ATDDTA(10) Sloat-Shifting [272:10-15]

[Keith]

"the dust he raised behind him refusing to settle,
  only growing thicker, until it seemed he had
  transmogrified into a creature of dust miles long"


"Shapeshifting is a common theme in mythology and folklore, as well  
as in science fiction and fantasy. In its broadest sense, it is a  
change in the physical form or shape of a person or animal. Other  
terms include metamorphosis, morphing, transformation, or  
transmogrification."
Much more at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shapeshifting

 From Wagner's Das Rheingold, in which Alberich transmogrifies into a  
snake:

Loge and Wotan descend above to find Mime groaning on the floor of  
the cavern, bemoaning his fate. They question him, and are told how  
Alberich, by the power of the ring, compels the Nibelungs to do his  
bidding, and has thus forced him to make the Tarnhelm. Alberich now  
reappears, urging before him a crowd of Nibelungs laden with gold and  
silver, which they pile in a heap under his directions. Loge acts on  
Alberich’s vanity by throwing out doubts as to the boasted virtues of  
the Tarnhelm. Taken thus unawares, Alberich first changes himself  
into a monstrous snake and then into a toad. "Catch it, quick!" says  
Loge to Wotan, who thereupon sets his foot on the toad, while at the  
same time Loge snatched the vaunted cap from its head. Alberich, now  
struggling in his own form, is bound secured by the gods, who,  
carrying him off to the upper world, demand that he shall order the  
Nibelungs to bring the treasure from their subterranean regions.
http://www.musicwithease.com/rhinegold-wagner.html