The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-03-15
WOLF CHILDREN.
How They Come to Live in the
Jungle.
From the Badminton Magazin

From the Badminton Magazine.
A jemadar told me that when he was
lad he remembered going, with Others to
see a wolf child which had been melted.
Some time after this, while staying at an
up-country place called Shaporecoundie, in
East Bengal, it was my fortune to meet
an old Anglo-Indian gentleman who had
been in the Indian civil service for upward
of thirty years. and had Travelled about
during most of that time and from him
| learned all l wanted to know of wolf
children, for he not only new of several
cases, but had actually seen and examined
near Agra a child which had been re-
covered from the wolves. The story of
Romulus and Remus, which all school
boys and the vast majority of grown-up
people regard as a myth, appears in a
different hight when one studies the ques-
ton of wolf children and ascertain how
It comes to pass that boys are found
living on the very best terms with such
treacherous and rapacious animals as
wolves, sleeping with them in their dens,
sharing the raw flesh OF deer and kids
which the she-wolf provides, and, in fact,
leading in all essentials the actual life of
a wolf
and after a time her instinct tells her
that they will require flesh food. She
steals out at night in quest of prey. Soon
she espies weak place in the fence (gen-
orally constructed of matching grass and
bamboos) which incloses the compound,
or ''unguah,' of Door villager. She en-
ters doubtless in the hope of securing a
kid; and while providing about inside looks
into a hut where woman and infant are
soundlY sleeping. In a moment she has
pounced on the child, and is out of reach
before it's cries can attract the villagers.
Arriving safely at her den under the rocks
she drops the little one among her cubs.
At this critical time the fate of the child
hangs in the balance. Either it will be i'm
mediately torn TO pieces and deVoured, or
in most wonderful way remain in the
cave unframed. In the event of escape
the fact may be accounted for in several
ways. Perhaps the cubs are already gorg-
ed when the child is thrown before them
or are being supplied with solid food be-
fore their carnivorouS instinct is awakened
so they amuSe themselves by simply lick
ing the sleek, oily body (Hindoo mothers
daily rub their baby boys with some ma
tive vegetable OLD of the infant and thus
il lies in the nest, by degrees getting the
odor of the wolf cubs, after which the
mother wolf will not modest il. In a little
while the infant begins to feel the pangs
of hunger. and, hearing the cubs sucking
soon follows their example. Now the adop-
ton is complete, all fear of harm to the
child from wolves has gone and the fos-
ter-mother will guard and protect it as
though it were of her own flesh and blood
Their mode of progression is on all tours
not as rule, on the hands and feet
but on the knees and elbows The reason
the knees are used is to be accounted for
by the fact that, owing to the great length
of the human leg and thigh. in proper
ton to the length of the arm. the knee
would naturally be brought to the ground,
and the instep of the sole and heel of the
almost inheXible foot. Why the elbow
should be employed instead of the hand
is less easy to understand, but probably
it is better suited to give support to the
head and fore part of the body.
An interesting case of a wolf child was
reported, many years ago, in Cham bers'
Journal In the Etwah dictrict, near the
banks of the river Jumna, boy was cap
tured from the wolves This child was ar
ter time, restored to his parents who
however. found to
age. for he was most fractions and trou-
blesome-in fact just a Gagged wild beast
Often during the eight hours together
he would give vent TO most unearthIy
yells and means, destroying the rest ana
irritating the tempers of his neighbors
and generally making night hideous on
one occasion his people chained him bNy
the waist TO a tree on the outskirts OF the
village. Then rather curious incident