July 22. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



63 



miles east from Sultanpoor. In March, 1843, the 

 child was taken into the fields by his parents ; and 

 while the father was reaping, and the rnother 

 gleaning, a wolf rushed upon him ; caught him up 

 by the loins, and made off with him towards the 

 ravines. The boy was not heard of for six years : 

 at the end of that time, two sepoys, watching for 

 hogs at the edge of a jungle, ten miles from 

 Chupra, saw three wolf-cubs and a boy come out 

 of the jungle, and go down together to the stream 

 to drink. The sepoys watched them till they had 

 drunk, and wei'e about to return, when they 

 rushed towards them. All four ran towards a 

 den in the ravines. The sepoys followed as fast 

 as they could, but the three cubs had got In before 

 the sepoys could come up with them ; and the boy 

 was half way in, when one of the sepoys caught 

 him by the hind leg and drew him back. He 

 seemed very angry and ferocious, bit at them, and 

 seized in his teeth the barrel of one of the guns, 

 which they put forward to keep him off, and shook 

 it. They, however, secured him, brought him 

 home, and kept him for twenty days. They could 

 then make him eat nothing but raw flesh. He 

 was soon after recognised by the cultivator's 

 widow (the man having in the mean time died) in 

 a neighbouring village as her son, and identified 

 by some marks on his body. She took him home, 

 and kept him for two months. He preferred raw 

 flesh to cooked, and fed on carrion when he could 

 get it. When a bullock died, and the skin was 

 removed, he went and ate of it like a village dog. 

 His body smelt offensively. At night he went off 

 to the jungle. The front of his knees and elbows 

 had become hardened, from going on all fours with 

 the wolves. He never spoke articulately, and he 

 showed no affection for his mother. At the end 

 of two months, the mother, despairing of ever 

 making anything of him, left him to the common 

 charity of the village. The account of this boy's 

 physical and mental state is similar to that of the 

 former one. As in the other case, the evidence of 

 the sepoys, who are said to have found the boy 

 with the wolf-cubs, I§.not obtained at the fountain- 

 head, but Is filtered through Intermediate Inform- 

 ants. It Is therefore of little value. 



Another case of a boy, whose body was origin- 

 ally covered with short hair, who could walk, 

 but never could be taught to speak, was also re- 

 ported by the Rajah of Husunpoor. The hair, 

 however, by degrees disappeared. In consequence, 

 as the Rajah stated, of his eating salt with his 

 food. It is alleged that this boy " had evidently 

 been brought up by wolves;" but it Is not pre- 

 tended that he was ever seen in company with a 

 wolf. 



About 1843 a shepherd, twelve miles from Sul- 

 tanpoor, saw a boy trotting upon all fours by the 

 side of a wolf one morning, as he was out with 

 his flock. With great difficulty he caught the 



boy, who ran very fast, and brought him home. 

 He fed him for some time, and tried to make him 

 speak, and associate with men or boys, but he 

 failed. He continued to be alarmed at the sight 

 of men, but was brought to Colonel Gray, who 

 commanded the first Oude Local Infantry at Sul- 

 tanpoor. He and Mrs. Gray, and all the officers 

 in cantonments, saw him often, and kept him for 

 several days. But he soon after ran off Into the 

 jungle, while the shepherd was asleep. It seems 

 In this case as if the account of the finding of the 

 boy had been given to the English officers by the 

 eye-witness ; but this Is not distinctly stated, nor 

 is it said that the shepherd was a person whose 

 unsupported statement could be safely believed. 



Another case, reported by a respectable land- 

 holder on the estate of Husunpoor, ten miles from 

 the Sultanpoor cantonments, is that of a boy, 

 nine or ten years of age, who was rescued by a 

 trooper, eight or nine years previously, from 

 wolves, among the ravines on the road. He pre- 

 ferred raw meat, he could not utter any articulate 

 sound, but could understand signs ; he walked on 

 his legs, but there were evident marks on his 

 knees and elbows of his having gone very long on 

 all fours ; and when asked to run on all fours he 

 used to do so, and went so fast that no one could 

 overtake him. A shepherd claimed the boy as 

 his son, and said that he was six years old when 

 the wolf took him off at night some four years 

 before. In this case again the evidence is hear- 

 say, and the rescue of the boy from the wolves by 

 the trooper is said to have taken place eight or 

 nine years before the time when his account, 

 having passed through an uncertain number of 

 intermediate links, reached the English officers. 



The last case Is that of a boy, about ten years 

 old, who was seen by a trooper. In the Bahraetch 

 district, with two wolf-cubs, drinking in a stream. 

 The trooper, who had a companion with him, 

 managed to seize the boy, and put him on his 

 saddle ; but the boy was so fierce, that, though 

 his hands were tied, he tore the trooper's clothes, 

 and bit him severely in several places. The 

 trooper gave him to the Rajah of Bondee, but his 

 wild and filthy habits soon tired both the rajah 

 and a comedian, Into whose hands he afterwards 

 fell. He was subsequently taken up by a lad 

 name Janoo, who rubbed him with mustard seed 

 soaked In water, and fed him with vegetable food, 

 In the hope of curing him of his offensive odour, 

 but without success. He had hardened marks 

 upon his knees and elbows from having gone on 

 all fours. With a good deal of beating and rub- 

 bing of his joints with oil, he was made to stand 

 and walk upon his legs like other human beings. 

 He was never heard to utter more than one ar- 

 ticulate sound, and that was " Aboodeea," the 

 name of the little daughter of the Cashmere co- 

 median. In about four months he began to un- 



