CHAP. VI. DIRECT INJURIES. WOLVES. 185 



it from giving an alarm, but securing such a hold as 

 will enable him to bear away his victim readily. He 

 will thus carry it through crowds who may rush for- 

 ward on the first alarm. Often, when closely pursued, 

 especially if hit by a stick or stone, he will drop the 

 child ; but, if it be not taken away immediately, the 

 ferocious brute will make a turn to the spot, and snap 

 it up again. Few children survive the bite ; but grown 

 persons are not unfrequently met with, who carry the 

 marks of the wolf's teeth. Military troops in India 

 usually move with a host of camp followers, many of 

 them having families ; and these are accompanied by 

 numbers of young children at the breast. In some 

 parts of India, especially in the kingdom of Oude, all 

 these are kept in a constant state of alarm by the 

 wolves which over-run that country. When a wolf is 

 seen by the sentinels, who dare not fire among such 

 crowds of people, a general shout and pursuit take 

 place. And yet these cruel beasts are so bold, that 

 three or four young children are carried off or, at least, 

 seized and dropped in one night. Many are taken from 

 the very arms of their mothers, although covered with 

 quilts, and surrounded, perhaps, by a dozen persons. 

 The wolf proceeds in so subtle a manner, that, often, a 

 child is taken from his mother's breast, and is not 

 missed until the morning, when the parent first be- 

 comes acquainted with her loss. The melancholy 

 effects produced by the cries of these distressed mo- 

 thers, and to whom no aid can be given, surpass imagin- 

 ation ; they continue to distress the feelings of every 

 one during the whole night, and destroy the rest of all 

 endued with the least pity for the hapless sufferers." 



(201.) Wolves were, once, such a scourge to the 

 people of the United States, that the government of 

 Pennsylvania allowed a reward of 20*. for each head ; 

 and that of New Jersey, even 30*. A similar mode 

 but in the way of taxation is well known to have been 

 pursued in the early periods of British history, to free 



* Orient. Mem. vol. iii. p. 81. 



