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WOLVES NURTURING CHILDREN IN THEIR DENS. 



A. becent enquiry for information on this subject has led to a fruitless 



search in a great number of books for some trustworthy account of what 



has been hinted at and believed in by many people since the days of 



Romulus and Remus, but concerning which there appears to be very little 



reliable evidence on record. The best account we have been able to find is 



contained in a pamphlet printed at Plymouth in 1852, with the following 



title : " ' An Account of Wolves nurturiug Children in their Dens.' By 



an Indian Official. Plymouth : Jenkin Thomas, Printer, 9, Cornwall 



Street, 1852." A copy of this pamphlet, long out of print, and now very 



scarce, is in the Zoological Library of the Natural History Museum at 



South Kensington, and on the wrapper of this, in the handwriting of the 



late Colonel Hamilton Smith, is the following important memorandum : — 



" This account, I am informed by friends, is written by Colonel Sleeman of 



the Indian Army, the well-known officer who had charge of the Thugg 



enquiries, and who resided long in the forests of India." This endorsement 



adds value to the account which deserves to be rescued from oblivion, and 



which is accordingly here reprinted to ensure a more permanent record of 



the facts narrated than is afforded by the precarious existence of a pamphlet 



now so difficult to procure. — Ed.] 



Wolves are numerous in the neighbourhood of Sultanpoor, 

 and, indeed, all along the banks of the Goomtree river, among 

 the ravines that intersect them ; and a great many children are 

 carried off by them from towns, villages and camps. It is 

 exceedingly difficult to catch them, and hardly any of the Hindoo 

 population, save those of the very lowest class, who live a 

 vagrant life and bivouac in the jungles, or in the suburbs of towns 

 and villages, will attempt to catch or kill them. All other 

 Hindoos have a superstitious dread of destroying or even 

 injuring them ; and a village community, within the boundary of 

 whose lands a drop of wolf's blood has fallen, believes itself 

 doomed to destruction. The class of little vagrant communities, 

 above-mentioned, who have no superstitious dread of destroying 

 any living thing, eat jackalls and all kinds of reptiles, and catch 

 all kinds of animals, either to feed upon them themselves, or to 

 sell them to those who wish to keep or hunt them. 



But it is remarkable that they very seldom catch Wolves, 

 though they know all their dens, and could easily dig them out as 

 they dig out other animals. This is supposed to arise from the 

 profit which they make by the gold and silver bracelets, necklaces, 



