92 IN THE INDIAN JUNGLE. 



knees and elbows on the ground, and crawl lor a 

 bit. His tracks gave a fairly good representation , 

 with certain marked differences, of the mysterious 

 track that had puzzled us. " Wolf-boy ? " I said 

 to Cumberledge. He was sceptical. (< Surely, you 

 don't think a wolf-boy has taken to man-eating ? 

 I have heard of such creatures, but I doubt all 

 the stories I have been told of them," he replied. 

 " I don't say we have a man-eating wolf-boy ; I 

 merely assert that the tracks have been made by 

 such a creature. I have lately seen one at Seoni, 

 and I noticed that he crawled on his knees and 

 elbows. If you ask a native to go down on all 

 fours, he will either go on his hands and feet or 

 hands and knees ; never on his elbows. I noticed 

 this as a peculiarity of the wolf-boy I saw." 



On enquiring of the natives whether they had 

 ever heard of or seen a wolf-boy in that neigh- 

 bourhood, they all had stories to tell of boys being 

 carried away by wolves and brought up by those 

 creatures, but none could personally vouch for 

 having seen one. Numbers of children had been 

 carried off by wolves from their village, but they 

 had been eaten by the beasts. Once, however, the 

 mysterious marks had been cleared up by my 

 explanation, the native shikaris appeared to 

 regain all their astuteness. Now that all fear of 

 demons and spirits had vanished, an old Bheel 

 offered to lead us to a ruined temple near to which 

 he had seen similar marks. We bade him lead the 

 way, and we followed. The Bheel took us along 

 some stony ground near to a rivulet about half a 



