Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1888-08-30
STORY OF A MAN-WOLF.
His Successful Battle With a
Hyena.
He Is Caught in a Trap, and Escapes From
Cage-He Clubs Three Natives to
Death and Wounds Two
Others.

w Q1l0 Win InO an1Indl-nunCefS In
the iungles and foothills to the north
of Benares we heard of a man-wolf
On two former occasions we had re-
ceived like reports, but had given lit
tie attention to them. The supersti-
tious natives of India have many
strange beliefs. One of them is that
a brother who has murdered a brother
turns into a man-wOlf, and rOams the
jangles one hundred years as a pen
ance. While they hold this animal
in fear and terror, as we'll they may,
they reason that if he is killed, an
other relative of the family must take
his place and serve out the remainder
of his sentence. Therefore, while
they would talk to us of these mon
sters, they were always very careful
not to locate them and bring them
!ntO danger. We had long before
made up our minds that there was
nothing so very queer in finding
a wild man in the jungles of India.
Children are carried off by semi-wild
men or by wild animals almost daily,
and even the civilized countries have
their wild men roaming through the
forests. We were willing to pay a
round sum for the capture of man
wolf, believing he would turn out to
be only wild man, but at the same
time a greater curiosity than q gorilla.
We had been making our head
quarters in a village for several days,
batting our traps for hyenas and hav-
ing natives on the lookout for SELL
pents, when one mid-afternoon 1 got
into a. hammock slung between two
trees on the outskirts of the village
and dropped off to sleep. My two
white men were already asleep in
hammocks some distance away, and
such of the natives as were not out for
us were lying by to pass the heat OF
the day. There were two Or three
children playing at the door of a hut
near me, but making little or no noise.
It was as quiet as if a spell had been
placed upon every inhabitant. had not
slept over half an hour when a mos
quito bit me on the cheek and started
me up. [ lay on my right side, and
through the meshes of the hammock
could see the edge of the Jungle, about
forty rods away. The children were
still at play, and were a hundred feet
nearer the jungle than was. Almost
as soon as / opened my eyes L saw a
dark object leap from the cover of the
thicket to the shelter of a single bush
on the cleared ground, 1t looked to
me in the brief glimpse I had like a
gorilla. / measured the leap after
ward with tape line, and it was TWEEN
ty-three feet.
I did not start up, but rubbed my
eyes wide open to identify the strange
creature. 1t had covered until I could
see nothing but black spot, and it
was two or three minutes before it
moved again. Then it suddenly leaped
into view, bounded for the children
exactly as a monkey leaps, and before
could call out it had seized a little boy
about two and a half years old, and
) was retreating with him. It was on
It's hind legs, both arms around the
Child, and running with great swift
ness. The body was naked and hairy,
but was convinced that it was that OF
human being. / yelled out, and the
creature whirled about, raised the
child on high, and, with shril scream
of anger, dashed it down on the hard,
baked earth with terrible force. Then
it shook its fists atithe villagers swarm
ing out, and, dropping down on al
fours, bounded away into the jungle.
We found the child gasping its last.
That fling had broken almost every
bone in its body. 1t was not until the
villagers were convinced that 1 had
seen the creature and was assured o.
its identity that the head man acknowl
edged it to be a man-wolf, and that
It had long been a menace to the
locality. 1t was, he said, his cousin
who had killed brother fifteen year:
ebefore. AS the creature lad nov
killed three children, against whom j