The llobádigo

I'm in the mountains, I hear howling away behind some hills; Sanabria Wolves should be calling, perhaps meet to perform any of its mysterious rituals, this is night of singing to the moon or something. I can not stop thinking about how different is the attitude of people today
-Mainly the city-that of our elders.
Now we think of wolves as at the apex of ecological pyramid essential that as we had in the school is a triangle which represents understory plants and more than super-predators, not include us; pyramid whose residents must protect and respect.
The Sanabria, as the inhabitants of any other rural area until not long ago saw the wolf to an enemy that had to be exterminated; devouring cattle and if they were not careful, people, I do not remember having heard of anyone who has been eaten by these animals.
But for years the wolf was both hated and feared; tyrant winter and night, prompting fears could move beyond reality to settle in the realm of legends and these, like the sound, it can become more true of this world.
I still remember that as a child, I think it was November, at the time when our forests are tinged with sadness and rain is permanent company, said in a news that a wolf had attacked a woman lands of Galicia, Orense? Maybe? , the rumor quickly spread like wildfire, becoming of major proportions, about a pack of wolves attacking people and had already entered Sanabria. Women affected neighbor commented that this had appeared half eaten in some village in the mountains, I listened with ears frightened child, but with the eyes of future rational man, not for anything he had seen Rodriguez de la Fuente on TV. The people, however these wolves was terrified of bloody noses and eyes infernal regrettable, but nonexistent. So is fear.
The poor creatures had not eaten anyone, but beyond the mere rumor surprising, as I learned much later, after the fear that the wolf was hiding - in part - a phenomenon of lycanthropy. I always thought that the legend of the werewolf was confined to the shady forests of Central Europe and the Balkans with variants in other cultures, such as alligator and jaguar men in the American forests or bear men among the Eskimos, but here, the house beside the remains of a tradition that brings its own original features the sinister legend.
The llobádiga llobádigo or call on our land to an alleged illness causing wolves, with a curious twist: these animals are not directly infected whom, nor need be bitten or scratched his victim, are dogs that have fought wolves or simply have been close to them evil transmitters. It is not known to affect adults, only children; enough that a dog has been in contact with their wild cousins ​​and approach a child to this unfortunate candidate becomes contagion. Of course, the dogs were not allowed to get close to children, but also a person who had seen the wolf or who have had close became agent exposure, and these seemed to pose more danger than dogs, according to the belief .
My informants did not agree on the symptoms, which could be hair growth, rather, he would throughout the body hair, nails will grow and canines and would become a sort of wild animal, or it might be a variant of rabies. In the first case, I have news that temporarily change is reversible as with werewolves-normal people use for most of the time but whose nature changes with phenomena such as the appearance of the full moon, like a panorama bleak indeed for the unfortunate victim and family, however there is certainly curious, to prevent the curse.
This is a ceremony for his style can be traced to remote antiquity, possibly pre-Christian. Seems to be-I do not have many details about it, I confess, to bring the mountain white broom, of those with yellow flower, home once the plant is thrown into the fire, when he caught the mother or any other person suspected of producing arms contagion passes and chest by the smoke given off by the fire, this simple ritual seems sufficient to move away the danger and sentenced to werewolf or whatever might be saved. A rational explanation would be that any microorganisms that transmit the disease are destroyed by smoke produced by that particular plant, I prefer the other, why not?, Is more poetic: A dark force of nature overcome by the magic , the end of the day only a matter of points of view.
Because to us, creatures of the electrical age, the asphalt and the Internet, these stories do not seem nothing more than stories, superstitions of ignorant people, and upon hearing we can not stop smiling indulgently as we parapetamos after powerful computers, we use vehicles fast and mobile phones, following us trained in rational science classrooms. But would think the same if all these tools we were born negated progress? If we lived like our ancestors lived, in these isolated villages without electricity, which for a night out only had the benefit of a candle, when you had to go early in the morning to water the fields in those dark roads, surrounded by forests where each tree shade could not, as he listened to the distance-or not so far-the howling of wolves, perhaps then, however rational we are, we would not be so sure of what is and what not, perhaps then we could come to understand what this tradition as the llobádigo meant, beyond the old tale.

@pacoespada1