SOURCE: "The Drone" (Fantasy Magazine, September 1934) by A. Merritt

DESCRIPTION: "...And then there was a swift haze — that was what struck me so forcibly in what you told of your sensitive friend, Caranac. It cleared as swiftly and there wasn't any priest. No. But there was a big hyena standing where he had been — standing on its hind feet like a man and looking at me. I could see its hairy body. It held its forelegs over its shaggy chest as though crossed. And the reek of it came to me — thick. I didn't reach for my gun — I never thought of it, my mind in the grip of some incredulous fascination. The beast opened its jaws. It grinned at me. Then it walked — walked is exactly the word — six paces, dropped upon all fours, trotted leisurely into the bush, and vanished there.

PLOT: The story is actually two different events narrated by different friends at the Explorers' Club. While discussing werewolves and shape-changers, the topic turns to how people have certain animal qualities, a second animal nature under their human one. The theory is suggested that were-creatures are people who can switch from their human self to their animal self. Hewitt tells how when he was in Abyssinia he saw a medicine man turn into a hyena and disappear into the jungle. Macleod tells how he ran into an old school chum, Ferguson, who had appeared to change in physical appearance from a skinny fellow into a rounder man covered in fuzz-like hair. Macleod goes out to his home where he keeps bees and finds his friend has taken on bee qualities, down to the many-faceted eyes which he hides under sun glasses. When Ferguson dies a single bee crawls out of his mouth as his body returns to its original shape and size.

WEREWOLF FACTS: The idea of a spirit or ectoplasm taking over a human is not new. Blackwood, O'Donnell and even Robert E. Howard had used it before Merritt. What is different is that Merritt suggests in this story that we all carry around animal sub-selves which lycanthropes can bring to the surface.

INTERESTING FACTS: Merritt's episodic tale has some interesting connections. Hewitt's story is reminiscent of Robert E. Howard's "The Hyena"(1928) while having a Rider Haggard feel. Macleod's story may have suggested the idea for Roald Dahl's "Royal Jelly" (1959). Caranac tells of a friend who has spells where he sees people as animals. This idea is similar to Daphne Du Maurier's "The Blue Lenses" (1959) where a woman sees people as animals. That story may have been part of the inspiration for the famous episode of the Twilight Zone where everybody normal has pig noses ("Eye of the Beholder" 11/11/1960).