Two Treatises. In the One of Which, the Nature of Bodies; in the…

by Kenelm Digby

One full example, this age affordeth us in this kind, of a man whose extremity of fear, wrought upon him to give us this experiment. He was born in some village in the county of Liege, and therefore among strangers, he is known by the name of John of Liege. I have been informed of this story by several (whom I dare confidently believe) that have had it from his own mouth; and have questioned him with great curiosity, particularly about it.

When he was a little boy, there being wars in the country (as that State is seldom without molestation from abroad, when they have no distempers at home, which is an unseparable effect of a country's situation upon the frontiers of powerful neighbouring Princes that are at variance) the village of whence he was, had notice of some unruly scattered troops that were coming to pillage them: which made all the people of the village fly hastily with what they could carry with them, to hide themselves in the woods: which were spacious enough to afford them shelter, for they joined upon the forest of Ardenne. There they lay, till some of their scouts brought them word, that the soldiers of whom they were in such apprehension, had fired their town and quitted it. Then all of them returned home, excepting this boy; who, it seemeth, being of a very timorous nature, had images of fear so strong in his fancy; that first, he ran further into the wood than any of the rest; and afterwards apprehended, that everybody he saw through the thickets, and every voice he heard, was the soldiers: and so hid himself from his parents, that were in much distress seeking him all about, and calling his name as loud as they could. When they had spent a day or two in vain, they returned home without him, and he lived many years in the wood, feeding upon roots, and wild fruits, and mast.

He said that after he had been some time in this wild habitation, he could by the smell judge of the taste of any thing that was to be eaten: and that he could at a great distance wind by his nose, where wholesome fruits or roots did grow. In this state he continued (still shunning men with as great fear as when he first ran away; so string the impression was, and so little could his reason master it) until in a very sharp winter, that many bests of the forest perished for want of food; necessity brought him to so much confidence, that leaving the wild places of the forest, remote from all people's dwellings, he would in the evenings steal among cattle that were furthered; especially the swine, and among them, glean that which severed to sustain wretchedly his miserable life. He could not do this so cunningly, but that returning often to it, he was upon a time espied: and they who saw a beast of so strange a shape (for such they took him to be; he being naked and all over grown with hair) believing him to be a satyr, or some such prodigious creature as the recounters of rare accidents tell us of; laid wait to apprehend him. But he that winded them as far off, as any beast could do, still avoided them, tell a the length, they laid snares for him: and then, soon perceived he was a man; though he had quite forgotten the use of all language: but by his gestures and cries, he expressed the greatest afrightedness there might be. Which afterwards, he said (when he learned anew to speak) was because he thought those were the soldiers he had hidden himself to avoid, when he first betook himself to the wood; and were always lively in his fancy, through his fears continually reducing them thither.

This man within a little while after he came to good keeping and full feeding, quite lost that acuteness of smelling, which formerly governed him in his taste; and grew to be in that particular as other ordinary men were. But at his first living with other people, a woman that had compassion of him to see a man so near like a best; and that had no language to call for that which he needed or had to have; took particular care of him; and was always very solicitous to see him furnished with what he wanted: which made him to apply himself unto her in all his occurents, that whensoever he stood in need of ought, if she were out of the way, and were gone abroad into the fields, or to any other village near by, he would hunt her out presently by his scent, in such sort as with us those dogs use to do which are taught to draw dry soot. I imagine he is yet alive to tell a better story of himself than I have done; and to confirm what I have here said of him: for I have from them who saw him but few years agone, that he was an able strong man, and likely to last yet a good while longer.