144 BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



and care in place of her little ones ; or that she must have stolen 

 the boy from the side of his mother, as is very frequently the case 

 in the poor cottages of many villages in the North- Western Provinces, 

 and then, instead of devouring him, must have entertained some 

 attachment for him. 



The Rev. Mr. Lewis says that the Secundra Orphanage has been the 

 home of two other wolf-boys and one wolf-girl. My attention was 

 kindly drawn by a friend to the proceedings of 1875 of the Bengal 

 Asiatic Society, before whom a paper was read on a similar subject 

 by the geologist, Mr. V. Ball. This paper contains a short account 

 of one of the two boys referred to, supplied to Mr. Ball by the Rev. 

 Mr. Erhardt, the then Superintendent of the Secundra Orphanage. 

 The account says of one of the boys that "he was brought to us on 

 March 5th, 1872. He was found by Hindus who had gone hunting- 

 wolves in the neighbourhood of Mynpuri, had been burnt out of 

 the den, and was brought here with the scars and wounds still on 

 him. In his habits he was a perfect wild animal in every point 

 of view. He drank like a dog, and liked a bone and raw meat 

 better than any thing else. He would never remain with the other 

 boys, but hide away in any dark corner. Clothes he never would 

 wear, but tore them up into fine shreds. He was only a few 

 months among us, as he got fever and gave up eating. We kept 

 him for a time by artificial means, but eventually he died." 



Mr. Erhardt says further on : "Neither of the above are new 

 cases however. At the Lucknow mad-house there was an elderly 

 fellow only four years ago, and may be there now, who had been 

 dug out of a wolves' den by a European doctor, when I forget, but 

 it must be a good number of years ago." 



Ancient classical literature holds before us several cases of such 

 miraculous escapes of children at the hands of ferocious animals and 

 birds, like the wolf and the eagle. The case of Romulus and 

 Remus is well known to many of us. A.mulius, a king of Alba 

 Longa, who had deprived his elder brother, Numitor, of his rightful 

 claim to the throne, being fearful lest the heirs of Numitor might 

 rise against him, caused his son to be murdered and his daughter 

 Silvia to be made a Vestal virgin. Silvia, being violated by Mars, 

 gave birth to two sons, Romulus and Remus, who, together with their 

 mother, were ordered to be drowned in a stream of the Tiber, 

 whence they were carried by a she-wolf, who had come there to 

 satiate her thirst, and who, feeling an attachment for them, suckled 



