WOLF-CHILDREN 99 



against the cage, pushing their forepaws through the bars towards 

 the child as though to get near her, wagging their tails and bark- 

 ing frantically the whole time, their eyes riveted on her. As she 

 moved away they rushed across the cage to the other corner and 

 repeated their actions. Whenever the child uttered a word or two 

 it seemed to affect the wolves powerfully and made them redouble 

 their efforts to get near her. And later, on returning to the cage, 

 the same thing happened again. 



The only imaginable explanation of these occur- 

 rences is that it was the smell of the boy and the 

 two other children that excited them, and as the 

 excitement was a joyous one, it must be supposed 

 that there was a quality in the smell in each case 

 which " touched a chord," to put it in that way, 

 in the wolf's nature. Furthermore, it was a quality 

 which the animal instinctively and instantly recog- 

 nised, a something important in its life, a stimula- 

 tive to the parental passion. 



In the relation between parents and offspring in 

 the mammalians, smell plays a most important part, 

 as sound does in birds. These wolf incidents inevit- 

 ably remind us of the ancient legend of Romulus 

 and Remus, but the now numerous authentic cases 

 reported from India have sufficiently proved that the 

 wolf-child is no mere fable or fancy. Mammals, 

 we know, keep with and safeguard their own young 

 and pay no attention to others; but there are many 

 exceptional cases, both in birds and mammals. The 

 call or hunger-cry of the orphaned birdling is apt to 

 meet with a response, while the mammal is capable 

 of being deluded by a simulating odour. 



Apart from wolves, we find certain cases, called by 

 Humboldt " instances of beneficent impulses in the 



