Legends of weretigers show the Chinese see the metamorphosis into tiger sometimes as caused by the magical power of the tiger, and sometimes imposed by heaven. Many sources attest to the sacred nature of tigrine manifestations in general, and of the appearance of the weretiger in particular. Despite the notion that being killed by a tiger is a fated death, not everyone acquiesces; some weretigers work as shamans, exorcising such death. Together with suggestions that Chinese shamans dressed as tigers, this suggests that the Confucian recorders of the legends are blind to the religious aspect of the scapegoat ceremony. They fail to grasp that such weretigers are simply shamans, transformed by a religious experience.