A Journey through the Kingdom of Oude, Volumes I & II eBook

William Henry Sleeman
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 902 pages of information about A Journey through the Kingdom of Oude, Volumes I & II.

A Journey through the Kingdom of Oude, Volumes I & II eBook

William Henry Sleeman
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 902 pages of information about A Journey through the Kingdom of Oude, Volumes I & II.

About the year 1843, a shepherd of the village of Ghutkoree, twelve miles west from the cantonments of Sultanpoor, saw a boy trotting along upon all fours, by the side of a wolf, one morning, as he was out with his flock.  With great difficulty he caught the boy, who ran very fast, and brought him home.  He fed him for some time, and tried to make him speak, and associate with men or boys, but he failed.  He continued to be alarmed at the sight of men, but was brought to Colonel Gray, who commanded the first Oude Local Infantry, at Sultanpoor.  He and Mrs. Gray, and all the officers in cantonments, saw him often, and kept him for several days.  But he soon after ran off into the jungle, while the shepherd was asleep.  The shepherd, afterwards, went to reside in another village, and I could not ascertain whether he recovered the boy or not.

Zoolfukar Khan, a respectable landholder of Bankeepoor, in the estate of Hasunpoor, ten miles east from the Sultahpoor cantonments, mentions that about eight or nine years ago a trooper came to the town, with a lad of about nine or ten years of age, whom he had rescued from wolves among the ravines on the road; that he knew not what to do with him, and left him to the common charity of the village; that he ate everything offered to him, including bread, but before taking it he carefully smelt at it, and always preferred undressed meat to everything else; that he walked on his legs like other people when he saw him, though there were evident signs on his knees and elbows of his having gone, very long, on all fours; and when asked to run on all fours he used to do so, and went so fast that no one could overtake him; how long he had been with the trooper, or how long it took him to learn to walk on his legs, he knows not.  He could not talk, or utter any very articulate sounds.  He understood signs, and heard exceedingly well, and would assist the cultivators in turning trespassing cattle out of their fields, when told by signs to do so.  Boodhoo, a Brahmin cultivator of the village, took care of him, and he remained with him for three months, when he was claimed and taken off by his father, a shepherd, who said that the boy was six years old when the wolf took him off at night some four years before; he did not like to leave Boodhoo, the Brahmin, and the father was obliged to drag him away.  What became of him afterwards he never heard.  The lad had no hair upon his body, nor had he any dislike to wear clothes, while he saw him.  This statement was confirmed by the people of the village.

About seven years ago a trooper belonging to the King, and in attendance on Rajah Hurdut Sing of Bondee, alias Bumnotee, on the left bank of the Ghagra river, in the Bahraetch district, was passing near a small stream which flows into that river, when he saw two wolf cubs and a boy drinking in the stream.  He had a man with him on foot, and they managed to seize the boy, who appeared to be about ten years of age. 

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A Journey through the Kingdom of Oude, Volumes I & II from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.