Bulgarian farmer Trich Draganov was working on a new plot of field on the outskirts of a village in Macedonia when he stumbled into the ground on a wooden box, tied with chains and locked. Opening the find, he found a skull inside, very similar to the skull of a werewolf (as it is customary to imagine).
After that, the historian Philip Ganev met with the farmer, who was collecting material for his new book about the Balkan Wars in these places. According to Ganev's descriptions, the skull resembles a wolf's, but the skull is much larger - such are found only in primates.
Ganev photographed the skull and showed the pictures to specialists who suggested that it could be a wolf suffering from Paget's disease. With this disease, the skull really increases in size and becomes more like a human.
Ganev said that werewolves have been found in Balkan folklore since time immemorial. Legends about how and why a person becomes a werewolf vary significantly in different regions. Some believe that a child is born with the ability to transform into a beast. Babies who are born with hair are particularly suspicious in this regard.
In other regions, they are convinced that a person who died with an unconfessed mortal sin or made a deal with the devil could be reborn as a werewolf. But despite the difference in the stories of the origin of werewolves in all regions, they are unanimous in how to bury the body of a killed werewolf.
The burial of a werewolf always involves a special ceremony performed by a local priest, beheading and burning the body. It is believed that werewolves need to be killed on Saturday, because they spend that day alone in their coffins and are easy to deal with. In the case of the Macedonian werewolf, judging by the find, his burial took place in compliance with all the rules. At least until the skull was dug up by a curious farmer.
Trich is very proud of his find and is glad of the unexpected fame that fell on him. However, most of his fellow villagers do not share the farmer's optimism. “Many of my neighbors were angry that I disturbed the werewolf spirit. They say that now I myself in the next life will be born a werewolf. But I think - if this is my destiny, then so be it. What is done is done.
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