Name : lobis-homems, corredor, lobh omen, bruxsa or cucubuth
Behavior : whereas the bruxsa or cucubuth is a type of vampire-werewolf, consuming both flesh and blood, lobis-homems are usually gentle and non-attacking creatures.
Once fallen under a spell, the lobis-homem would attend a crossroad at night to become a wolf after groveling on the dirt. Then the creature would run into the countryside, howling out loud, without hurting anyone.
A shy and sad creature, the Portuguese lobis-homem could be easily recognized, for it was a wolf with a short and yellow-furred tail. Another far less-common type was the evil and devilish variety linked directly to the black arts of witchcraft.
Evil lobis-homems could be recognized by the shape of their eyes and sometimes because of the presence of the Devil’s mark in some part of the body.
A common belief is that when there are seven children of the same parents, one, either son or daughter, is fated before the age of puberty arrives to turn into a corredor— a night-ranger– that is, to become that which is preliminary to being a true wehr-wolf, or lobis-homem. The corredor need not necessarily assume a wolf’s shape; indeed, he often takes that of a hare, a wildcat or a fox, but of nights he must put on the likeness of one of those animals and range through woods and desert places.
The corredor by all I can learn harms no one but himself, and is unconscious of his nightly wanderings as soon as he returns to his human shape and right senses, but he is always to be recognized by excessive leanness, wild eyes, and a pale and haggard face.
The corredor steals from his bed, and climbing the highest tree in the neighborhood, strips to the skin and hides his clothes in the branches; then descending naked to the ground, he is instantly transformed into bestial shape, with all the habits belonging to the beast whose form he has put on. He is endowed with supernatural speed and can outstrip man and all other animals.
The child with this fate to undergo passes a novitiate of seven years as a corredor, and then unless the spell is broken he turns into a true lobis-homem, a versi-pellis, a wolf man or a wolf woman.
The female of this terrible human wild beast is known as lobeira. Male or female, it is a fierce creature, with appetites exaggerating those of the wolf it resembles, and whose strength and swiftness are greater than those of the wolf. The creature is now no longer harmless, but leaps upon and preys on other animals, and its special delight is in the slaughter and devouring of children.
