The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1896-05-15
THINGS IN THIS WORLD OF
OURS.
MOWGLIs IN REAL LIFE.
The Wolf children Of India and Their
strange Ways.
4 Aha RnI I'M M inn \

(From the Badminton Magazine.
A jemader told me that when he
was a lad he remembered going with
Others to set wolf child which hao
been melted. Some time after this,
while staying at an up country place
called Shaporeooundie, in East Ben
gal, it was my fortune to meet an old
Anglo Indian gentleman who had beer
in the Indian civil service for upward
of 30 years and had Travelled about dur.
ing most of that time, and from him |
learned all wanted to know of wolf
children, for he not only knew of sew
eral cases. but had actually seen and
examined near Agra a child which
had been recovered 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 different light
when one studies the question 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, sleep
ing 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.
A young she-w wolf has litter of cubs
and after time her instinct tells her
that they will require flesh food. She
steals out at night in quest of prev.
Soon she espies a weak place in the
fence generally constructed of thatch-
ing grass and bamboosj which incloses
the compound, or unguah, "of poor
villager. She enters. doubtless in the
hope of securing a kid; and while
prowling about inside looks into a hut
where a woman and infant are soundly
sleeping. In "A moment she has
pounced on the child, and is out of
reach before its 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 bal.
ance. Either it will be immediately
torn to pieces and devoured, or in "A
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
gorged when the child is thrown be-
fore them, or are being supplied with
solid food before their carnivorous in
stinct is awakened, so they amuse
themselves by simply licking the
sleek, oily body lHindoo mothers daily
rub their boy babies with some native
vegetable oil of the infant, and thus
it lies in the nest, by degrees getting
the odor of the wolf cubs, after which
the mother will not modest it. In a
little time the infant begins to feel the
pangs of hunger, and, hearing the cubs
suck ing. soon follows their example
Now the adoption is complete. all fear
Of harm to the child from wolves is
gone. and the foster mother vii. guard
and protect it as though it were of her
own flesh and blood.
OF course many hundreds of unfor-
tunate children are yearly taken by
wolves throughout India, and only in |
very rare instances do they escape |
Heath. Late statistics published of the |
from wild beasts and snakes |
in India show total Of "a. 800 people
Turing a year, out of which 2lS fell vic.
inns to wolves alone. These we may
De certain were nearly all little chill
lren, from the fact that Indian wovles,
HouSH 81 slTOUR anu meet, dTt great I
towards, and will never approach, much
e SIS attack, adults.
Chi ldren recovered fiom wolves at
lifferent times have been identified by
heir parents through birthmarks and
,ther means. | have never heard or
cad of girl wolf child having been
ound. The reason for this may be
hat they have soon broken down I'M
Ter the strain of SO terrible an exist
nee, and have persisted in the jungle,
where the stronger male child has sur
lived. A little girl Of Is months was
tolen from Hindus hut by wolf
rot 20 yards from my bungalow, and
vas never recovered | believe that
ven after the unhappy creatures have
een reclaimed and kindly treated none
ave ever been seenEto ::smie. Their
node of progression is on all TOURS
lot, as rule, on the hands and knees,
,ut on the knees and elbows. The rea-
son the knees are used is TO be ac-
ounted for by the fact that, owing to
he great length of the human leg and
high, in proportion to the length of
he arm, the knee would naturally be