384 HABITS AN1> INSTINCTS OF ANI3IALS. CHAP. VI, 



multitude. They absolutely occupied the outhouses 

 and gardens ; and often, in open day, loitered about 

 like so many dogs, without seeming to entertain the 

 least apprehension." * These wolves, the same author 

 informs us, from being thus attracted, remained in that 

 part of the country (Cawnpore) long after, in such 

 considerable numbers, that they were the terror of the 

 remaining population. Long accustomed to human 

 food, they would not leave their haunts ; and were now 

 grown so fierce, that they not only frequently carried 

 off children, but actually attacked the sentries at their 

 posts, who had, in consequence, been doubled. The 

 first night the governor arrived at Cawnpore, he ordered 

 his bed to be placed in a garden ; and was surprised to 

 hear, in the morning, that a goat had been carried off 

 from very near the place where he slept. Three of 

 these monsters had attacked a sentinel, who, after 

 shooting one, and despatching another with his 

 bayonet, was overpowered by a third, and killed upon 

 his post. While the governor was at this place, the 

 following fact fell under his own knowledge. A man, 

 his wife, and his child were sleeping in their hut, 

 the man at a little distance from the rest. The mother 

 was awakened by the struggles and shrieks of the child 

 locked in her arms, which a wolf had seized by the 

 legs, and was dragging from her bosom : she grasped 

 the infant, and exerted all her strength to preserve it 

 from the foe, but in vain ; the ravenous animal tore it 

 from her embrace, and carried it away.* To this, 

 horrible fact our author pledges his veracity, having 

 been in the country at the time it happened. 



(200.) The grievous injuries inflicted by the wolves 

 of India have been much expatiated upon by another 

 author, who also wrote upon the spot. " When a wolf 

 enters a camp or village," observes Williamson., " he 

 proceeds with the utmost silence and circumspection. 

 His favourite object is a child at the breast, which he al- 

 ways seizes by the throat, thereby not only preventing 



* Forbes^ Orient. Mem. vol. iii. p. 60. 



