1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Neuri

NEURI, an ancient tribe placed by Herodotus (iv. 105) to the north-east of Scythia. He says of it that it is not Scythian, but has Scythian customs. Every member of it, being a wizard, becomes a wolf once a year. The position assigned to their district appears to be about the head waters of the Dniester and Bug (Bugh) and the central course of the Dnieper just the region which, on general grounds, place-names, recorded migra tions and modern distribution, appears to be the original location of the Slavs (q.v.). The wolf story again recalls the tales of werewolves so common among Slavonic peoples, and there is much probability in Schafarik’s conjecture that the Neuri are nothing but the ancestors of the Slavs.  (E. H. M.)