The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1899-10-19
Written for The Prison Mirror.
Nurtured by a Wolf.

My paternal grandfather was a
trusted servant of the East India Com
pany, and [ can still remember the
time when he used to tell us many fas-
cinating stories of his long sojourn in
British India. At one time in his
career he was stationed up the country
somewhere north of Leringapatam,
and it was there he first met Ali
Akabar.
This Ali Akabar was a Moham-
medan, but a perfect gentleman. He
held high position under the Rajah
Mysore, being commander of a large
body of the Mysorean army. So up
amongst the beautiful scenery he
dwelt, with his wife and two children,
a boy and girl. The country for miles
around was dense woods, deep ravines,
and lofty hills with open spaces here
and there in which were growing beau
tiful Towering shrubs, and the air was
all the time filled with the perfume of
the highly scented grasses. The men
under his charge were scattered
around, cultiyating the soil and rails
ing their crops of jowar, bajra, or
ragje, which are the principal grains
used for food.
Presently there arose a terrible up
roar. Ali Akabar's child was missing,
The little fellow was then baby. The
ayah, or nurse had laid him on the
veranda while she went to answer
call from her mistress, and when she
returned the child was gone. Search
was made, but no trace of the child
could be found. The grief stricken
parents could not account for his dis
appearance. There were of course
many wild animals in that region, but
1T did not seem possible that any beast
would venture so near human habita-
tion.
Six months after, small body of
native soldiers were out among the
hills and ravines hunting. While they
were going through one Of the many
wooded ravines, they thought they
heard a child's voice, and suddenly
they came upon litter of young wolf
cubs, playing together, and to their
surprise among them was child. The
soldiers rushed upon the cubs and dis.
patched them. When they picked up
the child it fought them with a
ferocity and strength that was wonder
full. Just as they had subdued the
child an old she wolf bounded from
the thicket and fought them with all
her vigor, but she was shot after a
short struggle.
This child, they found, was Ali Aka
bars son. 1t is supposed that the
mother wolf had taken the child to her
den after her young ones had been fed,
and that the child having become
tainted with the odor of the nest, they
would not harm him. Anyway, there
can be no doubt that the child was
nourished by the wolf. There was
great rejoicing over the recovering of
the lost. Ali Akabar provided a gen.
eral feast for the men under him, and
the ones that restored to him his only
son were given positions of trust about
him. The child pined for some weeks
after being recovered; would not eat
and would 60 into the most fearful
passions. Years passed! During the
Indian troubles, there was a COM
mander in Tippo Tips army that was
called the wolf. He committed the
most revolving deeds that had ever
been perpetrated- sensual and brutal
to the extreme. He neither regarded
the sanctity of the home nor the life of
male or female, whether old or young.
The atrocities this fiend committed.
are impossible to describe. This was
Ali Akabar's son. My grandfather,
who knew the parents, says, that it is
impossible for child of theirs to develop
such character unless it was that in
taking nourishment from the wolf it
had also imbibed wolfish instincts. or
that there was perhaps mistake in
the identity of the child. MEMO.