118 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCLJETT, Vol. XXVIl. 



It appears that about five years before I saw father and son, the Cachari 

 villagers of a village called Dihungi, had found two leopard cubs close to their 

 village which they killed. The mother leopard had tracked the murderers of 

 her children back to the village and had haunted the outskirts for two days. 

 The third day a woman cutting rice in some cultivation close to the village 

 laid her baby boy down on a cloth whilst she went on with her work. Pre- 

 sently, hearing a crj^, she turned round and saw a leopard bounding away 

 and carrying the child with it. The whole village -at once turned out and 

 hunted for leopard and baby but without success and finally they were for- 

 ced by darkness to leave the boy, as they supposed, to be eaten by the 

 leopard. 



Some three years after this event a leopardess was killed close to the 

 village by a sportsman who brought in the news of his success together 

 with the information that the leopard had cubs which he had failed to 

 secure. On hearing this the whole village turned out and eventually 

 captured two cubs and one child, the boy of this story. He was at once 

 identified by his parents, claimed by them, and their claim admitted by the 

 whole village. 



Subsequently when visiting Dihungi I interviewed the head man and 

 also the man who actually caught the child and they both corroborated 

 the father's tale in every detail. It appeared that at the time he was 

 caught the child ran on all fours almost as fast as an adult man could 

 run, whilst in dodging in and out of bushes and other obstacles he was 

 much cleverer and quicker. At that time he was only suffering from 

 cataract to a slight extent and could see fairly well, but after he was caught 

 his eyes rapidly became worse. His knees, even when I saw him and when 

 he had learnt to move about upright to a great extent had hard callosities 

 on them and his toes were retained upright almost at right angles to his 

 instep. The palms of his hands and pads of toes and thumbs were also 

 covered with very tough horny skin. When first caught he bit and fought 

 with every one who came within reach of him and, although even then 

 affected in his eyes, any wretched village fowl which came within his reach 

 was seized, torn to pieces and eaten with extraordinary rapidity. 



When brought before me he had been more or less tamed, walked up- 

 right except when startled into extra rapid motion, was friendly with his 

 own villagers, whom he seemed to know by scent, would eat rice, vegetables, 

 etc., and consented to sleep in his father's hut at night. Clothes, being a 

 Cachari child of tender years, he had not been introduced to. 



His blindness was not in any way due to his treatment by the leopard — 

 if the story is true — as I found that another child, a couple of years older, 

 and the mother also had both had the same cataract. At the same time 

 the defective sense of sight may well have intensified his sense of smell as 

 the loss of the one must have caused him to rely more on the other. When 

 caught the child was in perfect condition, thin but well covered, and with 

 a quite exceptional development of muscle. 



