The Press., 1888-09-27
THE MAN WOLF.

|, While with the animal hunters in the
 iungles and foothills to the north of Benares
 we heard of man wolf On two former oc- casions we had received like reports, but had given little attention to them, The superstitious natives of India have many strange beliefs. One of them is that brother who has murdered brother turns into a man wolf, and roams the jungles 100 years as a penance While they hold this animal in fear and terror as well they may, they reason that if he is killed, another rela- tive of the family must take his place and serve out the remainder of his sentence. Therefore while they would talk to us of these monsters they were always very care ful not to locate thom and bring them into danger We had long before made up our minds that there was nothing so very queer in finding wild man in the jungles of India. Children are carried off by semi-wild men or wild animals almost daily, and even the civilized countries have their wild men roam ing through the forests. We were willing to pay round sum for the capture of man wolf, believing he would turn out to be only a wild man. but at the same time greater curiosity than a gorilla.
 We had been making our headquarters in a village for several days. batting our traps for hyenas and having natives on the lookout for serpents, when one mid-afternoon got into 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 hut near me, but making little or no noise. It was as quiet as if @ spell had been placed upon every inhabitant. had not slept over half an hour when mosquito 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 jun gle, about forty rods away. The children were still at play, and were 8 hundred feet nearer the jungle than I was. Almost as soon as 1.opened my eyes saw dark object leap from the cover of the thicket to the shelter of a single bush on the cleared ground. It looked to me in the brief glimpse I had like a gorilla. measured the leap aftcrward with a. tape line, and it was twenty-three feet.
 I did not start up, but rubbed my eyes wide open to identify the strange creature. It had covered until could see nothing but black spot, and 1t was two or three min utes before it moved again. Then it sud- denly leaped into view, bounded for the children exactly as a monkey leaps, and be- fore could call out it had seized little boy about two and half years old, and was re- treating with him. It was on its hind legs, both arms around the child, and running with great swiftness. The body was naked and hairy, but was convinced that it was that of human being I yelled out, and the creature whirled about, raised the child on high, and, with shrin scream of anger, dashed it down on the hard baked earth with terrible force Then 1t shook its fists at the villagers swarming out, and, dropping down on all fours, bounded away into the jungle. We found the child gasping It's last. That fling had broken almost every bone in his body. It not until the villagers were convinced that had seen the creature and was assured of it's identity that the head man acknowledged it to be man wolf, and that it had long been menace to the locality. 1t was, he said, his cousin, who had killed 8 brother fifteen years before. As the creature had now killed three children, against whom it seemed to have particular spite, and as its presence menacea the safety of the will lage, he would give his consent for us to seek Its capture. l helped him to reach this con- clusion by present valued at $2O, and by agreeing not to give the matter away in any other village.
 The first thing to be done was to learn the habits of the creature. He was known to eat meat, roots, barks and almost anything else which came in his way. He must sleep but ao one could say when, as he had been seen prowling around at all hours of the day and night. He was very strong and fierce, and 1t was doubted if one of the tiger cages would hold him. We decided to tempt his curiosity, and, to this end, one of our cages was placed 1n the jungle, and the door so ar ranged as to shut the creature in If he but entered. But he took no notice of the curi- osity, or, if he did, it was to fight shy of the suspected trap. Twice in three days he was seen again on the borders of the village, evil dently bent on further mischief, and the na- tives finally found 8 path which the man wolf used in going and coming from a water hole. As soon as they came in with the news. we started out to set different trap for him. The steel traps to catch wild animals have no teeth and the jaws come together in way to give one leverage on the other, I have known of 8 full grown tiger being caught by the foot and firmly held in trap no larger than the boys set for mink and muskrat. We replaced the chain with half inch rope made of native grasses, and as soon as suitable spot had been selected we excavated a hole, buried the trap out of sight, and then bent down sapling and tied the end of the rope to 1t. This sapling was held down by a trigger, which a sharp pull would release
 When the trap had beeA set no eye could detect anything suspicious around the spot, and we felt certain that the creature would get into trouble if he passed that way, When we could do no more we retired to the vil- lage, about mile away. It was about sum- down when we arrived, and we were lust in time to see a wonderful proceeding. A large and savage looking hyena came out of the jungle and sniffed and snuffed and growled at us from distance of about twenty rods. We refrained from shooting, for fear the reports would frighten the man wolf away, and while a hundred of us stood gazing at the beast another suddenly appeared It was the same creatut0' saw from the hammock,
 Ut is the man wolff" moaned a score sof natives in chorus, and at least dozen of them slunk away into their huts. D aes -zasss.g
 But the beast had not scome to disturb us. He had evidently been tracking the hyena, and he was there for revenge. He bounded over the ground with great leaps, and the hyena did not suspect his approach. Thelast bound was tremendous curve in the air, and as the man wolf came down it was full upon the hyena's back. He uttered a terrible scream as he struck, and the hyena gave vent to something like 8 shriek. They rolled over and over on the ground, biting, clawing, gro~iing and gurgling. but the fight did not last over sixty seconds. Then the man wolf sprang up, shook himself, and uttered @ yell of triumph, and after threatening us for couple of minutes re-entered the jungle. We NTnV1 ont $O% %11I Sl~]