... It can also be hereditary ... or it can occur as a punishment, such as an evil spell, or curse ... or even as the unfortunate victim of another werewolf. There have been many scary old movies made about werewolves - you must have seen at least ONE! ... You know the story: some poor guy stumbling through a misty old graveyard ... under the light of a full moon ... suddenly, tufts of hair begin to grow on the back of his hands ... then, fangs sprout from his mouth ... and the half-crazed man-creature lifts his head up, glaring at the moon ... and then he ... HOOOOOWWWLS! It is said that men born on Christmas Eve become werewolves, as do murdered men. There are a number of other ways a person can become a werewolf, including drinking from haunted streams or pools, or out of the footprint of a savage wolf. You can also become a werewolf by eating the flesh of a wild wolf, or by sleeping outside on a summer's night, on a Wednesday or Friday, as the light of the full moon shines on your face. Werewolves in Germany, Greece, and Serbia are thought to become vampires after death. Romanian legend has it that not only did werewolves become vampires after death, but vampires could also turn themselves into werewolves.