320 ANIMALS AT WORK AND PLA Y 



Ardennes, and other districts where the wolf still 

 lives, is clearly the result of the mental malady of 

 lycanthropy, sufferers from which are yearly brought 

 to be touched by the Holy Stole of St Hubert, who, 

 if less potent than his votaries imagine to drive the 

 latent poison of hydrophobia from the tainted blood, 

 can still minister to a mind diseased, and with 

 mystic and consoling rites cures sufferers who exhibit 

 beyond a doubt all the worst traits by which Re- 

 lapsed Man is marked in the completist form of 

 retrogression. What these characteristics are, may 

 be judged from the curious and complete instances 

 of the capture of children living in wolves' dens 

 in the Province of Oude, collected by Colonel 

 Sleeman, the able officer who took a leading part 

 in the suppression of the Thugs of India. In 

 the first case, which occurred near the Goomtee 

 River, in a district where wolves abound, and are 

 never killed by the natives from fear of the ill-luck 

 which their death will bring upon the village, a 

 native trooper saw a large she-wolf leave her den, 

 followed by three whelps and a little boy. The boy 

 seemed on the best possible terms with the old dam 

 and the three whelps, and the mother-wolf seemed 

 to guard all four with equal care. They all went 

 down to the river and drank, after which they were 

 chased by the trooper ; but they escaped over rough 



