Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1892-03-24
An Instance Showing How Rapidly
Man May degenerate and Live
Like Animals.
Human Beings Have Been Found in
Three Very Distinct Forms of
RetrOgressi0n.
Children Found Living With Animals
Running Wild, With Lost Men
tai Faculties.

But meantime, let Us give, as we find it
recently quoted in the Anthenian paper, a
tale which comes from Thessaly, of the
wild boy On Mount Pindus: 'Demetri-
adese, worthy Of honor, the warden of the
king forest on Mount Pindus, was out
! shooting on the mountain. Being tired,
he left the chase Of the deer and turned up
a path which led through a steep glen to
some shepherds huts, where he hoped to
drink cup of milk of Plndus, milk which
is famed to be the best of any. While he
was walking quietly up the path he heard
a rustling In the underwood, and stayed to
listen. Through the branches he saw an
unknown animal moving very quickly in
the same direction as himself, and made
ready to fire at it, but was stopped by
shouts Of the shepherds On the hillside
above, who called to him not to shoot. He
then followed this strange creature, which
had the form, indeed, of a man, and was
wholly naked, but ran very fast, some
times on its feet, but more often on all
tours, and reached the sheep cote before
him. There he found it eagerly drinking
the buttermilk from trough into which
it had run while the cheeses from the
morning milking were being pressed.
When it saw hin near, it ran into the
wood, and the chief of the shepherds told
him its story.
He is a boy, he said; "a Wallachian,
the son of a WalIachian, who lived at Cas-
tanla, on Mount Pindus. The man went
back to Wall achia to seek work, and there
he married. He lived there some time,
but afterwards came back to Mount Pin
dus. Six years he was absent, and he
brought back four of five children. Then
he died and left his wife and children to
the five roads, i. e. to fortune. The
woman saw no way of keeping her children
10 Castania, so she distributed them among
her neighbors and went back to her
own country. But one of them ran
away from the person with whom
he was left, and has lived in this part of
the forest for four years. He lives,
even as yon saw him, without clothes. In
summer he lives we'll, and drinks our but
termilk daily. In winter ne lies in the
caves, and lives on roots and nuts. He
has learned no form of speech, neither has
he name. The forest warden determin-
ed not 10 leave him to endure another win
ter on the mountain, so babe the shepherds
to catch the boy, and fastened rope to
him and took him back to IrikaIae, where
he clothed him, and has done what he can
to civilize him. He always keeps him
with himself or IN Ter the care of s5me one
who can talk, because he seems unable to
learn to Speak any word though he imi
tates the voices OF many wild creatures
Nor does he learn to understand the names
OF things. But animal sounds he mimics
WELL and he has learned to ride. As his
real name is not known, his guardian
called him Sciron.'"
| p,-io = G.,
one, the most marked and least human, is
that which ensues when he has, as child,
been carried off and kept often for sever
acute form of relapse, and exhibits all the
symptoms of the Pindus boy, with several
others, among them a wholly carnivorous
appetite, the voice of wild beast, extreme
ferocity, and temper quite impossible to
harmonic. The second and miIder form
occurs when a young child has run wild or
been deserted and manages to keep itself
alive without human aid, to which form
the case of the Greek boy belongs. The
wild boy of Hanover, found in the last
century, ate nothing but roots and nuts,
and was without speech. The third form,
now very rare in Europe, but not uncom-
mon in the Ardennes and other districts
where the wolf still lives. is clearly the re-
suit of the mental maIady of Eycanthropy,
sufferers from which are yearly brought
to be touched by the holy stole of
St. Hubert, who, if less potent
than his votaries imagine to drive
the latent poison Of hydrophobia from
the tainted blood, can still minister
to mind diseased, and with mystic and
coDsoling rites cures sufferers who exhibit
beyond doubt all the worst traits by
which relapsed man is marked in the
completest form of retrogression. What
these characteristics are may be judged
from the curious complete instances of the
capture of children living in wolves den
in the province of Onde, collected, it is
believed by Col. Sherman, the able officer
who took leading part in the suppress
sion of the thugs of India. In the first
case, which occurred near the Goomtee
river, in district where wolves abound
and are never killed by the natives from
fear of the i'll luck which their death will
bring upon the village, native trooper
saw ii large she wolf leave her den, fol-
lowed by three whelpS and a little BOY.
The boy seemed on the best possible
terms with the old dam and the three
whelps and the mother wolf seemed to
regard all four with equal care. They all
went down to the river and drank, after
which they were chased by the trooper, but
they escaped over rough ground into a den,
the boy running on all tours quite as fast as
the young wolves. The man then GOT as
sistance and dug the whole party out; the
wolves and boy bolted together, and the
boy was caught, fastened to a rope and led
to tie village. He could not speak, but
growled and snarled like a wolf, and tried
to bolt into every hole or shelter that was
passed. After four days he was sent to an
English officer, Capt Nicholetts. Though
kindly treated, he never learned to speak,
ran away from grown up people,
few at the children and tried to bite them,
and ran to eat his food on all-fours. But
he was friendly with a pariah dog. and
would let it share MS food. He would
drawing breath apparently. He never
clothes given him. Two and one-half years
his death spoke once or twice saying his
head ached, and pronounced the word for
water. Another Child caught in a wolf s
den in the same neighborhood was even
more savage. He would only eat raw
flesh, on which he put his hands as a dog
puts his forefeet. He drank in the man
ner mentioned before and habitu-
ally ran on all-fours, from
which his knees and knuckles were
quite bard Though reclaimed by his
mother, he was quite untamable, and at
last lived in the village streets like a
pariah dog, going every night into the
jungle. A third boy caught near Has
! anDur pol1Id walk uoripht but preferred