Tombstone daily prospector., 1891-02-03
THE MAN WOLF.

superstisious natives of India have many strange beliefs One of them is that . brother who has murdered . brother turns into man wolf, and roems the jungles loe years as . penance While they hold this animal in fear and terror as well they may, they reason that if be 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 fal not to locate them 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 of by seni-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 a 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 ! 6 village for several days. batting our traps for hyenas and having natives on the lookout l for serpents, when one nlid-afternoon got into hammock slung between two trees on | the outskirts of the village and dropped of | to sleep. My two white men were already asleep in hsmnocks some distance away, and II | 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 a spell had >een placed upon every inhabitant I had | not slept over half an hour when a rnosquito bIt me on the cheek and started me up Lay | on my right side, and through the meshes of l the hammock could see the edge of the jun | gle, about forty rods away. The children were still at play, a-d were hundred feet bearer the jungle than l was Almost as soon as l opened my eyes saw c 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 glimpss 1 had like gorilla l measured the leap aftcrwsrd with e tape line, and it was | ewenty-three feet
 | did not start up, but rubbed my eyes wide open to identify the strange creature. It had covered until could sec nothing but black spot, and it was two or three min utes before it moved again. Then it sud denly leaped into view, bounded for the children exactly as e monkey leaps and be- fore could cali out it hsd seized a little boy about two and half years old. and was re treating with him IL 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 a human being. I yelled out and the creature whirled about, raised the child | on high, and, with a shril scream of anger, ] dashed it down on the hard baked earth with | terrible force. Then it shook it's fists at the villagers swarmiug ont, and, dropping down on all fours, bounded away into the jungla We found the child gasping it's Last. Thst | fling had broken elmost every bone in his body. IL was not until the villagers were convinced that l had seen the creature and was assured of its identity that the head man acknowledged it to be man wolf, and tha, it had long been a menace to the locality. It was, be said, bis cousin, who had killed s brother fifteen years before As the creature had now killed three children, against whom | it seemed to have s particular spite, and as it's presence rlenaced the safety of the vii. lage, be would give Eis consent for US to seek | its capture. l helped him to reach this con | cIusion by a present valued nt SO, and by agreeing not to give the matter away in say | other village
 l The first thing to be done was to lesrn the | habits of the creature He was known to "a. meat, roots, barks and almost anything else | which came in his way. He must sleep, but II DO one could say when, as he had been seen | proving around ct all hours of the day and 1 night. He was very strong and 6erce, and | l. was doUb;ed if one of the tiger cages l would hold him We decided to tempt hi.
 curiosity, and. to this end, one of our cages
 ~ss placed in the jungle, and the door so ar | ranged as to shut the creature in if be but l entered. But he took no notice of the curl osity, or, if he did, il was to fight shy of the suspected trap. Twice in three days be vas yeen again on the borders of the village, evi-
 ieptly bent on further mischief, and the na- rives finally found a path which the man
 wolf used in going and coming from & 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 ac
 teeth, and the jaws come together in a way l to give one 6 leverage on the other.
 have known of a full grown tiger being l caught by the foot and firmly held in trav
 no larger than the bovs set for mink and
 s.ustrat- We replaced the chain with a hall
 asch rops made of native grasses, and e.
 .oon es a suitable spot had been selected VI
 excavated hole. buried the trap out O.
 sight, and then bent down a soping and tssd
 the end Of the rope to it This sapi ng was
 heii down by . trigger, which Q sharp pGl
 would release.
 When the trap had bess set no eye could
 detect anything suspicious around the spot I oQ0 Wc ie4S Cc1 t<A1 t-i2s 0-c NOA-A~
 get in.o trouble if he passed that way. Whe-
 we could do no more we retired to the vii
 Age, about . mile away. It was about sun
 down when we arrived, and we were just ir
 time to see a wonderful proceeding. A larg,
 and savage looking byena came out of tb, 1 jungle and sniEed and snuffed and growlec l at us from a distance Of about twenty rods
 We refrained iron shooting, for fear tai
 reports would frighten ths man wolf away
 and while hundred of us stood gazing at ih,
 beast smother suddenly appeared It wa
 the sans creatute I saw from the hammock
 "It is the man wolfis moaned a score o
 natives in chorus, and at least doesn of then
 dunk away into their hutx
 But the beast had no. come to disturb us
 He had evidently bsen tracking the hyena
 and be was there for revenge He bounds
 over the ground with great leaps, and tn
 hyena c.d not suspect bis approach The Las
 bound was a tremendous curve in the air, ans ! aS the man wolf came down if was full Cro,